Getting People to do [Green] Stuff

Championing workplace sustainability can be exhausting. You can’t do anything without motivating staff to change behaviour. But sometimes after all the meetings, emails, Powerpoint talks and staff events, you wonder if you are getting anywhere. You get frustrated. You start thinking your colleagues are beyond help.

Lately I’ve been reading Susan M Weinschenk’s book, How to Get People to Do Stuff. Weinschenk is a behavioural psychologist. She identifies 7 drives which motivate people. I’ll just discuss two which appealed to me. They are:

·        The Need to Belong

·        The Power of Habit

The Need to Belong is based on the theory that we all have a strong need to feel part of a group. We pay attention to and copy what others do, because the drive to belong (‘social validation’) is unconscious.

Ways to use this in a sustainability program:

·        Tell people how many other firms are implementing sustainability at work. Eg ‘ All our competitors have been doing this for years.’

·        A study showed that when energy companies provided customers with their energy use figures compared to that of their neighbours, people consistently saved more energy. But don’t overdo it. Another study showed that when people believe they are competing against a large number they are less likely to try hard. And women don’t seem to be as competitive as men. (I’m not sure this is true of all women lawyers. Perhaps we are competitive in different ways.)

·        Make sure the right person does the asking. If you are appealing to lawyers, someone they can relate to (eg another lawyer that they like) will have a better effect than a stranger, unless that stranger is very appealing and charismatic.

·        Recruit people to model the behaviour you want others to follow.

The Power of Habit

Many habits are unconscious. Habits are based on a cue which triggers the habit, the automatic routine and the reward from carrying out the habit.

·        To get people to change a habit, disrupt it and replace it with a conscious habit which will eventually become unconscious.

·        For example, if a junior lawyer has a habit of printing out large quantities of documents for court which she may or may not use, which end up in the bin, the  trigger may be ‘I’m in court tomorrow, what if I need something? I’d better print it out’, the routine is printing all the documents, and the reward is feeling less anxious that she won’t be prepared. This could be replaced by a different trigger such as calling the lawyer in for a talk about what is likely to be needed for court 3 days earlier. Together you can create a routine of making a list of what is needed. The reward will be that the lawyer will feel reassured about her preparation.

My last post reported on Sam Mostyn’s talk for Green Capital, where she said that you can’t motivate people by fear. You need to convince them that they are capable of great things.

This approach is supported in an interview with Bryan Welch, the publisher of Mother Earth News,  from the Guardian’s Sustainable Business Blog. "I've discovered time and again that if you want to engage people's imaginations and if you want to engage them in activities that improve the odds of sustainability, then the best way to speak to them is with an optimistic, hopeful, excited, passionate, joyful tone," he notes. He suggests triggering their imaginations with "cool stuff" they can do to make a difference.

The message here is don’t try to scare people into action with doom and gloom – something I’ve been guilty of! The situation may be urgent, but show them what they can do, what the rewards will be and remove the fear and uncertainty which can paralyse people from acting.