Why 'why' matters: the key to communicating sustainability without triggering resistance
Ever happened to you that someone asked you to do something at work, and you had an immediate negative reaction?
"Why should I do it? It's not my job... I don't see why this is necessary... What nonsense!"
Likely, they haven't explained to you the most important thing about that task: WHY.
Why is that particular task important for your work/project/life?
Why do you have to do it and not them?
Likewise, failing to explain "why" when you communicate sustainability means immediately disengaging with your audience, triggering their resistance and, eventually, failing to convince them that sustainability is a great idea.
I was chatting with Swathi Singh, Global Sustainability Lead at CBRE, for this week's episode of The Good Communicator Podcast (which you can watch in full on YouTube or Spotify). One of the key takeaways from our chat was what she calls the golden thread: connecting any sustainability suggestion she advises her clients to adopt with their wider company targets, values and policies - so that that specific piece of work has a valid reason to be, and is seen as an important part of an ecosystem of actions all contributing towards their wider objectives.
So perhaps, next time you talk about sustainability, think about how your advice or suggestion fits within your audience's life (whether at work or not!) and how it reinforces their work in other areas as opposed to being seen as an unnecessary extra.
This article was originally written for the Green Gorilla weekly newsletter. If you liked it, subscribe to receive more articles like this and learn how to communicate sustainability better, how to be more productive without selling your soul to the work devil, and how to make an impact in the world. Here is the link: https://newsletter.thegreengorilla.co.uk/