On a weekly basis at least, I hear either a Sustainability professional or an environmental activist complain that people aren’t listening to their message. “We’ve tried everything!” they say.

Well, no, they haven’t.

It is a basic psychological fact that if you propose a change to someone, they exaggerate the downsides and dismiss the benefits. On the other hand, if that person comes up with the same idea themselves, they will exaggerate the benefits and downplay the risks.

This is why almost all our work revolves around co-creation. If you ask your audience “how would you solve this problem?”, you will get a lot further than saying “you must do X, Y and Z.”

How would you use this idea in practice?