I met Marilyn and Alexander Mehlmann in Berlin where they came to speak at the SustEcon Conference. In her blog, Marilyn calls herself Globetrotting Grandma. I love how she introduced herself: it shows her open mindset and her great sense of humor.
Personally, I think that Marilyn could also be called the “Changemaker Grandma”. Her long-term effort in involving individuals, companies, and NGOs in acting sustainably is very inspiring. She was also recognized for her engagement in 2011 as she received the Rachel Carson Prize.
During the last decades, Alexander and Marilyn contributed to engaging several million people to act more sustainably all over the world through their work at Global Action Plan International.
One of the powerful programs they developed is called “EcoTeams“. The program provides to communities and neighborhoods group-based support to begin living more sustainably. The programs are all based on empowerment and stand out because they:
- Achieve measurable long-term behavior change,
- Simultaneously impact the social, environmental and economic life of people positively, and
- Reach people who don’t necessarily care about sustainability (yet).
The programs were so successful that they have been adapted for youth and children (including schools) as well as to many different cultures.
When I met Marilyn and Alexander I was very curious to learn more about the “magical” formula of their programs and their experiences.
Learning from failure doesn’t work: continuous learning does
I started by asking, controversially, if they could tell me about some projects that did not work. My question was followed by a long break. Marilyn and Alexander were both thinking hard.
Marilyn: We started from a very strong base coming from the theory of empowerment. We’ve always got results, I wouldn’t say we were always 100% satisfied with them, but I cannot tell you that some of them were failures either. There were programs which did not take off. But it was mainly because the program surroundings, the setup, was challenging. It is very important to have strong professional and personal relationships with the project partners, as well as a common objective.
Majka: I started with asking this question because nowadays, we often mention failures as great learning opportunities. What do you think about it?
Marilyn: I don’t think that we necessarily learn from failure. When we were building the Learning for Change methodology we learned that it is as difficult to learn from a declared failure as from a declared success. You need to be in between.
To learn from experience:
- State the way the project went.
- Ask what went well and what would have been preferred to happen differently.
- And ask in a non-judgemental way.
Changing the sustainability norm by reaching 3% of the population
Majka: What is an example of a project that went the way you preferred it to go?
Alexander: We worked with a Swedish suburb called Närlunda. It was one of this disregarded areas for a behavior change program on sustainability: low income, low education, high unemployment, etc. We were hired to run a behavior change program for sustainable lifestyle for 2 years.
We ran an EcoTeam program, which mainly consists of gathering a few households, neighbors usually, around the exploration of everyday life in living in your family and neighborhood. On the surface, the program is aimed at different aspects of resource saving (garbage, water, electricity, food). People measure things, try a new behavior and then measure again. They see some results and gain feedback about the changes. Below the surface, it’s about empowering people to find out things about their surroundings, make experimental changes, and embark on a long-term process of establishing new habits.
During the project, we engaged about 3% of the population. The lifestyle of the people changed so much that the city changed the city planning and 15 years later the more sustainable habits adopted are still increasing. All of it spontaneously. The NORM changed! We reached this critical mass, which made change driven by citizens go far beyond the initial scope of the program.
The Amoeba Model developed by Alan AtKissen, author of (Sustainability is for Everyone and Sustainability Transformation) explains how a cultural change can happen. The theory makes use of the Diffusion of Innovation Theory.
Providing a non-threatening reason to talk with each other made a huge difference
Majka: What was the critical factor that made this program so successful?
Marilyn: In many areas neighbors don’t talk much to each other. This was for instance particularly the case when we introduced the EcoTeam program into post-Soviet Russia. The program gave participants a non-threatening reason to meet. Often, participants meet in each other’s homes, but it was still an uncommitted experience, as they only agreed to meet a few times. They did not feel obliged to keep talking with each other forever but had an excuse to get started. That’s a big component.
Alexander: Yes. And in fact, I also saw several times that because the focus was put on something very practical, like reducing your garbage or taking shorter showers, and sort of non-controversial, people also started talking about their lives and also about other things.
We all share the social need to connect and support each other
Majka: Seem like the social bonds between people are really crucial.
Marilyn: Yes the social aspects of sustainability are absolutely key. That’s why we often start with them when we implement a program. For example, when we work with schools, we begin by showing the children how to support each other in the classroom. We empower them to empower each other.
Even at the kindergarten level, they know what it means. We show them pictures of interactions in the classroom and ask them to rank them as positive or negative and to tell how they feel about the pictures. If they see a picture of somebody hitting another child, we ask them how they feel about it. And then we show them two children doing something together, drawing together, and ask them how they feel about that. They say we don’t want to be like this, we want to be like that. So let’s remember to make that choice when we are at school: hat’s the way we want to be.
And when you have that kind of atmosphere in the classroom you can do wonders. That’s one reason why the parents are so happy with the programs, children learn a new way to interact with each other and bring it home.
Creating a supportive environment on social media it is possible
Majka: It’s interesting how you emphasize the social component and the development of skills like empathy or a supportive way to communicate. Do you think that it is possible to build this kind of environment based on trust and mutual support also online, be it on social media or through mobile apps?
Alexander: Yes I think so. But we still need to learn more about how. Writing to someone on social media is not the same as interacting in person. We miss the eye contact, the nodding, the smiling. Writing on social media is like being in an alien world in which we don’t have all the signals we usually have to interact with people. But our basic needs, of socializing and connecting to other people are the same.
Marilyn: Building a supportive environment for example on Facebook is possible. You can, for example, use the same theories as in conflict handling. It is a bit like having a very painful muscle. You don’t treat it best by “attacking” the muscle. You work around it. And it is the same with conflicts: if you are working in a situation in which people are in conflict with each other you start by stopping talking about conflict and start exploring what they have in common.
It’s all about asking questions and listening without judgement
Marilyn: So if you post on a Facebook group that everyone should become a vegan, then you may get a lot of polarized discussions. But what if you can move the discussion towards: “What do you value about your vegan lifestyle? And what do you value about your meat-eating? What is it that you value?” Because people value very much the same things, they just have different perceptions on how to get there. And then you can work with that.
Another important part is to ask questions and listen. Listening in a non-judgemental way, through Deep Listening for example. This is also possible on Facebook! If someone has a very different opinion than you, you can start a conversation to learn how the person came to that opinion. For example by writing something like “I hear what you say and it doesn’t actually occur with my experience. So I’m wondering where you are coming from. Can you help me understand?” And what happens is that you start a conversion.
Majka: What are the organizations that are having an impact doing differently?
Marilyn: They have a long-term commitment, they don’t do a campaign and move away again.
When you launch a campaign, it is like growing plants in a greenhouse. The heating needs to be always on to make the plants grow. When you do a program based on empowerment, it’s like growing plants outdoors: you plant the seeds and get them started. It may take some time but then they do their own thing and keep growing. Permaculture is a good model!
It’s all about listening, caring and learning.
Learn more about the work of Marilyn and Alexander Mehlmann:
- Book Learning for Change
- Marilyn and Alexander’s new organization: Legacy2017
About the author
Majka Baur initiated and leads the implementation of the Designing for Behaviour Change project. She is a social entrepreneur with 6 years of hands-on experience in behaviour change gained by co-founding the Swiss social business WeAct. Majka is passionate about supporting people and organizations in finding their paths to co-create a bright future for all.