Make change happen quickly with 3 simple steps

In 2010, I attended a talk at the Columbia Club in NYC.

A professor at the Earth Institute spoked about being environmentally responsible.

I wasn’t too interested in the topic.

But a wise person once told me to choose good speakers over good topics.

People loved this professor’s talks.

So I went.

I’m glad I did, because I learned something that I now use constantly.

And it has nothing to do with the environment.

It’s all about the speed of change.

BP oil spill

On April 20, 2010, an explosion on an offshore drilling platform caused an oil rig to sink in the Gulf of Mexico.

This caused an oil well to leak.

The leak lasted for months.

It was the largest marine oil spill in US history, known as the Deepwater Horizon oil spill.

It’s more commonly known as the BP oil spill.

But this story isn’t about oil.

It’s about why we reacted so quickly to try and stop the oil spill.

And yet the same reasons are why we react so slowly to climate change.

3 steps to fast change

The professor explained a simple process to get people to take action quickly.

Focus on 3 ingredients:

• Immediate

• Visible

• Tangible

He explained how this works with the oil spill.

Immediate

The oil leak wasn’t gradual.

Rather, an explosion caused it.

In one moment, everything went from being under control to an emergency.

The pace at which change happens often influences how fast we react to it.

In this case, something immediate and unexpected got our attention.

Visible

There is some truth to the saying, “out of sight, out of mind.”

I remember watching a live video of the oil leak on TV.

“We need to solve this now,” the newscaster said.

You could also see the spill from the air.

The water turned different colors.

To make change happen quickly, you need to see what happens if you don’t act fast.

Here, we could see how fast the oil gushed out and how far it traveled.

Nothing good comes from that.

Tangible

How much oil was leaking?

Numbers are a simple way for us to tell a story.

But only in values that we understand.

You know gallons and liters. Probably barrels, too (1 barrel = 42 gallons).

Computer programs were even created to let you calculate the oil spill.

An estimated 3+ million barrels of oil went into the water.

Numbers help us quantify things and take action faster.

Yeah, but…

Did these 3 ingredients really help us act faster to plug the oil leak?

After all, the leak happened for months.

Let’s look at another environmental example using the same 3 elements.

Climate change

The climate discussion keeps evolving through the years.

Ozone layer. Global warming. Climate change. Carbon emissions. 1.5º C.

Yet, it seems there is too little action or it’s slow-moving.

Why?

Because it’s often lacking the 3 factors needed for fast change.

Immediate

Climate change (whether you believe it or not), happens very slowly.

We don’t see the effects of any potential negative actions until much later, if at all.

The slow pace of change makes us think we don’t need to act now.

So we often wait until it’s too late or don’t act at all.

Visible

If you’re of a certain age, you may remember the ozone layer discussions in the 1980s and 1990s.

The ozone is an invisible layer ~15 miles above the earth. It helps protect us from the sun’s harmful ultraviolet (UV) rays.

It formed a hole and was losing its ability to protect us.

World leaders got together to try and heal the ozone layer.

Because we can’t see it, action took decades of efforts.

Tangible

You probably know that carbon dioxide (CO₂) is public enemy #1 of climate change.

Google Flights does a good job estimating carbon emissions for your flight.

But what does this mean?

It’s still hard for us to understand (myself included). We’re not familiar with that measurement.

It’s less tangible in our mind, even though there’s a number.

Summary

Let’s recap the oil spill vs climate change approach using the 3 ingredients.

Having all 3 makes it more likely for a fast response to happen.

Bottom line

To make change happen quickly:

• Focus on something happening immediately

• Make sure it’s visible

• Put it in numbers that people can understand

Immediate. Visible. Tangible.

This approach works for anything.

School board elections? Yup.

Convincing your boss to approve a project? Yup.

Anything.

I’ve been using it for 13 years.

Now it’s your turn.

Thanks for reading.

See you next week.

Nabeel