Baby steps matter for the environment and sustainability
Sep 3rd
I’ve just read another article saying that we can change all the lightbulbs we want, but we still won’t really impact the environment until governments change energy policies. The solution is in thinking big, not small.
Okay, the article makes a valid point: big efforts inevitably have bigger impacts than smaller ones. But I think it misses another point. Smaller steps — changes we make in our daily habits — have advantages too.
They are threshold events. Marijauna is sometimes said to be a threshold drug for using harder drugs — that is by having a first drug experience, you may have less resistance to trying other drugs. Changing your light bulbs, walking for trips that are less than a mile a way, having one meatless meal a week can also be threshold events. They wear down our resistance — our belief that its hard to change our habits. Completing small changes make us more willing to look for other changes we can make.
They are more than the sum of their parts. Last year I heard a memorable talk by Peter Robinson when he became the new Executive Director of the David Susuki Foundation, a prominent non-profit with an environmental mandate. He was asked: “Are you discouraged about our prospects of doing enough in time to impact global warming?” His answer: the challenge is a tough one. But the hope lies in people making changes at the community level.
They create a new ethic. When I was young, almost every year someone in our large high school was killed or injured in an auto accident during prom season, often as a result of drinking. Parents didn’t know how to stop these senseless deaths of youngsters just starting their lives. Mothers against Drunk Drivers changed the ethos of kids drinking and driving. They began kid by kid to enlist pledges not to drink and drive. Eventually it became part of general awareness that drinking and driving were not acceptable. By doing small acts to save the environment, we can change the ethos that carelessness is okay.
They’re doable. I think many of us are paralyzed by the urgency of environmental issues. Small acts give us a first step to move us out of that deer in the headlights feeling. They move us in the direction we would like to go.
It takes action, both big and small, to make a difference.
Kathy Sayers is the Executive Director of hattrick, a non-profit created to show it’s not that hard to make a difference.
How to motivate your youngest employees? Make a difference.
Sep 3rd
My friends who own small businesses complain a they can’t motivate their newest employees. “I can’t figure out what will they want. It’s not money, necessarily. It’s not prestige. What makes them tick?,” they ask.
As a life coach working with 20 somethings, I can tell you what they want.
More than previous generations, they want their work lives to matter. According to What Canadians Think, a book by two of Canada’s leading pollsters, 81% of Canadian students surveyed said having an “interesting” work was important to them. To put that in prospective, only 19% said having a high paying job was important. Engaging work is really, really a priority with this generation.
And, as important, they want to work for organizations that understand their prospective that businesses need a bigger vision. If they are going to give you what they value most – their life time — they want you to show you care about burning issues, both locally and globally.
It’s not that hard to make your organization one that young workers will want to work for. You just need to commit to making a difference about the issues that matter to them.
And what are those issues? For sure the environment and sustainability. Put your young workers in charge of developing your environmental company policies and you’ll be surprised how ingenious their solutions are.
For sure, it’s enriching their communities. Make it easy for them to volunteer by providing information on local charities and events in your newsletters and emails. Give them a day off every three months to volunteer in the community.
For sure it’s the larger world. Adopting a cause – whether its global warming or world poverty – will show you care about something beyond the bottom line.
This is a generation that gets more grief that they deserve, because their values are different. Make yours the kind of company they are proud to tell their friends about, and you’ll earn their commitment.
Kathy Sayers is the Executive Director of hattrick, a non-profit created to show it’s not that hard to make a difference.
Where to start. Charities you can trust.
Aug 30th
I started our non-profit hattrick because of conversations I kept having. At book club, over coffee with friends, at dinner parties, I was hearing the same thing.
“I’m overwhelmed. I hear about crushing poverty in developing countries and I don’t even know how to begin to help. ”
So I began asking “What is holding you back?” Here’s what I heard:
• “Does my money go to paying fat salaries and promotion or to people in need?”
• “What about corruption in developing countries? Do I have to worry about that?”
• “I hear stories about charities doing something that makes perfect sense in North America,
but no sense in, say, Africa. What good is a computer it can’t be repaired or there’s no electricity?”
So I began looking for innovative charities that I’d be proud to tell my friends about. Charities with little or no overhead, with solid management, with focus, and with an understanding of what is needed in the developing countries they serve. How hard could it be?
Turns out, harder than I expected. I looked at dozens of small charities on line. Some were unfathomable. Really, reading their websites I couldn’t tell what they did. For some, I couldn’t find out their administrative costs. Some were so scattered, they promised, vaguely, to help poor people. Some had no local contacts in the countries they served. How could they possibly know what would help?
But I did find innovative well-run charities and chose 3 to partner with hattrick. I can tell my friends with confidence that they can give their $35 to any of them and it will affect the lives of children, guaranteed.
Take a look at their videos here on our blog or their stories at myhattricks.org.
Kathy Sayers is the Executive Director of hattrick, a non-profit created to show it’s not that hard to make a difference.
Hatching Hattrick: Help + Act + Tell
Jul 2nd
Kathy Sayers talks about the idea for Hattrick:
When I tell people about Hattrick, someone always asks, “How on earth did you come up with the idea?” Actually, I didn’t. It was born through a series of serendipitous comments from friends and colleagues.
The idea for the help part of hattrick came from my friend Catherine Winckler who told me about an idea she’d seen on the BBC. Students at the London School of Design were asked to create a project for a competition. The winner that year was a merry-go-round that generates electricity while kids play on it. “The idea knocked my socks off,” said Catherine. She was so excited that she called her cousin who works for a foundation that provides aid in Africa. Could the foundation deliver, install and maintain a merry-go-round in a village? “Sure,” said her cousin.
“Wow”, I thought. A testimony to the ingenuity of the young designer, Catherine’s connect-the-dots mind, and the can-do philosophy of the foundation. I filed this terrific story away in my mind.
The save part of hattrick came the next day at the gym when I told my friend Alice Nakamura the story. “Wow,” she said. She thought for a couple of minutes then said, “Why wouldn’t this gym convert a few of these machines so they could save electricity while we work out?’ Here was another great idea – using out-of-the box thinking to save energy in our every day lives.
Three days later, I was at a networking meeting where we each stand up and talk about our business. That day, I said to myself, “I simply can’t talk about my business again. Even I’m bored.” So I talked about a charity I work with that teaches women struggling with addictions to make wooden toolkits, wine boxes and stepstools. “Can any of you help?” I asked. Eight out of 20 people stepped up with offers — to fund an open house, buy tool boxes as gifts for clients, help with a wine-tasting fund raiser, and talk to groups about the charity. “Wow,” I thought, “People really want to help. They just need to be inspired by a great story or cause.” And so the tell part of hattrick came into focus.
That week the pieces fell into place. I decided to create a non-profit organization that combined the three elements of these wow experiences. I was looking for a name that described a win-win-win situation. I asked my friend Keith Lloyd, “Isn’t there something like this in sports?” “Sure,” he said, “a hattrick is when a player scores three goals in one game.” “Perfect,” I said.
That’s how, in one week, Hattrick was hatched.