How do you know unless you look?

Friends we have been talking about Operation TLC for some time now.  Talking is good. But action is even better. In fact I would trade you all my talkin’ trash for your one action.  That friends is a great trade. Why? Because attitude does not predict behaviour – but behaviour nudges attitude.  For argument sake let’s all assume you do not like squid ink pasta (which is basically pasta tinted black). Did you ever take that leap into a plate because someone you trust simply said “try it, you will like it”?  There was no way that your attitude about said new food would have ever let your hand, mouth and brain combine to let this new opportunity in. But a recommendation from close by nudged your behaviour to try it.  And what do you know? Now squid ink pasta is your favourite, you eat it all the time and you also happen to like it.

99% of UHN staff care about the environment and energy conservation….SO WHAT? Their attitudes tell us exactly nothing about their behaviour.  To see behaviour change in action we have to look for it.  In January I connected face-to-face with about 30 UHN staff who are making energy conservation easy for their colleagues. Why did we have to meet? So that we could learn what signals we need to look for to show behaviour change is happening.  We did a quick scan of our work areas to see exactly where lights are being left on in vacant rooms, what areas have too much light for the task and which areas have no control over lighting at all.  All things we need to know how to look for to be able to provide personalized feedback to each other as we move toward our goal of all excess lights off.  

So “try it, you will like it”  – Take the time (5 minutes) to complete your scans in your work area and report back to your co-workers what you see.  Are you ready to open up your eyes and really see the excess? It is there no matter how many UHN staff report they care about energy conservation.  If you can do that, then one day I will be very happy to report that 99% of UHN staff are turning off all excess lighting and they happen to care about the environment too.