MISSION: To get my fellow ENTR students to incorporate SDG #2 into their future business(es) or organization(s).

Inspiration

“If you can’t feed a hundred people, then just feed one” (Chitwood, 2013).

MOTHER TERESA

“There’s enough on this planet for everyone’s needs but not for everyone’s greed” (Chitwood, 2013).

Mohandas Gandhi

The video is very informative and inspired me to be more aware of my food waste.

Guiding Statement

Persuasion, influence, and engagement are actively trying to bring someone on board with whatever you are trying to convey. Persuasion, influence, and engagement are definitely not topics to be overlooked or underestimated because they are more powerful and prevalent than ever.

Summary

I have prepared a personalized and well-thought-out legacy that is designed for KPUs ENTR students. The topic that I believe needs addressing is best summarized as a worldwide crisis continuing to affect millions, and only getting worse as the years go on. This topic is also a huge problem right in our own backyard. This topic is SDG #2 – Zero Hunger and is integrated throughout as I have provided a concept and an example using the SDG per topic.

More simply put, my goal for this creation is to persuade, influence, and engage ENTR students to show interest in a global crisis that is only getting worse by eventually incorporating it into their future businesses or organizations.

Purpose

My work is designed to illustrate to:

• Persuade my fellow ENTR students to change their attitudes and start caring more about SDG #2.
• Influence my fellow ENTR students using external and internal factors to want to make a change towards a community beyond hunger.
• Engage my fellow ENTR students to get involved with local food banks, and as an end goal have them incorporate it into their business/organization.

What does success look like to me? Based on my research, analysis, and application of concepts related to persuasion, influence, and engagement, I see success in the following way:

1. Persuade, influence, and engage at least one ENTR student to make a change for SDG #2.
2. A world where the SDGs are a thing of the past because the world came together as one. Meaning each and every single goal has been achieved.
3. Leave a good enough legacy to allow others to learn from and hopefully inspire in any possible way.

Methodology

I created this work by first examining all the readings from each module and picking concepts I felt most comfortable with such as the central route to persuasion, motivation, and the engagement ladder theory. I then layered in aspects of SDG #2 – Zero Hunger in order to bring more understanding and attention towards the goal to get ENTR students to incorporate it into their future business. Peer review played an important part in my work because it helped me identify where I needed to improve and how to use the concept with examples.

Tools & Media

I created this work in WordPress, which is like an e-portfolio that lets you use a wide variety of different options so you can personalize it. I have also integrated different tools and media such as writing, images, and videos. I encourage fellow students, educators, and users to engage with my work by reading it, participating in the different tools I used, and taking the steps toward change.

Sharing my work

My intention is to make my work widely available and open by licensing it CC-BY-NC-SA and it will reside here https://wordpress.kpu.ca/keara/ on my WordPress site for the future ENTR learners.

My Legacy

My experience in creating this project has been stressful, wonderful, and rewarding.

At first, upon embarking on this journey I felt overwhelmed and stuck on what to create and was concerned about not leaving a good enough legacy for my viewers, yet excited about getting to showcase my hard work and effort. Along the way, I learned things I didn’t know before, such as how important and crucial persuasion, influence, and engagement are and all the different ways you can use them. As I bring this project to a close, I hope future students will find this helpful, but most importantly persuade, influence, and engage them to put their powerful minds to work to create something even better and make a change.

Persuasion Applications

Did you know that:

• Currently, 690 million people suffer from hunger, and it is expected to increase to more than 840 million by 2030,
• 135 million people suffer from acute hungry, while 381 million are undernourished, and 750 million were exposed to some type of severe food insecurity,
• 2 billion people don’t even have access to safe and nutritious food
• Stunting affected 144 million children under the age of 5 and that a quarter of a billion people are at the brink of starvation (“Goal 2: Zero Hunger”, 2021).
• A good start to making a difference is to support local farmers or markets, make sustainable food choices, support good nutrition for all, and fight food waste (“Zero Hunger: Why it matters”, 2021).
• Another good way to help out your community is by donating and/or volunteering at your local food banks. A good one to check out is The Surrey Food Bank Society.
• A world beyond hunger is a key piece of building a better future for all. In fact, this SDG impacts the improvement of a few other ones such as education, health and well-being, and gender equality (“Zero Hunger: Why it matters”, 2021).

Wouldn’t it be heartwarming and an amazing accomplishment to go from these sad images above to the happy image and video below and all it took was to work together?

Hunger doesn’t discriminate, as it is present all around the world. Sometimes it’s obvious and other times it’s not. But just because you can’t see it doesn’t make it any less important. Food is an essential every person in this world should have access to. In fact, the world we live in produces enough food to feed everyone (“Zero Hunger | World Food Programme”, 2021), we just have too much greed and unequal access. How crazy is that? Zero Hunger could be diminished if we could just figure out how to share. To my ENTR students, let’s be the change the world needs.

