Help! How do I engage my team with new ‘Green’ actions?

Last week I was invited to speak at the Hospitality & Tourism Expo organized by the Restaurants Association of Ireland.

When I finished my presentation the audience and I had an opportunity for a quick Q&A, with one questions coming up several times:

How can I get my team to engage with Green Actions?

This is a recurring issue for many business owners and a difficult barrier to get through.

While I do not have all the answers, namely because this barrier involves human psychology and our adversity to “change”… I do have 8 tips that you can try out:

1. You cannot implement a Green Programme alone if you run a medium to large business. Period. You will need a Green Manager and a Green Team. Choose these people with care. The first instinct here would be to work with all your heads of department, but while they need to be involved in some capacity, it is important that you do not forget about your Junior Staff. There might be many hidden “green gems” within your team. People that already lead more sustainable lives and that are involved in the Green Wave movement, you just may not know about it. So look at your entire team, speak to them about sustainability, how they would feel if you were to introduce a Green Programme, etc.

2. Involve your team on the decision making from the beginning. A Green Team is not a hierarchy, it is a group effort of equals working for a common goal. Giving members of your team total responsibility for some areas of the programme will allow them to feel empowered to complete the tasks to the best of their ability. If you start by pushing, what you think ‘should be done’ without consulting them or listening to their opinion, it will just become one more chore and not something that they are involved in or can get behind.

3. Organise Green Meetings regularly, even when you feel you are not advancing on your Green Programme. Meetings can create a feeling of comradery amongst the team, and once strong relationships start forming between them, the team will grow and become motivated to believe that they can make a difference.

4. Listen carefully to the “complainers”. Try and find out what exactly is it that riles them and provokes such negativity to your Green Programme. Do they feel their work is already overloaded and they cannot take on an extra task? Do they not believe in Climate Change? Do they think there is no point in greening a business? Always come from a place of understanding rather than imposing your views on them. Depending on what their inner barriers are, there are different tactics you can use to bring them to your side of the fence, if not fully at least you will get them to cooperate with the new green initiatives, but we need to be ready to listen to their reasoning.

5. Make a big deal of achievements and reward your team. Behavioural change is a very difficult thing to achieve. It does not come to us naturally and so you should celebrate and reward your team when green actions are been implemented correctly, however small the change might seem! You could also create a “Green Suggestion Box” and place it in the staff area. Encourage all members of staff to put suggestions in the box and open it once a month. If the Green Team decides to use one of those ideas, make sure the person that proposed the change/idea is in charge of its implementation, give them ownership.

6. As a General Manager, you should be the number one champion of the Green Programme. Your own attitude towards sustainability will matter to your team, even if it does not seem like it. If you project a positive attitude towards the Green Programme, overtime your team will also see it as a positive and necessary thing. Be patient with this, a shift in mentality can take time, but a good leader will always bring others to their way of thinking eventually. Do not force it, believe in your programme and always make it a positive talking point.

7. Start working towards embedding sustainability in everything you do at the business. For example, if you are going to recruit, talk to HR about the Green Programme and ensure your business incorporates it at different stages such as interviews and induction training. Your future employees will know from the very start that you want to run a green business and you have a better chance of getting them involved.

8. Set clear monthly or quarterly targets for the Green Team. If you want them to work towards a common goal, you need to be very clear what that goal is and break it into smaller chunks. Make sure those activities are measurable and time-bound, so you can say with certainty if they have been achieved or not. Always reward your team, in however small way, for achieving targets.

If you can take anything away from this when you start creating a green team, it is that communication is key.

Consistent communication will allow current members to share their ideas and thoughts freely as well as gaining their loyalty and support for the programme. It will also ensure that those who are not part of the team, still understand what it is you are trying to achieve and why and will give them a sense of empowerment and pride if they are ever questioned by a customer, family member or friend about the green programme.

Change can only occur when everyone is on board.

 If you have 15 minutes to spare today, I recommend you watch this TedTalk by Dr. Alia Crum. Dr. Crum says the biggest game changer is “YOU, by harnessing the power of your mind." She explores scientific results that show the influence of the mindset on the body.

How would the world look like in 10 years time if we were all able to change our mindset, and believe that Climate Change is a fight were we all have a role to play?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0tqq66zwa7g

Raquel