Webinar

Behaviour Change: How to Encourage Sustainable Commuting, from a Hostage Negotiator

The commute is a choice for every employee, and the simple fact is that many people view the car as the easiest and most convenient way of getting to work. This may be true, but there are other methods that are more sustainable, cheaper, healthier, and almost as convenient. Carpooling, taking public transport, or active travel modes such as cycling or walking all reduce CO2 emissions compared to driving alone and – if an entire workforce commits to these alternatives – can take thousands of tonnes of greenhouse gases out of the atmosphere.

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Featuring

Nicky Perfect Former Hostage Negotiator, Met Police

Behaviour Change Tactics from a Hostage Negotiator – Key Takeaways and Clips

Communication is a Soft Skill

Communication is not only a soft skill but a life-changing skill, and fundamental to any influence that we can have over anyone.

Often we think we are good communicators but are actually talking to someone from our own perspective and with our own belief systems only.

Most of our conversations are unconscious with no purpose. We therefore have to be consciously present if we want to influence somebody to change their behaviour – no matter what we are asking someone to do.

Emotional State v Logical State

Imagine your brain is split into two sides: an emotional side and a logical side. The emotional state is five times stronger than the logical state, so our immediate unconscious reaction is to give an emotional push back when we feel challenged.

This is a protection derived from our fight, flight or freeze mechanism – it keeps us safe. Even now, when you have conversations around travel behaviours, you’ll be getting that same primal reaction.

When people are using the emotional side of their brain, they’ll become aggressive, they might talk over people, and they’ll use dismissive language. Alternatively, they might be submissive and completely avoid the issue, keep quiet in meetings and refuse to participate.

We need to build relationships that allow us to access the logic state of someone’s brain.

The Power of Because

The word ‘because’ has been found to be incredibly powerful in the world of influence and persuasion.

Robert Childini, who wrote a book called The Laws of Influence and Persuasion, did some research around the impact of the word with an experiment using a photocopier.

A few years ago, Robert’s team asked somebody to try to get to the front of the photocopier queue at the busiest time of day, but without offering a reason why. As it turned out, people are quite generous, and 63 – 65% of them allowed the person to go ahead of them.

However, when the person gave a compelling reason to move forward in the queue – for instance, “My boss has got a really important meeting and I need to get these photocopied straight away” – 95% of people were happy for him to move ahead of them.

The most fascinating part of the research, however, was when the person gave a bad reason to move ahead of someone – for instance, “Can I move ahead of you because I need to photocopy these papers?” Everyone was there to photocopy their papers, and yet 93% of people still said yes – that is the power of ‘because’.

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How Mobilityways can help

Mobilityways is on a mission to make zero carbon commuting a reality. We support employers to meet their net-zero goals with our suite of climate tech tools. These tools enable organisations to measure, reduce and report their Scope 3 commuter emissions, providing full visibility of commuting challenges and identifying sustainable travel alternatives for employees. 

We also provide a number of solutions to help you with behaviour change initiatives, including CommuteBoost which facilitates the use of incentives, our Commutologist Consultancy service, and our staff Engagement Toolkit.