Engaging ‘difficult’ people in Sustainability
I’ve seen a couple of posts on social media recently where green-leaning people are getting frustrated with intransigent people they know, who just won’t listen. Co-incidentally, I’ve just launched my campaign to reclaim my Council seat lost last year and there’s a very important lesson from electioneering that would help these people:
You will never win everybody’s support, no matter how hard you try. But you don’t need 100%, you need a critical mass.
You can divide your Sustainability audience into three groups: those who get Sustainability, those who are open to listening but haven’t got it yet, and those who will never listen. In electoral terms, these are your core vote, swing voters and the opposition’s core vote. You must keep your core vote happy or you will lose them, but a big effort goes into persuading the swing voters to swing your way. If it’s a choice between messages targeted at swing voters or the opposition’s core, it always go to the swing voters, as they are open to the contents.
In Sustainability terms, then, if someone refuses point blank to hear the Sustainability message, then don’t become obsessed with bringing them around – even if you are successful you could probably have persuaded 5 or more ‘swing voters’ to change their behaviour in the same time. We’ll never get everybody on aboard for Sustainability, but we only need a critical mass.
Where my electoral analogy breaks down is that in elections everybody’s vote is equal (certainly within one ward or constituency), but in organisations some people have much more influence than others. So if your intransigent sod is in a position of influence, then the time invested is worthwhile. But don’t confront them head on, use some Green Jujitsu to bring them on board.