We Sustainability Professionals Need to be Better than Our Peers and 5 Tips on Getting There
Part I: The Reality
Here is a bit of career advice for those in environmental / sustainability professions: Be Better. Yes, that’s right. This is an unfortunate reality, but you need to be better than your colleagues in the same room representing different professions. I am not a minority, and I have pretty much never experienced any form of discrimination or bias in my life. But over the years, as a sustainability professional, in my work environment, I have repeatedly found myself the butt of jokes, the subject of eye-rolling, the target of misinformation campaigns, and the aim of many other belittling, demeaning, or just plain annoying antics.
Now believe me, compared to the plight of women, immigrants, people of color, the LGBTQ community, and other minorities, this little professional bias is nothing. It is not my intent to even complain about it here. However, I am identifying it because it is a serious hurdle to the ultimate goal of our work, namely presenting real, tangible, thoughtful, and analytical solutions to a variety of policy and organizational challenges. In other words, this behavior on the part of others can prevent your message from being received. It can cloud your message and discredit your conclusions.
Is it your fault? No, of course not. Do you need to acknowledge it is there and be realistic about its impacts to your work and career? Yes, without a doubt. So, in order to achieve your goals, you need to counter, and the only way I see it right now is to work harder and smarter, to be better. But first, let’s look at why we face this uphill battle.
Stereotypes
The first issue is that even though the environmental movement was arguably ignited by a book of hard academic science in Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring, the free loving Woodstock 60’s hippie quickly became the poster child of the movement. The dirty, smelly, stoned, tie dye wearing tree hugger is probably the first image many people, especially Baby Boomers, conjure up when anything about the environment surfaces. But as author Lee Jussim notes, “… as biased and destructive as these images may be, many stereotypes — fixed characterizations of specific groups — turn out to hold kernels of truth.”¹ I have to say that in my two decades working with environmental advocacy groups and professionals, there is a certain, very visible portion of the overall movement that still kind of falls into that stereotype. I have often wondered if this is a disservice to real progress for the movement.
So it is important to know that when you walk into a corporate board room as the (often token) “green” person, there are more than a few people at the table who have just put a tie dye on you, a joint in your mouth, and strapped your arms around a tree. That is not a great entry point for a serious conversation about sustainable solutions.
Cognitive Biases
The second major issue is what is known as cognitive bias. George Dvorsky notes, “A cognitive bias…is a genuine deficiency or limitation in our thinking — a flaw in judgment that arises from errors of memory, social attribution, and miscalculations (such as statistical errors or a false sense of probability).”² One of the most common of these is the Confirmation Bias. We as people like to hear information that confirms what we believe or want to believe…. It creates a sort of negative feedback loop. As Dvorsky notes, “We tend to be put off by individuals, groups, and news sources that make us feel uncomfortable or insecure about our views.”
Well, for better or worse, environmental issues have been and continue to be polarizing. There has been a lot of rhetoric and campaigning, and again unfortunately, this has been driven deeper into our politics. It would be very difficult for someone these days to consider themselves neutral on the subject. Most of us more than likely lean one way or the other. Thus if you lean more conservative, you may have been told for years that environmental policies strip out profits and cost jobs. When you hear information that supports that, you may weigh it more heavily as proof of that theory and may be less likely to search for validation of the information. Conversely, if you are liberal, and you see data suggesting job losses resulting from environmental regulation, you may be more likely to search for holes to discredit the information, or attribute the job losses to another circumstance.
The reality is that in many organizations, unless their mission or original founding was specifically environmental, there is a good chance that there will be at least some people you come across in your work who have a confirmation bias that environmental policies are undesirable, or even worse, detrimental to the organization.
Understanding Your Starting Point
So when the stereotype meets the confirmation bias, you end up with someone who is already predisposed to think you are a silly treehugger peddling ideas they can poke holes in without even trying. They are already in the mindset that they just have to tolerate this exercise because some person or some entity is making this happen, but obviously it will be a waste of time and the evidence will be clear to that effect.
Now compare that with the accountant who walks in to deliver the 3rd quarter earnings report. Is there any stereotype about this person, other than maybe being a nerdy bean counter, which you want anyway in an accountant? Or an attorney. Or the insurance risk assessor. Is there any potentially strong and deeply ingrained and possibly even political bias against what those professionals are discussing? I cannot think of any other profession that faces this level of stereotype or bias.
There you have it. If you are preparing to present at the meeting, you now have to be better than the accountant, the attorney, or the risk assessor. The recipients will receive all of their information generally at face value. Conversely, you are starting in negative territory…at least some portion of the audience has already more than likely discredited what you have to say before you have opened your mouth or shown even a title slide. Therein lies the imperative. Now you need to be better. On all levels. You have an uphill battle just to even make a point, let alone affect a policy decision.
