© istockphoto.com

We had a meeting of the Sustainability Leadership Roundtable yesterday on the subject of engagement and behavioural change. Obviously I was on home ground here, but with the Roundtable you always learn something new, usually a lot of new stuff. And my big takeaway this time was ‘choose the messenger carefully’.

When it comes to a piece of internal sustainability comms, I’ve always defaulted to ‘get the CEO to do it’, but one member* said they often ask someone one level down from the ultimate boss to voice the message. Why? Because everybody knows the CEO’s many statements are written by the comms team and usually have the inherent glossy sheen of a professional copywriter. Drop a level (or two) down and the statement is more likely to be a. authentic and b. be seen as authentic by others – a bit more grit and a little less polish. And people trust authenticity.

I’ve often marvelled at who gets trusted and who doesn’t. In 2018, the violent gilets jaunes protests erupted across France after President Macron introduced a moderate tax rise on fuel. And yet, simultaneously, Parisian Mayor Anne Hidalgo oversaw the radical reclaiming of her city’s streets from the dominance of the private motorcar, embracing the ’15 minute city’ concept so triggering of conspiracy theorists, with nary a murmur of dissent. What does Hidalgo have that Macron doesn’t? And can we bottle it?

I’m now wondering if at least part of the difference is simply that ‘Mayor’ is seen as more authentic than ‘President’ and is therefore more trusted? Does the big boss become a lightning rod for dissatisfaction in a way that someone on a rung of authority below the top doesn’t? Here in the UK, Manchester Mayor and PM wannabe Andy Burnham might be about to find out…

* we operate under the Chatham House rule so I can’t identify who said this!