Keep on nudging people into sustainable behaviour
I found out last week that one of my clients dissuades people from using air travel by requiring the prior approval of the Chief Operating Officer. This creates a pinch point – booking a train is much less hassle.
At another client, staff have to pay for short haul flights upfront themselves and claim the money back, whereas train tickets get purchased directly by the company. This means they could be out of pocket for six weeks.
At a third, we had to remove the bureaucracy around booking the teleconferencing system when we found it was putting people off using it – booking travel was easier. Once the red tape had gone, the teleconferencing went from gathering dust to booked out almost overnight.
The whole ‘nudge’ theory – make desirable behaviour easier than undesirable behaviour – has gone out of fashion recently, but that doesn’t mean it doesn’t work. The examples above show how powerful it can be.
I see a massive overlap with my Green Jujitsu approach to employee engagement for Sustainability as both treat people as they are, rather than what you would like them to be.