“All behaviour is an attempt to meet an unmet emotional need." -- Source Nine

This week's behavior change rabbit hole started with a simple LinkedIn article: "THE OAT LATTE PARADOX (or Why well-off Brits Who Think Collapse Is Coming Still Stay Silent)". Huge congrats for emotionally reeling me in. But even more for leading me to this report by Source Nine: How to inspire mainstream climate action?

The biggest gift it gave me was a fantastic way to view the audience for Earth Archetypes: "The Early Majority" or "Established Liberals." A group of oat latte sipping folk who once harnessed has 50% the population doing climate action.

According to work Source Nine did with focus groups, Established Liberals are genuine in their desire to do what they can to mitigate climate change. However, contradictions appear and there is a reluctance to speak openly about their fears. AKA The Survival Paradox.

An existential fear about the future.

An existential fear of other people's opinions.

In other words, we're terrified of both by the scary neighbor is gonna win most of the time over an unknown future that our brains don't even really register as us -- but as a stranger.

Yep, good ol' fashioned peer pressure is stronger than climate collapse.

So what can be done?

Source Nine suggested 3 powerful drivers and how to shift them from an unmet need to a desired state.

They just so happen to line up with the 3 Step Reciprocity Cycle and mirror last week's discussion about the Theory of Planned Behavior.

Acknowledge Earth Is Our Home

Discover Your Earth Archetype

Work Together in Community

The Last Page

All 47 beautifully designed pages of this report gave me a-has! And Early Majority will now be in my audience avatar language for a long time to come. But the final point mirrors the shift happening inside Earth Archetypes.

➔ Alongside this shift is a need to not tell the audience what to do via a specific call to action.

➔ Instead, offer an invitation for Established Liberals to join with others in determining shared responses that they are drawn to.

A shift from the hero's journey to bringing in Marie Kondo for a makeover and the gentle prompt to ask "What brings me joy?"