My parents never sought my approval as a child.  That was not part of their generation’s mission statement.  Nor did they seek my opinion. That I might have some input on what we were going to eat or when was not a consideration let alone my thoughts on the selection of a family car.  My friends and I never had any expectation that our parents sought our approval in their decisions.  That things are different today is obvious, although not inherently good or bad.

Excesses which result from elevated attitudes of entitlement are all around us.  There are also significant positive behavioral changes which emanate from the parental quest for approval.  The emotional hook of an 8 year old girl crawling into her father’s lap and saying “Daddy, I don’t want you to die” has had a broader and deeper impact on smoking than even the American Lung Association could have ever hoped.  Second graders have assumed the role of family recycling czars and energy efficiency auditors.  Last year I purchased a couple of cases of Compact Fluorescent Light Bulbs (CFLs) to distribute to my co-workers.  Angie, my assistant, said her daughter had been bugging her for weeks to change the lights in their house to CFLs.  Another approval problem solved.

How can we ramp-up constructive opportunities to build upon this approval seeking phenomenon?  Are there viable strategies appropriate for business to embrace?  At the CleanTECH San Diego Showcase this week (see post below) the wide-ranging discussion on Smart Grid included some comments by the presenters about their children.  Lee Krevat of SDG&E described telling his 13 year old that perhaps the all electric Nissan Leaf would be a good choice for the family.  After doing her internet research his daughter expressed her approval and pasted a picture of the electric vehicle on her Facebook page for dozens of her girlfriends to see.  The viral and emotional impact of this kind of involvement is of real consequence, a fact which is not lost on Nissan’s marketing team. 

During the discussion Paul Wilbur, CEO of Aptera, described pre-teens as being technological dare devils.  The presence in the family of these fearless early adapters is a real asset in the transformation of the home from a “dumb” energy user to an “intelligent” home energy system. 

Children, even pre-teens, can be powerful agents for positive change.  They embrace the belief that technology contributes to the protection of their environment.  I think there is much to be gained by society and individual businesses by elevating the role of young people and acknowledging their responsibility in their own future.  These preteen-technorati communicate via social networks which are self-learning systems.   Working within their preferred method of communication and learning, the message to the kids should be:

1. A safe and healthy environment is dependent upon a broad application of technology which must be understood by you, your family and friends.
2.  You and your friends are capable of understanding the technology and in explaining it to your families and other friends.
3. This is your role.  Your contribution is real and absolutely necessary.

This is not a teacher-to-student information system.  It is kid-to-kid.  It could be as specific as understanding how SDG&E smart meters will work for their homes or how EcoDog’s home energy management system operates.  These companies already know that if their systems are to be understood, the message must be clear to a 5th grader.  Broader topics such as examining Google maps to locate solar rooftops in their neighborhoods are topics which tech savvy kids can take to their families and friends.  It is hard to imagine any household which will not benefit by the input of this type of information at some time over the next few years. 

Creative efforts are needed to position the clean technology knowledge base directly in the path of social networks used by young people.  It is at this point of the discussion that I need your help.  I understand that social gaming company Zynga is the largest developer on Facebook’s platform.  What lessons learned can be gleaned from social gaming?  Or SimCity?  How do you think this might play out?  Can this be done in a way which is not inappropriately manipulative?

We all know that kids are the ones who learn (and remember) how to program the TV remote.  Let’s seek their approval by elevating and acknowledging their roles as our in-house clean technologists.

Tags: Aptera, EcoDog, San Diego Gas & Electric

This entry was posted on Sunday, November 15th, 2009 at 12:10 pm and is filed under CleanTECH San Diego, Smart Grid . You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.