by Caroline Rennie
(image from Summitpackgoat.com)
Goats are buttheads. Driven by nature eternally to establish and defend their position in the hierarchy, they continuously butt eachother (and me!) into line. But once they’re comfortably in line they not only follow you – they carry your load. Here’s how this can practically apply to launching an initiative:
The pitfalls of launching your initiative
Its pretty common to want to start your environmental initiatives with activities your colleagues will see and feel and even participate in. Something like recycled paper in the copy room. That can be a success – people get inspired, they notice they can make a difference, and they start having ideas about how to contribute more.
More often it’s a disaster. You get complaints: “the paper gets stuck in the copier”; “the colour is off and my documents don’t look good”; Or snippy questions about the labelling (“what is Mixed Sources anyway? I thought we were going – like – recycled…”). Or questions about whether its worthwhile “I’ve heard that recycled isn’t better for the environment anyway”. Or more philosophical questions: “Shouldn’t we be sticking to reading on our computers and not print out so much? You’re just making people feel good about wasting…”.
And really personal ones: “Oooh recycle folks, here comes the GreenQueen…”
Since you probably thought you were doing an unarguably good thing, you’re surprised at this negative stuff. And you get aggravated and think it would be a lot easier to go back to the way things were done before.
Why so much energy around something like paper?
There are always – or at least usually – some tensions in an office. Things around work or relationships or even the coffee machine. You get a lot around whether people tidied up the conference room after a meeting, or talk too loudly on the phone, or cut somebody off during a discussion… And often the conversation to clear that is difficult.
So instead, people find a safe outlet. For example, attacking an imposed initiative – and even attacking it in a way that makes them feel they are supporting the company: We shouldn’t use recycled paper – it costs more; recycled makes us look like eco-groovy hippy types – it’s not professional! The paper jams are reducing our productivity!
This can feel pretty hostile. After all, it was an environmentally sound idea and you had had the permissions and you had to go out of your way to make this work.
Your colleagues may be goats.
So it can be just a safe outlet, a release. Or it can have a more butt-heady side to it too – establishing where they and you are in the company pecking order. And, to mix my metaphors, your sticking your head above the parapet makes you an easy target.
Lessons from ButtHeads
#2. Be encouraging. While the goats jostle with each other all the time, they are also sticking with each other in a herd kind of way. People do that too – rather stay close to the herd and complain, then go off alone! So make being part of the ‘eco-groovy herd’ a gratifying thing. Report on environmental savings; run contest for paper reduction, or double-sided printing, or …
#3. Give them roles. The more people are clear on how they can contribute, the more they have an exclusive part to play, and the more they feel recognised for their contribution, the more likely they are to stay in line. Plus , the more people are involved, the more difficult it is for someone to make you the problem because the “problem’s” now shared.
#4. Be offensive. I don’t mean rude. I mean pre-emptive. With the goats (don’t read this if you are sensitive), I found that very early on I would go up to one of the top goats and whack him in the belly with a rock. Not nice! But after a disgruntled snort and with a quick shake of his horns, that goat – and all the subordinate goats – would leave me alone. You may want to consider this as metaphor rather than literally applicable, but that could depend upon your company too!
Goats can be good
Like people, goats are herd animals, and once they’ve established their order, will plod along in relative peace for hours. The trick is, get the order established early, and don’t try to shake it up. When you start something, anything, you are shaking up the established order by sending out little ripples of change. Some will see this as an invitation and some as a provocation, things will change, and suddenly you’ve got jostling all around.
So get the buttheads in line, reward them for staying there, and they’ll carry your load to the goal.
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