How can I be more persuasive?
How can I get administrators to take me seriously and to listen to my ideas for advancing sustainability at my school?
Know your audience
Identify the main players in your school and try to build a positive rapport with them. Understand the priorities and personalities of the people involved, and communicate in a way that takes these into consideration – show how sustainability adds value to what matters to them.
You also need to be strategic in how you get people on board. For example, if you’re 25 years old, how can you get someone who’s been at the school for 25 years to listen to you? You could, for example, demonstrate how moving towards sustainability aligns with the established mission and values of the school.
2. Know your concepts
It really helps to be fluent in the different categories of sustainability and what areas of the school they impact.
You will also be far more effective and credible if you’re able to answer questions off the top of your head, without having to check through documents.
This is one of the reasons why START: Sustainability Tracking and Roadmap Tool is so helpful — it breaks up the complexity of Whole School Sustainability into much smaller and more manageable chunks, explains the concepts and why they matter. Become familiar with the explanations and language of START’s metrics, and familiarize yourself with actionable steps contained in START’s ‘How To’ Guides so that you have a starting point for plans of action.
3. Communicate clearly and effectively
Don’t assume that everyone understands you or already agrees with you; people have different opinions and levels of understanding and knowledge about sustainability.
Be careful not to slip into using sustainability jargon that might exclude or confuse the people you’re working with, and rather communicate clearly, in a way that anyone could understand.