Part II: Being Better
So now that you know you that for an environmental professional, the “A” in A-game stands for All the Time, how do you do it? What are you supposed to do? Below are five recommendations.
Tip 1 — Be More Professional
In order to combat the aforementioned stereotypes, you need to present yourself as more professional. As we noted above, many may have perceptions of you that are predisposed, so you need to work right from the outset to upend their preconceived notions. This can be done simply by your appearance and how you carry yourself. Some of your audience is likely expecting certain things from the tree hugger in appearance, and therefore the same thing that might go unnoticed on the accountant, may be noticed on you. That goes for dress, demeanor, speaking style etc. You are playing with a handicap…you need to make up ground, and you can do that by paying careful attention to your appearance, your manners, your demeanor, your articulation, your speaking style…everything about how you come across.
Tip 2 — Be More Prepared / Organized
Again, there may be a certain expectation that the hippie tree-hugger will also be scatterbrained and rambling (insert pot / stoner joke here…). To combat that, we as professionals need to be extra prepared. There is no room for error or do-overs because the cognitive bias will kick in for at least some, and any missteps will only validate opinions that the information and the person (i.e. you) are not credible.
Tip 3 — Overwhelm with Examples
As those of us who work in the environmental field know, there is a lot of evidence for value in our work, whether it is a green building or a corporate earnings report. Sustainability is not just about the environment…it is about other principles such as conserving resources and minimizing expenses. But to again overcome some of the naysayers in the room, we need to show additional evidence. I liken it to the overwhelming force concept of the Powell Doctrine, championed by General Colin Powell in the First Gulf War, wherein the volume of information and evidence is extensive…even overwhelming. In addition, more than just having a lot of examples and case studies, develop these fully and completely.
Tip 4 — Overwhelm with References
Because we are entering in to many discussions or presentations with some bias that we, and therefore the information we provide, may not be credible, it is important to find other parties who are backing us up in the form of references. Without this, it may seem as if this is just your opinion and not based on any true data or other foundation. The more references, the better, and the more varied, the better. Lastly, the references should be as credible as possible, coming from independent, reliable, and prestigious people and sources.
There are two footnotes here though. First, be very wary of your own cognitive biases in your research and work. It is very easy to limit oneself to the research and references that validate one’s own conclusions. Who wants to be wrong or feel challenged, right?
Second, find those counter arguments, and present those too. Discuss them openly as this gives you credibility as an independent thinker and qualified resource.
Tip 5 — Clearly Identify Risk / Reward
With a lot of what we do in our professional lives, and especially in business, decisions come down to risk. In the environmental world, there are two kinds of risk: 1) Action-Based and 2) Inaction-Based.
Action Risks are those risks that happen when a person or company takes a particular action. For example, a company is considering switching their packaging to a less waste intensive package. The potential risk is that customers may not recognize the product or be turned off in some way.
Inaction Risks are environmental risks that occur when a person or company doesn’t take a particular action. Businesses right now are dealing with the question of climate change and their own carbon emissions. Are they at risk by not taking any action to address their emissions? Just as there is risk in taking an action, there is also risk in not taking action.
It is paramount that we identify risks to our audience. Of course this is part of what we do. But it does something else. It changes the discussion from one of perhaps “my values vs. your values” to one of common ground within an organization. It reminds everyone that ultimately we are all working towards the same goal of the betterment of the organization, and minimizing risk is a big part of that.
When identifying risk, if possible, put it in dollars. Money talks. It is the equalizer in the discussion, the neutral playing field. It is objective.
Similar to risk, we must also identify reward. So much of what we do has benefits for our organizations. We need to clearly identify these rewards. Sometimes they are abstract, like public opinion, but sometimes they are concrete and can be identified in dollars.
By diving deep into risk and rewards, we show our peers that sustainability professionals are not just about saving the environment. We are about improving our organizations top to bottom. We in our profession know, perhaps more than anyone, that a sustainability program that does not have value beyond just the environmental benefits will not be around for long.
Conclusion
Thus when working in our field in order to make our case, we need to present ourselves better, work harder, do better, and frankly, be better. We need to dig deeper to make sure our assumptions are accurate. There is no room for error because we will only get one shot at making our case. To that end we must all pledge to work together to do better, and understand that when we get up to speak or hand in that report, we are representing a wider group of professionals. The more I can be perceived today as contributing true value, the less stereotype and cognitive bias others in our industry will face, both today and tomorrow.
¹https://aeon.co/essays/truth-lies-and-stereotypes-when-scientists-ignore-evidence
