Tell The Behavior Change Stories That Influence At Scale
Why the individual shifts of leaders are Climate Influence storytelling gold
Behavior change is a trending topic in climate, and I, for one, am always fascinated by the research. And yet, it feels to me like we’re still missing a big point.
Who are the influencers, and how can we use their stories better?
We seem to keep wanting, or expecting, to hear that focusing on consumer behavior, broadly, is the golden ticket. At the same time, the systems change folks say - “no way - nothing can ever happen unless we address a whole system, so give those consumer behavior folks less priority.”
What if there’s a wiser way to connect the consumer behavior of specifically those humans who make decisions that might relate to systems change?
***
On that note - new World Resources Institute research recently emphasized how shifting where we put our behavioral change attention, sector-wise, could REALLY make a difference in climate. I have long put my Climate Influence attention on food and transportation, and, this WRI work shows that - yes! - the food and transportation sectors have HUGE potential.
But, it was this paragraph from the WRI article on the research that really struck me:
“Crucially, our analysis finds a significant gap between theoretical potential and real-world achievement — highlighting that without systemic support, interventions aimed at changing individual behaviors cannot realize the emissions reductions that the climate crisis demands.”
Who Does the Influencer Influence?
There are sectors to zero in on and there are influencers to zero in on. Whose attention do we need to get to start to get to this real world achievement that shifts systems? The individual consumers who happen to also be leaders.
Such a list might might include:
Political leaders - who can shift city, state and federal policies.
Corporate and institutional leaders - who can shift significant food policy in their own organizations
Cultural influencers - (not huge celebrities as much as folks who have even niche platforms in music, arts, academia, press) who can really add to an overall narrative of normalizing less-car and less-meat.
These are the types of people I interviewed for Living Change: A Quest for Climate Leadership, and who I’m now interviewing for my next podcast, Climate Influence, with Andrea Learned.
Think about it. Policy makers are influenced by their peers. Any leader in whatever sector influences their own networks - no matter how large or small those networks are. Remember: all of these people are “individual consumers” as well as leaders. The two aren’t separate. Leaders make human choices about food and transportation on a daily basis. (Leaders are humans too!)
More Power In Leadership Shift Stories
What if the key “consumer behavior” we aimed to shift, amplify and LOVE UP was that of a leader who could potentially and rapidly shift the minds of their leadership peers?
(Those of you who’ve been following me for a while know I emphasize the concept of “being seen leading” from climate values and that I use the words “love” and “joy” a LOT. I wrote a piece about Twitter leadership in 2017 - which holds for Bluesky and LinkedIn platforms a-n-d for building a leadership platform broadly - that speaks directly to the power of “loving up.” )
I believe we have not yet tapped the power of shifting the focus to the most game-changing influencer we’ve got going: the consumer who is the leader.
Now, apply THAT to the WRI findings about food/diet shift and transportation mode shift and watch the momentum build. Consider using your research and communications budgets to find, develop, and amplify stories of the influential humans who happen to be “leaders” with experiences and values that will catalyze their peers.
We don’t necessarily need more massive, consumer-facing campaigns. Rather, we need zeroed-in understanding of WHO the best influencers for this job are. And, we need to understand how their peers then need to hear those stories and find the best ways to tell them. (This is exactly my jam.)
***
Changing the perceived social norm of how people get around locally or how often they choose to eat plant-based does not have to be a heavy lift.
Anyone communicating about leadership in climate can start, right now, to tell more human-scale, values-based, everyday stories if they’ve got even one leader in their midst who is personally LIVING these shifts.
All we need to do is change the PERCEIVED social norm of leadership, one well-told and wisely shared leader’s consumer behavior change story at a time.
***
On a related note, my recent conversation with David Miller of C40 Cities for the Cities 1.5 podcast gets to this too. We dig in a bit on the joy and epiphanies angles of climate influence (which applies to everything, but my focus tends to be food, transportation and cities). https://lnk.to/S5E10
***
Thank you for reading and sharing this post. I would love your comments here about where you’ve seen Climate Influence out and about in your world - especially if it needs some amplification! We have the opportunity to normalize climate values in action by sharing more of what we see and hear around us. The Climate Influence is already happening. We just need to celebrate it with more gusto!
In the meantime, I invite you to follow me on Bluesky or LinkedIn (and I dabble on Instagram), as I continue to celebrate all of the Climate Influence I’m (still) seeing out in the world. #JoyAsAnActOfResistance
I love this, some great insights! I focus on the intersection of sport and sustainability, leveraging the power of athletes to engage broad fan bases on climate action through creative storytelling. But it's made me question exactly WHO it is I should be focussing on rather than blanket engagement. Thanks!