Despite what you might see in some organisations, there are three levels of employee engagement for sustainability available to you:

• Universal: a single message going out to all employees;
• Segmented: the message is tailored to match the different tribes in your organisation;
• Precision targeting: key individuals are engaged on a one-to-one basis due to their influence.

The universal level message is essential and the bedrock of the engagement. By definition, it must be broad and shallow, but, by the rules of Green Jujitsu, it should tap into the prevalent culture of the organisation.

Organisations with a diversity of employees – for example a company which employees highly technical product specialists and low-skilled security – will want to segment their more in-depth engagement to match the culture of those ‘tribes’. This can be in the form of different training courses, engagement workshops and the format in which information is provided.

Precision targeting: some employees – business development managers, production managers, design leaders – may require their own bespoke engagement to ensure that the levels of power they operate get aligned with the organisation’s sustainability goals. This usually requires one to one sessions and workshops with other key decision makers. If the decision maker is difficult to bring on board, asking them to help solve a (real) sustainability problem is a powerful way to start the process.

As always, the mix of these three depends on the organisation involved.