Try the Spodek Method right now with a friend, enemy, or stranger:
Intrinsic Motivation for Sustainability Method (Spodek Method) (Joshua M.’s Version)
1 What's an experience of nature you had in childhood that made an especially strong impression on you?
(What were the colors, sounds, smells, any other sensations?)
2 What feelings did you feel then? can you name the emotions?
(Speak the names of the emotions back to the person, 2 or 3 is plenty).
3 For the next question, there are three constraints and I'm going to tell you those before I ask the question.
a) something new that you're not already planning to do
b) something you do yourself, vs. paying or making someone else do
c) something that leaves nature some bit better than you found it--or some increment less harmed--by your own standards, in some physical way that could be measured. Again, just some tiny bit is enough to meet the constraints.
The question is this: What's something you can do in your life today that can give you some of those emotions you had in your childhood experience in nature? (name the emotions again)
This step can trip people up, and if the person says "let me get back to you" I offer to help them brainstorm if they wish for 10-15".
4) Chunk it down to a manageable commitment they'll make to themselves, and schedule it on the calendar
5) schedule a follow-up call to find out how it went, if it gave them the emotions they wanted to feel again, and to support them in carrying through on it.
The most important thing is the emotions, not the size of the commitment. If the person has a "win" the first time then they'll want to do more, and from tiny first steps can come bigger and bigger ones.
The Spodek Method Quick-Start Guide
(original method by Josh Spodek)
The Four Steps:
0. Break the ice: “Is the environment something important to you, enough to act on it?”
1. What does the environment mean to you?
2. I invite you to think of something you can do to act on that meaning.
3. Make it a SMART goal
4. Schedule second conversation
Steps 1 and 2 are leadership: evoke intrinsic emotions and motivation, then help them come up
with a way to act on them. They’ll feel inspired.hh
Steps 3 and 4 are management that help them do the commitment.
More Detail
Step 1
Sub-steps of this step
• Evoke quintessential moment. I like to start with “Different people think of the
environment differently, depending on where they grew up, for example. Can you think of
a quintessential moment of yourself in the environment?”
◦ I find the younger they are, the more meaningful.
• “Can you describe what you see, taste, smell, touch, hear? What’s your sensory
experience?”
• “Can you name the emotions you feel?”
This step is done when they’ve named some emotions that sound genuine and meaningful.
Step 2
• Build on the emotions from the last step: I usually say “Based on the emotions you felt in
nature, I invite you to think of something you can do to act on them in your regular life.
• Make sure to say “I’m not saying something that almost everyone hears, which is to do
something to fix problems. This is for you to act on what you value” before they respond.
If they say “But individual action doesn’t matter,” it’s hard to get out of that mindset.
• Three constraints: Something
a. New, that they aren’t already doing
b. They do themselves, with their own hands, not for someone else to do
c. A physical component. They don’t have to measure, but it should feel they left the
world better than they found it.
• Tell them it can take five or ten minutes to come up with something
• Don’t let them get away with “I’ll get back to you on it.”
Steps 3 and 4
It’s easier to avoid, say, meat for dinner five days a week for a month than “to eat less meat.”
The second conversation adds accountability. When people are effectively led, accountability adds motivation. Plus you communicate that you want to hear their results.