Before the horrors of the last few days, it must have been a slow news period as the Telegraph rolled out another of their ‘lycra lout’ articles about the village of Great Budworth which claims to be under siege from the two-wheeled menaces. I think one anecdote summarises the story:

“One nearly crashed into my brother’s car as he was pulling out of the drive and shouted at him.”

Or, translated into objective language:

“My brother pulled out on to a road without looking properly, nearly knocked someone off his bike, endangering his life, and was surprised that the guy was angry about it.”

What surprises me is that neither the story-teller, the brother, the journalist or the editor realised the stupidity of this line. I’m sure they’re all intelligent people, but they regurgitate this nonsense because it backs up the way they have already made up their mind. This is known as confirmation bias.

As a Sustainability practitioner you will have come across this phenomenon time and time again. The presumption that Sustainability must cost more, despite all the facts and figures you provide. The presumption that renewable energy will never be cost effective despite plunging prices. The presumption that Sustainability is not a core business issue despite the fact that those who do Sustainability better have been shown to make more profit. The ‘zombie arguments’ from climate change deniers refuse to die for this very reason.

Like those in the Telegraph article, there is no point in trying to confront those ‘misconceptions’ head on (just have a look at all the Godwin’s-Law-breaking arguments on Twitter for proof). My Green Jujitsu approach works on the heart as well as trying to appeal to the mind, by getting people involved in Sustainability using their core skills and interests. For example, it’s said that the Netherlands doesn’t suffer from this us-and-them battle between motorists and cyclists because almost all drivers cycle as well, so they identify with being on two wheels.

So if you are locked into a war of attrition over a Sustainability issue or project, stop, take a step back and think about how you can make it appealing to your opponents’ hearts as well as minds.