In part one of this two-part post I discussed some of the wider communication issues around climate change.
Today I want to talk about how to effectively sensitise your market and the importance of a public engagement strategy around the climate change issue.
Climate change had become a ‘wicked’ problem for communicators trying to bring about permanent behavioural change across the community.
I believe the key is to be able to condition or sensitise the community to change – and so shift attitudes – before change is introduced.
The challenge is how do you effectively sensitise the community to accept the need for action and – that it will also come at a cost.
It can be done, but it’s not easy.
The Herald Sun’s campaign to improve road safety in Victoria is a good example. It shows how the population can be conditioned to accept change before such measures as mandatory seat belts were introduced.
That was in 1970, and the assault by The Sun on the appalling road toll – headlined ‘Declare War on 1034’ – is probably the most successful newspaper campaign in Australia.
One thousand and thirty four was the number of people who’d been killed the year before. The Sun’s goal was to stop it going higher.
The state government of the time was reluctant to make it compulsory to wear seatbelts because they thought it would be a vote-killer. But when The Sun campaign got rolling, they realised it was a vote-catcher. The campaign led to mandatory seatbelt legislation – the first in the world – and a massive reduction in the number of people killed. Forty years on, the road toll is one-third of what it was.
This is an example of how the community can be encouraged to change their lives – willingly and for good
Workplace safety, saving for your retirement, or seatbelt legislation – the question is how do you sensitise the target audience?
Climate change is an intricate, long-term social planning issue. In some areas, particularly academic circles, such issues are referred to as ‘wicked’ problems.
‘Wicked’ problems have multiple causes. They are difficult to define and there is often disagreement about both the causes and potential solutions. Also, attempted solutions may have unforeseen consequences.
I believe that in order to deal with long-term complex issues, (like climate change) the solution needs to include a public engagement strategy. For the engagement strategy, you need to link community engagement with a behaviour change program that is informed by an understanding of the science, psychology and behaviour change theory.
Compared to the decisive action that followed the global financial crisis, there has been very little action on climate change.
It strikes me that if the term ‘climate crisis’ had been adopted instead of ‘climate change’ it might have generated a tad more action.
The Newspolls in Australia show that support for climate action has decreased by 20 percent over the last four years. Other polls show that a large majority of people don’t want to pay much, if anything, for climate action.
Perhaps the climate change issue doesn’t readily prompt behaviour change because the human brain responds to threats that are immediate and can be appreciated by our senses and climate change is a long-term issue that is hard to detect from personal experience.
Many of the risks seem remote and in the distant future.
Each behaviour change program The Shannon Company develops is built on three common factors:
- genuine emotional engagement gained through a deep understanding of what drives behaviour;
- the lessons we have learned in two decades of delivering ground-breaking behaviour-change programs; and
- the application of the best academic knowledge sourced from around the world.
We believe that the more complex behaviour change challenges we address…. the truly wicked problems… are more likely to be tackled successfully if The Shannon Company, working with others has been able to effectively sensitise the market beforehand.
Image credit: The Shannon Company
(To gain access to this knowledge, we have founded and funded a behaviour research centre ‘Behaviour Works’ in partnership with Monash University and the Environment Protection Authority. We are also partners with The Sustainability Company, which has developed a change model to help organisations put sustainability into practice.
We are also privileged to have a close working relationship with Professor Peter Singer, who The New Yorker has described as the most influential philosopher in the world. Peter is on The Shannon Company Advisory Board.)
