How To Change the World – Lessons from Greenpeace
If you ever wanted to know how Greenpeace got started and operate watch this candid documentary.
If you want to find out how a few people can achieve so much, and reveal some of their their methods, you need to watch the film a few times.
The movie makers interview several of the Founding Fathers, including Patrick Moore and Paul Watson, and draw on the writings of the late Bob Hunter. The story is revealing, at times heart felt and painful, but always interesting.
Models of Success for Campaigners
I find it useful to look at the models used by the best and how they get their results. This movie is a reference source for all serious campaigners.
Greenpeace is a very effective campaigning organisation. This film helps explain, in part, why they are so effective. The film also shows the challenges for a NGO growing very quickly, and how painful that growth can be.
When Greenpeace call a company that company realises it has a problem. The film may be worth while watching for any company coming under attack from Greenpeace. They’ll understand why often Greenpeace knows that company’s supply chain better than the company does.
How it all started back in 1971
Greenpeace owes itself to a rag bag group of activists who set sail in an old fishing boat in 1971 from Canada with the aim of stopping of stopping American nuclear bomb tests in Amchitka, Alaska, USA.
They had a simple aim of the Greenpeace vessel heading into the bomb site. They failed. The bomb was tested and they were not near-by when it happened.
Greenpeace found out that defeat led to them becoming more popular.
Rule One: Plant a Mind Bomb
The film details the thought structure behind Greenpeace’s campaigns.
To paraphrase the film:
“If you want to do a protest you have to make a story that will travel well. An event that will impact millions of people in every corner of the world. From the very start The Founding Fathers talk about creating a Mind Bomb, and floating their message into the homes of masses. Its about putting on a good show as image is everything”.
They may have adjusted their methods over time, they have shifted from 8mm video to high resolution streaming, but the basic method is self evident in their work today.
Rule 2: Put Your Body Where Your Mouth Is
Bob Hunter, their de facto leader, realised it was easier to change the world with a camera much more easily and effectively than with a gun. This in itself was a powerful idea in the early 1970s.
To ensure this, it was clear from the start that the campaigners would put themselves in harms way. They choose to stick their bodies between the whales and the Russian whalers’ harpoons.
There is no accident that Greenpeace use powerful images that resonate with everyone. It is deliberate that these images connect viscerally with people, like a movie in their households.
The mind bomb exploded with one shot of whale being shot, and at this moment the modern environmental movement was launched.
Greenpeace have used their mind bombs continuously, and it has garnered public support continuously.
Rule 3: The Revolution Will Not Be Organised
The Berlin Wall fell and all the resources of the West’s intelligence services had no idea it was going to happen. Greenpeace grew by accident and by taking opportunities. There was nothing that stopped them in their battle against Russian whalers to collaborate with with the CIA in order to find where the Russian vessels where.
Today, many firms now respond to Greenpeace’s call at their door by collaborating with established NGOs, like WWF, to help the company sort out the problem. Some will work behind closed doors to resolve the problem with Greenpeace. Greenpeace have evolved into a sophisticated multi-national, best know for their campaigning, but furnished with a lot of expertise in their Amsterdam HQ and other offices.
Rule 4: Fear Success
Greenpeace would never be devised by McKinsey consultants, but I doubt McKinsey consultants could ever organise much of a successful political campaign.
As Greenpeace grew, and new offices sprang up, Greenpeace found that the growth nearly broke them. As one of the first people on the anti whaling boats mentioned “the need to have a person for sorting out organisational structure, and a person putting themselves in front of a whaler, are two different people”.
It’s is something that NGOs should take special notice of. Campaigners are one breed and organisation people are another. I have not met an ideal combination of both species, and I doubt that species has emerged from the evolutionary slime. A smart campaigning organisation will realise it and allow the campaigners to campaign, and allow the organisation person to operate in the background, and make sure the money is on call to finance the campaign. As soon as the organisation person takes over the organisation, you sense that the original and often noble objectives of a NGO are diluted and eventually culled.
Rule 5: Let the Power Go
In the early 1980s a small group of people could make an impact on the global environment and they did it without many resources. It was David v Goliath, and the hippies in speed boats and diving suits won against governments and multinationals. They won some and lost more. But, the later Bob Hunter, observed as he dealt with terminal cancer, the only way to judge them was by their actions.
And, for that, Greenpeace have transformed how campaigns have been fought and won, and keep on doing so.
The Rules Recap
Rule One: Plant a Mind Bomb
Rule 2: Put Your Body Where Your Mouth Is
Rule 3: The Revolution Will Not Be Organised
Rule 4: Fear Success
Rule 5: Let the Power Go
You can get the movie on amazon, watch it on Netflix, or find out more here.