Background
The U.S. Green Building Council’s (USGBC) Center for Green Schools Fellowship Program transforms the environments in which children learn by placing full-time sustainability officers in school districts across the country. The Center selects, trains and supports their fellows to implement strategies to reduce resource use and emissions, improve school occupant health and teach students about global environmental issues.
Problem
The USGBC’s Green School Fellows were facing barriers and resistance from stakeholders throughout each school district when they would try to persuade them to adopt sustainability practices. They felt unable to move the dial in their one-on-one meetings and presentation with stakeholders across the spectrum.
Green School Fellows worked with people across departments in individual schools, including teaching staff, administration and building maintenance. And they worked with administrators in district offices as well. Each of these stakeholder groups presented different blocks to moving forward and their internal differences contributed to gridlock in creating sustainability solutions.
Solution
Gurumaker presented a one-day Power of Persuasion workshop to the Fellows. We helped them learn to analyze each stakeholder group, see the underlying issues and hidden motives behind the resistance they faced. We taught them how to express their goals in terms of benefits and value for each targeted audience. Participants learned how to better establish rapport and create emotional connections that helped build trust and a more collaborative attitude from various stakeholders. And we worked with them on strategies to diffuse resistance and neutralize the skepticism that was holding back progress. They learned to see the way organizational history conspired to hold back change and how to engage with patterns and behaviors in ways that could change the paradigm.
We worked with the Fellows as a group, with each Fellow receiving a laser-focused session of individual coaching that included role-play to help them gain practical experience using different techniques to overcome barriers.
Result
Green School Fellows reported feeling better equipped and more confident in persuading various stakeholder groups and reported having more success in getting buy-in and acceptance for their proposed initiatives.