If you watched Barack Obama’s State of the Union speech on Tuesday night, you’re certain to know that we are in the process of building an America that is ‘Built To Last’.  President Obama said time and again that he will not back down, we will not turn back—that we’ve come too far to slip backwards.

Those of us who care about society and the environment should take a similar tone.  There is no factor that bonds people more than a common goal, a unifying aspiration.

Granted, “saving the world” is an emotional rallying cry that can appeal to many, but it’s not a practical objective that we can work towards together.   There are too many ways to try that we need a more specific common mission to collectively get behind.

Choices:  The Ultimate Culprit
Governments, NGOs and Businesses often focus on unique solutions to the myriad of problems that exist in our world.  Here at Rising Pyramid we love to celebrate social businesses & innovations that are making a difference at the bottom of the economic pyramid.  These efforts are essential and non-negotiable, but at the same time they are marginal.

Ultimately we cannot rely on institutions to make decisions & improvements for us.  There are 7 billion people in this world and a far fewer # of organizations.  We’re facing a crisis of personal motivation more than anything.

In a white paper about Conscious Consumers, BBMG segmented consumers based on how EcoSocial their decisions were.  Unsurprisingly, only 10% of consumers were considered ‘Enlightened’, whereas 70% were considered either ‘Practical’ or ‘Indifferent’.  What’s worse: a full 40% fell into the Indifferent category.

If 40% of the population just doesn’t care, are we really on our way to something that is Built To Last?

Behavior Change is in the Air: What’s the Formula?
Our featured post at the moment is about the biggest challenge we face as a society right now.  Behavior change is becoming a common theme here at Rising Pyramid; without it, the pyramid cannot rise.

But how do we tackle this challenge? What’s the standard approach?

We believe that there are three primary components that Social Entrepreneurs can build on to drive choice shifts:

1. Awareness:  Consumers are currently bombarded with green & healthy claims, CSR reports and unfounded statements.  We need a centralized trusted source of EcoSocial information
2. Incentives:  Consumers are motivated by solutions that make economic sense.  It’s no surprise that energy efficient devices have made the biggest splash because they save people money later on.  Consumers who change their behavior should receive an economic reward to reinforce their decision.
   
3. Recognition: As the Wall Street Journal lays out quite clearly in this article, peer-recognition, whether it is explicit or implicit is very encouraging.  The psychology of groups demonstrates that rapid behavior change is made possible and reinforced by peer motivation.

The AIR formula is not perfect—there very well may be other components that exist—but, it is critical to achieve a balance between each of these components in order to achieve Behavior Change.  One way or another a shift in our choice distribution is needed.

‘Let’s save the world’ is not a practical rallying cry; ‘let’s change behavior, one person at a time’, is.

Behavior change—now that is built to last.

-          Bryan