Sustainability Takes Teamwork
One of the frequent criticisms of climate change communications is the dissonance between the scale of the problem and the ability of individuals to make a difference. We are given catastrophic warnings, for example, by the US Department of Defense:
“Nuclear conflict, mega-droughts, famine and widespread rioting will erupt across the world.”
But then, we are told that the solution is to switch off our phone chargers, recycle our tin cans and reuse our plastic bags. You’d have to be really gullible to believe that such an enormous problem could be solved by tweaking a few things in your life, so you downgrade the size of the challenge.
I come up against the same problem when helping my clients change the culture in their organisation. There is a tendency towards the message “Here are our ambitious corporate sustainability goals, what are you, sat in your lonely cubicle in a massive open plan office full of others, going to do to contribute?” “Er, switch off my PC at night? But what difference will that really make?”
While individual buy-in is essential to culture change, many people actually feel disempowered by the chasm between what the organisation is trying to do and what they as an individual can actually influence. The answer, I have found, is to provide stepping stones between the individual and the whole organisation.
- What will you as an individual do differently? This might be quite small;
- What will your immediate team do differently? For some teams, eg design, this could be significant;
- What will your department or division do differently? All those people working towards a common goal should be able to make major changes;
- What will the company do differently?
This scaling up of the impact of behavioural change shows individuals that they really can make a difference, but they’ll have to work with the rest of their team to do so. This is both empowering, comforting and realistic.
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