The snowball effect

If you have a clear direction, sometimes all it takes is a short, clumsy, imperfect first step and everything starts to roll.

By Lucila Suarez Battan
Chief Experience Officer
lu@talk2u.org

👉 Español

Ten years ago, while leading Ideame, I was introduced to the Triple Bottom Line concept proposed in 1994 by John Elkington. Basically, I understood that a company should not only be run to make money, but also to improve people’s lives and the environment. And, therefore, the TBL should not only measure economic variables but also social and environmental impact variables, because otherwise I was not really understanding the real cost of having a business.

With a board of successful serial entrepreneurs, we had a solid financial and legal structure, and being a crowdfunding platform, measuring and making visible the impact on society and people was relatively easy and, in many cases, directly explicit. However, it was at that time that I realized that I had no idea about the magnitude of what the concept of sustainability encompassed and what could be done to be more sustainable.

Obviously I had heard ideas about the responsible use of paper, electricity and water, but that was only the tip of the iceberg. It was at the end of 2013 that Fede Nahon proposed me to co-found a social enterprise that sought to contribute a grain of sand to live in a fairer and healthier world, by helping people learn to separate waste and to demand that companies develop more sustainable products, so that together we could be part of the solution.

One of my biggest responsibilities was to write in our blog, in a clear and simple way, to invite more people to join us. But how could I write about things I didn’t know and hadn’t experienced firsthand? It was not possible. First I had to change, and then encourage others to do so.

But in any start up “time is money” so how could I incorporate a new habit in record time? It was then, while doing some search, that I had my first effective approach with a behavior change technique: Tiny Habits.

Tiny Habits is a method designed by BJ Fogg, a Stanford professor who has been studying human behavior for 20 years and teaches how to design programs and projects aimed at changing people’s behavior. According to this renowned scientist, there are only 3 things that can generate a behavioral change in people:

• Having an epiphany
• Change of environment
• Taking small steps

The first one is difficult to create unless you do magic, but the other two are practical and can be developed at will. Basically his methodology focuses on the insight that to generate a habit it is important to focus on the automation of that action, because that is what makes it lasting over time.

To do so, consider designing an ABC:

• “Anchor moment”: choose an anchor moment which should be an activity you do on a daily basis to which you can attach the new behavior. That’s why it needs to be specific and reliable, basically what you do every day without exception. For example, if you say “…after drinking my coffee”, it is something that is uncertain because you can drink it and not finish it, or if it is a cup of coffee that you have on your desk and you can get distracted doing something and never get around to “drinking it”. However, “After pouring myself a cup of coffee” is a very specific and easy to discern moment.
• “Tiny Behavior”: would be the behavior you want to incorporate reduced to its smallest expression. Why? Because the smaller it is, the easier it is to do. It’s the initial kick, what gets the ball rolling. For example, if the end goal is to read a book, then the small behavior could be to read one page of a book, a paragraph, or even for those who have the hardest time incorporating new habits, it could be something along the lines of simply grabbing the book.
• “Celebration”: this last point is to come up with a way to celebrate having performed the desired behavior and feel satisfied. Conceptually, by relating it to a rewarding and positive memory, the achievement settles in and makes you want to continue doing it.

I had the theory, it was time to get started. The first behavior I wanted to incorporate was to recycle waste and, based on that, I thought that my anchor moment was, without a doubt, to throw away the garbage. My first obstacle was that I lived with my boyfriend in a studio apartment and incorporating a new garbage can was going to be difficult, but I couldn’t change my environment either.

But “When there’s a will, there’s a way”, so I searched a lot until I found a rectangular garbage can that had 2 divisions inside, it was perfect. It not only took up little space, but it also came in handy to link it with my anchor moment. Every time I pressed my foot to open it and “throw away trash” I would look at what I had in my hand and if it was recyclable instead of throwing it in the black bag, I would throw it in the green bag. Super easy.

Wrong! When I put it into practice, I had forgotten a small detail… there was waste that had to be washed to be separated, and that already implied the incorporation of two new habits. Then I started to falter and went back to square one. Something had to change in my design. I knew I could incorporate more habits, but I had to follow the Tiny Habits formula again because one of the premises is to review the results and make adjustments until you find the sequence that works for you.

So, I came up with the following plan:

• Habit #1 — Leave the waste behind

A: Finish a package/pot of food

B: Throw dirty waste in the sink

C: Smile

• Habit #2 — Washing recyclables

A: Wash dishes

B: Wash the day’s waste

C: Stretch a dish towel over the clean countertop and nod “Yes” (it gives me great joy to see the countertop clean…yes).

• Habit #3 — Put away recyclable waste

A: Put the dishes away

B: Put waste in green bag

C: Throwing basketball and celebrating with hands in the air

• Habit #4 — Throw away recyclables

A: Throw trash away

B: Throw trash in the green bag

C: Self kiss

Everything was in order and, just in the first week, the results were amazing. I managed to go from taking out the garbage every two days to only doing it once a week. In other words, of what I was throwing in the garbage and ending up in landfills, about 40% could be recycled and returned to the commercial circuit… crazy. I was wasting a lot of resources simply because I was lazy or uninformed.

That was motivation enough to keep going, and today, almost 8 years later, not only do we continue to do it at home with my husband, but I also convinced my sister, my mom and my dad at their homes. And, thanks to the fact that I shared the process and the impact on social networks, I feel that I was part of the change of several friends who also joined, simply by leading by example.

But the coolest thing is that this catalytic effect was not only for others, but also for myself. The feeling of happiness at seeing how I was reducing my impact motivated me to want to do more. In fact, I learned that recycling is really a last resort and that even waste that claims to be recyclable is often not. That’s why the most important thing is to learn to consume responsibly, reduce consumption, reuse resources and, ultimately, recycle what you couldn’t reduce or reuse.

Gradually, I started to choose local producers to reduce my carbon footprint, to reduce my meat consumption and replace it with other sources of protein and iron, and even to compost my organic waste. I also reduced my use of plastic by using cloth bags, buying in bulk and minimizing the use of plastic bags by putting many fruits and vegetables in the same bag at the supermarket. I bought stainless steel and glass tupperware and reusable silicone food storage covers, replaced the purchase of mineral water bottles with a water filter, bought returnable soda bottles, and bamboo brushes for composting. Hygiene-wise, I started using menstrual pads to get rid of the wipes (I haven’t yet decided to use the cup), I opted to use cloth diapers with my daughter and reusable breast pads. My daughter’s toys are mostly made of noble and durable materials such as wood, I recovered discarded objects in dump trucks to make other objects with assembly techniques and I separate small plastics from objects that I don’t know what to do with and I donate them to Elisa Insua, an incredible plastic artist who reuses these materials in her works.

And this list will continue to grow because this is a constant improvement process that never ends. I still have a long way to go improving my carbon footprint regarding the use of transportation, consumption of ultra-processed products in packages that end up in the trash by default, washing with luffa sponges, using solid shampoo… and I could go on because this is a marathon, not a 100 meter race.

Implementing small habits works and is a skill that develops with practice. But something that I think was key at the beginning of this journey was that Fede, who knows me very well, kept reminding me “The perfect is the enemy of the good”. Thanks to that, I learned that doing “imperfect” is better than doing nothing at all because starting allows you to evaluate, analyze and correct what doesn’t work. That is why today I can proudly say that I am an imperfect activist.

And if you haven’t started yet, remember that change only depends on you. Define your goal and just start small by celebrating your achievements. You will see that without realizing it, in a short time that first step will turn into a huge snowball full of achieved goals because the good things multiply and I assure you that it also fills you with happiness. :)