Adam Woodhall of PeopleProfitPlanet delivered 3 sessions at the prestigious Base Show (www.baseshow.co.uk) in London in March. They received great feedback and so here is a summary of our Green Champions session.
Green Team/Champions – how to get the best out of them
This interactive and enjoyable session helped the attendees understand how to motivate Green Team/Champions and make them more effective. This 50 minute session could only give the main headlines: for more in-depth understanding, please email adam@peopleprofitplanet.co.uk or call him on 0845 2799 837.
Green Team/Champions are often the biggest supporters of environmental good practice in any organisation. They can help you implement your sustainability plans and engage their colleagues: there is only one of you, but many of them.
Harnessing their positive intentions and good will is sometimes not as easy as you would like though. This is largely because of three key factors:
- VOLUNTEERS: They are often volunteers who are passionate about the environment, but are usually grass roots staff with little operational control or experience of leading campaigns.
- ADDITIONAL TO DAY JOB: The Champions often are not given any extra time by the business to deliver.
- LEADING BEYOND DAY JOB: All of the Green Teams will be leading beyond their normal day job, and frequently will need to manage upwards.
In the Base session we covered 3 key factors for how to get the best of Champions. We established they need:
- CREDIBILITY – so they can be seen as part of the wider team and helping support their colleagues and the organisational goals (and not seen as being Swampy).
- GREAT INFLUENCING SKILLS – it is essential that the Champions understand what motivates their colleagues and then be able talk to on the other persons level (and not come across as the eco-police).
- EFFECTIVE IMPLEMENTATION – as Green Teams are usually volunteers who are working extra to their job, ensuring that their plans happen can be a challenge. Therefore it is essential the Champions focus mainly on the short/medium achievable goals (and don’t get lost under the weight of other expectations).
Tools to support them:
There are many tools that you can use to support your Environmental Champions. A non-exhaustive list is below:
- Make it Fun
- Help them be Creative
- Create Competition
- Use Viral / Nudge
- Ensure they network with each other
- Invite (constructive!) ideas
- Recognise effort & achievement
- Help them measure / audit
- Make it relevant to their personal lives
- Focused events e.g. World Environment Day
- Use the Power of Questions
