let’s make change work
Action for sustainability:
Make a difference
You are frustrated, how slowly change for a sustainable economy is happening?
We got you! With an unbeatable combination of sustainability solutions and behavioural science.
Do these psychological pit-falls ring a bell?
You are a competent sustainability professional with good credentials. You bring high-level services to the table, change is urgent and your client, team or boss trusts you. And yet, change does not happen.
Are you still searching for the reasons? If one or more of the following narratives sound familiar, you might be dealing with more than practical implementation issues and our course is the perfect fit for you!
Dodging sustainability
Everybody agrees that sustainability is – of course – very important. But there are so many other things that are more urgent. Supply chain issues, digitalisation, etc, so sustainability moves down the priority list.
A psychological bias you might be dealing with here is the ‘path of least resistance’.
Avoiding the real issues
Everybody agrees that sustainability should be addressed. Then, decisions are made about buying recycling paper or flipping 10% of the fleet to electric cars. And often, this is where actions end.
In that case, amongst others, you might be challenged by the ‘single action bias’.
Escaping change
Everybody agrees that true sustainability needs to be lead from the top, integrated in all processes and comes with huge change. They actually hire you for that, yet any serious proposal gets blocked.
The ‘status quo bias’ is definitely one of the barriers you are facing in this situation.
Overcome resistance by understanding human nature.
MAKECHANGEWORK is all about understanding the psychological biases and macro-economic effects which hinder sustainable change. In our course you will learn using tools and strategies to overcome those reasons in order to make change work.
quicker and stronger results
happier clients
a bigger role in the green transformation
Why is change not happening?
We must limit global warming to below 2 degrees Celsius. New innovations are needed, but we already have many solutions ready to be implemented. And yet, implementation is stuck, as organizations lack in turning decisions into real actions. When it comes to change for sustainability, we are even more hamstrung. Stymied by our very own psyche.
To address this, we focus on treating the climate crisis as a human behavioral crisis. This is why we teach companies and consultants how to overcome psychological barriers, present convincing arguments, and transform ideas into actionable plans.
Safe your seat for our Masterclass starting in February 2025!
Four Workshop-Sessions from 8.30 – 13 o’clock (CET) each: 10.02., 12.02., 17.02., 19.02.2025
Enroll or apply for a scholarschip now!
For whom is MAKECHANGEWORK
Consultants & Coaches
You consult and coach clients as an external, but struggle implementing sustainability?
Understand the barriers of your clients and learn how to help them transform decisions into actions for real change.
Sustainability Managers
You are leading the sustainable change in your organization, but you are facing a lot of headwind?
Learn more about the barriers of teams, employees and leaders and how to overcome those for a successful change.
Marketing Specialists
You struggle promoting your sustainable products or projects and do not know why?
Our insights help you to comprehend the psychological and cultural barriers in promoting sustainability.
Why we do not act.
Get to known the psychological barriers which often hinder sustainable change.
Fifty shades of refusal.
Dive deep and become an expert on the psychological biases and mechanisms.
Understanding the big picture.
Zoom out and understand how these mechanism work in the various contexts.
Connecting the dots.
Put the learnings and tools into practice and develop strategies for real world cases.
our approach
The 4 Steps in understanding how to MAKECHANGEWORK.
Understanding the reasons why sustainable change seems so hard, allows us to develop tools and strategies to overcome those barriers and start making real impact.
In our four-part masterclass, we will guide you through learning all relevant aspects of psychological mechanisms and macro-economic effects which hinder sustainable change and help you apply those learnings in practice.
We are offering a 10% Early-Bird Discount as well as special scholarships. You can find more information here:
who we are
Two professional minds, combining psychology and sustainability for change!
We are Laura Sommer from LKSommer and Susanne Volz from ecocircle concept and we are driven to make sustainable transformation work.
Laura holds a PhD in Psychology and focuses on Behavioural Science for Sustainability. Susanne is a Sustainability and Circular Economy expert with experience of more than 15 years.
We developed these workshops and merge sustainability solutions and behavioural science in order to give it a push.
