March 2007
Mark Ridsdill-Smith sent me a copy of an interesting survey he’d done for The Climate Group on employee engagement in Climate change.
He commented "I’ve been using large chunks (of The Myth of the Mousetrap) to inform my work!"
In one section of the report he explores what motivates employees to become engaged in climate change.
He found that the most frequently highlighted motivations were
- A belief in the importance of acting on climate change. These employees just need the opportunity,
and their enthusiasm will engage others.
- Opportunities for personal development (eg BT offers opportunities for employees to present their
ideas to senior management)
- The realisation that climate related activities are profitable and good for business (IKEA shop
managers are seeing an increased demand for environmentally friendly goods)
- The opportunity for creativity, fun and doing something different.
- Green themed prizes and carefully chosen rewards. As the Harvard Social Psychologist Teresa
Amabile points out, offering external rewards like prizes and bonuses can often reduce our creativity
and make our involvement more superficial, so it’s important to be smart about how these are used.
For example, one organisation offers additional leave, equivalent to the travel time, for employees
who hold a teleconference in place of travelling to a meeting. No organisation offered financial incentives.
To download a copy of his full report
click here.
To see the chunks that he found most useful, see
chapters 2, 3, 5, 6
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