Can Technology Save Us? with Prof Wayne Visser

And can we go back to the PhD? What were your conclusions? What is the big psychological drive to get involved in sustainability? I'll pretend I'm on the couch here.

Well, I suppose one of the insights was that we're not all the same.

So there are, I found two factors that are common that motivate us all.

The one is a kind of values driver.

So whether we link that to faith or not, all of us feel like this is consistent with something that we believe in.

And the second was this feeling of wanting to make a difference.

And besides that, what I found is that it really varied depending on the type of change agent that we are, maybe even the type of personality that we are.

And I ended up with four different types.

So an expert type, a facilitator, a catalyst and an activist.

And they all get satisfaction from different things.

And I think that's important to know that as change agents in this space, we're not all the same and we should try to find our natural roles where we can be most effective.

Yeah.

And do you, this is a loaded question, do you find any of those four archetypes more successful in delivering change

than the others? No, the point is that we need all of them.

But what I have found consistently is that particularly in large companies, the activists really struggle to survive because they're the ones that ask difficult questions.

They're the ones that rock the boat.

And actually, large organizations don't like that kind of individual.

And so they make it very uncomfortable for them.

And so they tend to end up... either in consultancy or maybe in academia or in community organizations.

But to succeed, actually, we need all four.

And we should be looking for a kind of balance in any team that we have that's trying to make change happen.

Yeah, but I can see characteristics of myself in all four of those.

So I'd probably have to take some form of test to work out which

one I

lean towards

And can we go back to the PhD? What were your conclusions? What is the big psychological drive to get involved in sustainability? I'll pretend I'm on the couch here.

Well, I suppose one of the insights was that we're not all the same.

So there are, I found two factors that are common that motivate us all.

The one is a kind of values driver.

So whether we link that to faith or not, all of us feel like this is consistent with something that we believe in.

And the second was this feeling of wanting to make a difference.

And besides that, what I found is that it really varied depending on the type of change agent that we are, maybe even the type of personality that we are.

And I ended up with four different types.

So an expert type, a facilitator, a catalyst and an activist.

And they all get satisfaction from different things.

And I think that's important to know that as change agents in this space, we're not all the same and we should try to find our natural roles where we can be most effective.

Yeah.

And do you, this is a loaded question, do you find any of those four archetypes more successful in delivering change

than the others? No, the point is that we need all of them.

But what I have found consistently is that particularly in large companies, the activists really struggle to survive because they're the ones that ask difficult questions.

They're the ones that rock the boat.

And actually, large organizations don't like that kind of individual.

And so they make it very uncomfortable for them.

And so they tend to end up... either in consultancy or maybe in academia or in community organizations.

But to succeed, actually, we need all four.

And we should be looking for a kind of balance in any team that we have that's trying to make change happen.

Yeah, but I can see characteristics of myself in all four of those.

So I'd probably have to take some form of test to work out which

one I

lean towards