How our clients experienced MAKECHANGEWORK
The “human factor” is as important as technical solutions for sustainability professionals who wish to implement change within an organisation. I knew some basics based on my experience and I enjoyed discovering many psychological barriers and how to overcome /hack them with science theory and group exercises.
As a sustainability practitioner, I’ve found the workshop beyond than insightful. It is a practical way to build a toolset of new science-based skills that anyone in this field would be benefited from. The dynamic way of moderation and interaction with other participants also helped me to strength my network and be connected with highly motivated professionals.
Thanks to the ‘Make Change Work’ series, I was able to overcome resistance to change in some of my projects. It is innovative, interdisciplinary and hands-on. Susanne and Laura are knowledgeable, experienced, and entertaining practitioners and trainers. I also enjoyed the exchange with many peers about our challenges and ideas during the series – overall a great opportunity to unlock future impact.
what makes us different
Sustainability meets Behavioural Science
Implementing sustainability can be a complex issue. There are very practical barriers to sustainable practices.
As you are here, you provide sustainability services that address such practical application issues.
Yet, you feel that sometimes there is something else preventing change from happening. That it might not be about better reasoning, agile processes, or logical and tangible results. That there is another step missing from making real change work …
We are also well experienced sustainability consultants. We hit the pavement like you do. We know about the complexity of implementing sustainability and how you sometimes – if change does not happen – feel like you just have to do a better job!
But we also learned to stop hitting psychological barriers over the head with sustainability tools. Doing a better LCA will not convince the CEO to apply circular business models. There are other framings that might.
This knowledge is what makes us different. This knowledge is what we are going to share with you.
Make sustainability a priority
Your clients have so many urgent issues to attent to. Sustainability seems to be just one of them. As a result, it keeps moving down the priority list. Often, avoiding the topic is just a coping mechanism. Make it a priority again!
Let´ s work on the right issues
It is nothing wrong with changing the easy-to-change-things first. But we shouldn´t stop there. Help your clients to keep working on the right – not just the easy – issues.
Help everybody to embrace change
When important or too many things change all at once, our defense walls go up. And suddenly, we have nowhere to retreat to. So, change can be scary. Help your clients go through difficulties of change.
MAKECHANGEWORK
Our Masterclass in February 2025
Being long time sustainability professionals ourselves, we know your struggles and we know your needs – and those of your clients. Therefore, we created content that will make your sustainability efforts more effective. Also, we provide everything in the most accessible way possible.
Developed by sustainability professionals
Tailored to your needs
100% online
Official training certificate
Practical and pragmatic
Co-created with our clients
Still curious why we do not act? We got a little spoiler for you…
It is so hard to imagine how we, as a society, do not want to do the reasonable things and as quickly as possible. It is fair to not agree on some details and debate them. But in general … ?
From a cognitive point of view, however, it makes sense. Watch this video to discover one of the main reasons why we don´t (for real) engage in climate action.
Frequently asked questions
Whom is this training designed for? Is it for me?
We designed this training for people who provide sustainability services for companies or inside companies and who perceive kinds of psychological barriers against the implementation of changes. For us, sustainability consultants and sustainability managers come to mind here. However, if you are not a consultant or a sustainability manager and the content speaks to you, please visit the workshop anyway. Also, let us know about you. We like to broaden the scope.
As the year 2024 proceeds, we will also expand our offer for companies directly. As inter-company dynamics are different from consultant-company dynamics, we need some time for exploration and solution development first. If you are interested already, throw us a message and we put you on the co-creation or waiting list.
Do you provide workshops and services also for companies?
We are working on that and will be offer something in the second part of 2024. We will provide custom made services for individual companies.
Will you also include content on sustainability services?
Not particularly. Meaning, we will not TEACH sustainability. We trust you to be a knowledgeable sustainability professional. However, as we both are sustainability specialists and in order to show processes step by step, our samples of course are deeply rooted in our sustainability experience and we will of course share our sustainability knowledge between all of us.
For example, how to narrate climate knowledge for a meeting in a way that appreciates and overcomes cognitive barriers.
I can not make the offered date(s). Do you provide other workshop dates?
Yes, we plan to host the workshop session two or three times a year. At the current state of planning, we believe that one workshop session will contain four workshops that build on each other (see our current workshop offer).