Creative solutions come when we are forced outside our comfort zones. The trick is to learn to force ourselves, writes John Elkington.

You know the feeling. The elevator doors are closing behind you and suddenly you are alone with someone you have long wanted to meet and influence. How to connect? I have often been encouraged to develop a 20-second elevator pitch to describe what I do, but have always refused. My counter-argument is that, if busy people insist on getting all their knowledge in 20-second sound-bites, they are unlikely to be open to the sort of deep conversations that the sustainability agenda requires.