I had the pleasure of having drinks with Jill Caldwell on a recent summery afternoon in Auckland. For those not familiar with her work, Jill is a researcher par excellence who started Windshift Communications, and has also written a fascinating book called 8 Tribes. She is one of those people with an amazing brain that can connect statistics with anthropology with socioeconomics and any issues of the day with profound clarity. In fact, she almost makes it look too easy!

We got to chatting about a variety of behaviour issues in society, and how the “green” movement has largely been talking to itself so far and is reaching a critical point where it must branch out and engage other people. After all, if any progress is to be made on global issues such as climate change, it needs to be a mass effort. 

Jill’s comments of the afternoon gave me about two pages of notes to dwell on (and a notebook full of doodles for her to reinterpret later), but I think the most important themes were the following:

• When it comes to issues like climate change and motivating people to take action (even small action) make it personal. It’s not about the future generations, or saving polar bears, or saving the planet. People act when they feel they need to save themselves. In other words, the planet doesn’t need saving—we need saving from ourselves and our own destructive actions. Earth has been around for millions of years and seen 6 major extinctions already. As humans, we are fleas in the bigger scheme of things.
• There is a common disconnect in viewing THE environment (as something over the horizon, in an ocean somewhere, not something we are immersed in) rather than OUR environment (e.g. something we live and breathe every day). This needs to be resolved and our frame of reference needs changing.
• Inspiring people to take action is a matter of tailoring a “package” for each unique socioeconomic group you are targeting. Get them to embrace it as part of their lifestyle, as something they are proud to do. 
• Getting a massive change underway also means sprinkling a lot of smaller efforts around and letting them grow to a collective critical mass. Change, after all, is non-linear and often involves reinforcing feedback loops that build momentum. 

The discussion also called to mind the work of Futerra in the UK and their “Rules of the Game” in communicating climate change. In connecting with Jill, it was great to see yet another colleague of mine realising that we are on the cusp of a very bold, very evolving, and very challenging future— one that we can all contribute to for the better. It is an inspiring time to be alive.