Persuasion is a way to actively convince or sway others to change their mind about whatever topic you are conveying, by using certain tactics. The tactic I used is called the central route to persuasion, a function of the Elaboration Likelihood Model which uses data and facts to show the worthiness of an argument (Niosi, 2021).

The central route to persuasion is a strong persuasion tactic that when used correctly can lead to long-lasting attitude change(s) (Niosi, 2021). Furthermore, this tactic is one of the more powerful ways to persuade others because oftentimes it’s more convincing and trustworthy when you have proven data and facts as it clicks better in people’s heads. I know for me being in the business world, you can tell me all you want that you are “achieving” your targets but for me to believe this, I need to see the proof.

Influencing Applications

My mission for the end of this is to encourage all of you (ENTR students) to incorporate Zero Hunger into your future business or organization. This could be by actually partnering with this goal or having your employees volunteer/donate to Food Banks. Basically, having activities or programs for zero hunger within your business.

This goal would be such a huge accomplishment to achieve. Especially considering it is currently on the rise and the key element to solving other SDGs. Not only this but imagine how good you would feel as a person to even make the slightest of change or difference. Remember the saying “sometimes the littlest things can mean the most”.

Although we have the resources to achieve a world beyond hunger it won’t be a ‘”snap of the fingers” to be completed. It won’t be easy or immediate, and new challenges will come up, but that’s why it’s important to have strong people who strive when challenges arise. Almost like us, the ENTR students. through the challenge, the journey may also be fun and teachable.

Beyond feeling good as a person and making a difference, incorporating a worldwide issue into your business/organization is such a good look for your reputation. You get more recognition from other companies and attract new customers. Existing customers also become loyal because they see your business doing good and want to support that. I also know that people who donate to non-profits or other organizations like that get to write it off on their taxes (tax breaks) and as far as I know, your business/organization will as well. Lastly, just think if your business was a part of achieving zero hunger in the world, there’s a good chance you may receive an award.

Influence is to use certain factors such as internal and external factors, goals, and motives to help guide someone towards an outcome. My example uses motivation as an influence. “Motivation stems from two places: Intrinsic and Extrinsic” (Fishbach, A. & Touré-Tillery, M., 2021). Intrinsic motivation is doing something for yourself – like picking up the garbage off the ground. Whereas extrinsic is doing something because you get something else out of it – like your mom said I’ll give you $5 if you pick up that garbage from the ground. They both encourage you to do the same thing but essentially one is sometimes more powerful than the other.

The good thing about using motivation as an influence is that it is something every person in life possesses, and that’s why it is such a forceful factor that should be used as an advantage for people and businesses.

Also, to add, as business people potentially wanting to open or run a business, we will need to find different ways to motivate your employees. Not one way will work for every person, so adaptability is important and that’s why the two routes of motivation are helpful.

Engagement Applications

Engagement revolves around involvement: how do you get/keep those around you interested in whatever you are conveying or how do you get/keep involved. For example, when you go shopping most stores ask for your email and once, they have your email they constantly send different emails to keep you engaged in their business/organization.

As people, when we are interested in a business or organization we tend to research and follow along with that company for a period of time. Then we gradually get more involved in that company (if you like them). I have experienced this lately with the BC SPCA. I started out by casually checking the BC SPCAs website and Instagram accounts once in a while, to then following them and seeing their daily posts. I then subscribed to their email list and further went on to donate to their lottery where the proceeds help support animals in need. Although there are still more rungs to be climbed in the ladder, I have slowly made my way up.

The Engagement Ladder Theory “suggests that people are likely to become supporters of your organization by taking easy actions, but can be consciously led up the ladder to take harder and harder actions” (Niosi, 2021).

I will make this as easy as possible for you. First, all you need to do is just get familiar with SDG #2. Watch some short videos, visit the United Nations website, and look into local food banks, possibly even subscribing to email lists. Do this on your own time. Then the next step may be to start looking at the different events being hosted in the community and stop by to show support. Next, donate some food or money once a year – like at Christmas, and then gradually increase it to twice and year and so on. I also understand that being a student often time comes with debt and not a lot of extra money, so only make the step when you are ready. Then subscribe to automatic monthly donations (this could be like $2 a month), slowly making your way up becoming a volunteer. Then the very top of the ladder being incorporating Zero Hunger into your future business or organization.

A visual to ease your mind:

Start at the bottom and work your way up (just like a ladder).

This H5P demonstrates the concept ‘The Engagement Ladder Theory’ in action based on my example. In this tool, I picked specific names per every step, which highlights each audience segment.

I know for us university students, it is hard to find the time and effort to do anything other than homework, work, and keeping somewhat of a social life. That’s why it’s okay to gradually climb up the ladder at your own pace. Always remember, take one step at a time. Even the smallest change makes a difference.

By Keara Campbell, Kwantlen Polytechnic University (2021).