New ways to educate and spread the green message
August 30, 2007 by Eugene
Filed under Business and Organisations, Education and Environmentalism, Singapore
We need to look at new ways to educate the public and companies, and how to spread the green message. The Business Times recently lamented that companies are still not going green in a big way and “continue to drag their heels”. Although educating the companies is important, education using the old methods is not working. It was pointed out that the youth could provide an answer to better educate companies. Young people learn from the Internet and Web 2.0 tools such as social networking sites, where “information is dynamically shared and absorbed”. Educating and learning becomes more effective through discussion and sharing.
Besides using new education tools, we should also look at how to spread and make green messages stick. The book, Made to Stick by Chip and Dan Heath is worth reading. How do we get more people to know more about the environment and take action? How do we get people interested and remember the messages that we advocate? One interesting concept from the book is about the Curse of Knowledge. Quoting from the book:
This is the Curse of Knowledge. Once we know something, we find it hard to imagine what it was like not to know it. Our knowledge has “cursed” us. And it becomes difficult for us to share our knowledge with others, because we can’t readily re-create our listeners’ state of mind.
Sometimes we can’t understand why people and companies don’t get our message; why they continue to engage in activities that harm the environment. We forget to put ourselves in their shoes and refuse to understand their state of mind and why they do what they do. We need to understand their mindset first and then formulate our messages to make them stick and spread.
To make ideas stick, the authors shared 6 principles:
1. Simplicity: What is the core idea?
2. Unexpectedness: How do we generate interest and curiosity?
3. Concreteness: How do we make it clear?
4. Credibility: How do we make people believe?
5. Emotions: How do we make them care?
6. Stories: How do we get them to take action?
Keep these 6 principles in mind when you create your next green message or campaign. Make it stick!
Source: The Business Times via wildsingapore; Made to Stick.
Loading ...
