The Counterintelligence of Sustainability - By Andrea Learned

One of the things that so intrigues me about sustainability is the way it forces a hard look in the opposite direction for just about every business topic.  For instance, you’d think “green marketing” would demand an overt or visible approach, but green or sustainable marketing seems to be most effective when it uses a transparent approach.  Or, you’d think that to build your organization’s sustainability leadership you’d go about it in the traditional way – creating executive level positions to oversee it all, but looking in “counter” directions (i.e. other than “up” the ladder) can be the best way to find some of your real change makers.  Finally, you’d think that by now absolutely everyone must believe that the environment is in grave danger, and that they would all want to jump on whatever behavioral change is needed to right the wrongs.  But, there again, you’d be mistaken. Lots of people don’t respond well, or at all, to fear-inducing or “should do” messages.

So, we need to look beyond or in the opposite direction of what (we think) is obvious in order to more effectively reach people who are not of like-mind. That’s where practice in “counter”-intelligence comes in.  

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