tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-49440570463484000192024-02-18T17:45:30.164-08:00ChangeMOMENTSObservations about making change happenLes Robinsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05638259315624082853noreply@blogger.comBlogger39125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4944057046348400019.post-12025869035601949872011-01-20T13:38:00.000-08:002011-01-20T13:38:29.248-08:00Les's blog has movedGo to http://enablingchange.posterous.com/<br />
<br />
See you there!Les Robinsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05638259315624082853noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4944057046348400019.post-21715867669762857262010-11-22T17:51:00.000-08:002010-11-22T17:51:07.627-08:00To increase the success rate you have to increase the failure rate<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I was at the Berry Charity Chook Auction on Sunday and found myself sitting in the shade next to a chook enthusiast from Woodhill Mountain named Julia. We were talking about the value of letting kids injure themselves in order to learn, and she suddenly said:</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">"To increase the success rate you have to increase the failure rate."</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I said: "Did you think of that yourself?"</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">She said: "Yes."</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I said: "Just then?"</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">She said: "Yes."</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I said: "Can I use it?"</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">She said: "Yes."</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">To increase the success rate you have to increase the failure rate. Something to carve on the heads of politicians and bureaucrats who are terrified of risk.</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Failure is good. It's how you learn. The only real failure is a failure to learn from experience.</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Which reminds me of my friend Geoff Brown's comment on a previous post which read: </span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #444444; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">L</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">ately I have been communicating the need for a mindset shift to tackling these complex problems. Like you say in this post, we need to be trying lots of different things and be aware that most of them will fail. Dave Snowden (Google Cognitive Edge) talks about a shift away from Fail-Safe strategies (where control of outcomes is assumed) to Safe-Fail strategies (where failure won't end in disaster, but we quickly learn from them). I like Clay Shirky's quote on this when he talks about the complexity of getting stuff to spread on the internet ... "We need to learn to try lots and lots of new things and fail informatively so that you and others can find a skull on a pikestaff somewhere".</span></span></span>Les Robinsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05638259315624082853noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4944057046348400019.post-88987376187562982202010-11-22T17:32:00.000-08:002010-11-22T17:57:23.054-08:00On kooks and kooky ideas<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"> </span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;"><span lang="EN-US">Without kooky ideas, workshops tend to rehash the conventional wisdom. Which, if you're trying to design change projects, is worse than useless. I believe that change projects absolutely depend on left-field ideas that shake up people's assumptions and stimulate creativity. </span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Times-Roman;"><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US">An example: brainstorming ideas for a backyard biodiversity program, one team member blurted out "garden party". Afterwards she admitted she wasn't being serious and didn't expect anyone to take her seriously, but her team got excited and garden parties became their central tactic.</span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Times-Roman;"><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US">Another: Some years ago Newcastle City Council was running public workshops to develop community progress indicators. One workshop was on the verge of agreeing that GDP was a suitable indicator, when the Greeny down the back said something like "I think we should all learn to be poor together". You can see the conventional thinkers in the room whacking their foreheads, thinking "Who let this guy in?" But it led to a discussion and the group recognised that disparity in wealth is a much better indicator of community wellbeing. Which, of course, it is.</span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Times-Roman;"><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US">But one thing I've noticed is how HAAARD it is for participants in planning sessions to liberate their inner kooks. It's like extracting teeth. "Pllleeeeeaase," I feel like saying, "Just give me just one wacky idea. You're safe here. No one will bite you..." On the other hand, a minority of people seem to be comfortable with their inner kook. They relish upsetting the status quo. So here's my thought: AIM TO HAVE AT LEAST ONE OPINIONATED ODD-BALL IN EVERY PLANNING SESSION. They may ruffle feathers, but that's the whole point. People need to have their assumptions challenged. </span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Times-Roman;"><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US">On this subject I was stimulated by a superb article in ODE magazine "In Praise of Dissent" by Canadian journalist Jeremy Mercer. He looks at the scholarly research on the power of dissenting opinions, and explains why dissenters make groups produce better results. <a href="http://www.odemagazine.com/doc/71/in-praise-of-dissent"><span style="color: #41007e;">http://www.odemagazine.com/doc/71/in-praise-of-dissent</span></a></span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Times-Roman;"><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US">A taste: <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 20.0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;"><span lang="EN-US">However it wasn’t until a landmark study conducted at the University of Virginia in the 1970s that dissent ceased being an ephemeral ideal and started becoming a tangible commodity that might be exploited. Researchers were analyzing the dynamics of jury deliberations, and after viewing hundreds of hours of videotape, they noticed a curious trend. When there was friction and fighting among jurors, the jury engaged in a better decision-making process than when it arrived smoothly at a unanimous verdict.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 20.0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 20.0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;"><span lang="EN-US">As a rule, the dissent resulted in more information heard at the trial being taken into consideration and a greater variety of perspectives voiced by jurors. There was, however, one small problem. The person who instigated this discord, the principle dissenter, tended to be ridiculed and ostracized by other jurors. The abuse was so blatant that when mock juries were held, the student assigned to play the dissenter actually requested “combat pay” because the role was so harrowing.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 20.0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 20.0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;"><span lang="EN-US">“Dissent makes the group as a whole smarter and leads to more divergent thinking, but the people who stand up with those sorts of opinions often get beaten up for it,” says Charlan Nemeth, the lead psychologist on those studies. “The results made a lot of us sit up and ask, ‘What exactly is going on here?’”<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 20.0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 20.0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;"><span lang="EN-US" style="color: #141413;">But basically most of us seem to be terrified of being different, so our kooky ideas can be fragile. Self-censorship is the enemy of good brainstorming. </span><span lang="EN-US">I came across this helpful advice on brainstorming from Jeffrey <span style="color: #141413;">Baumgartner, author of <a href="http://www.jpb.com/report103/index.php"><span style="color: #41007e;">Report 103</span></a>. I give a version of it before every brainstorming session.</span><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 20.0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="color: #141413;">"Write down every idea that comes to mind. Even if the idea is ludicrous, stupid or fails to solve the challenge, write it down. Most people are their own worst critics and by squelching their own ideas, make themselves less creative. So write everything down. NO EXCEPTIONS!"<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="color: #141413;">"[Because] other people are also involved, insure that no one criticises anyone else’s ideas in any way. This is called squelching, because even the tiniest amount of criticism can discourage everyone in the group for sharing their more creative ideas. Even a sigh or the rolling of eyes can be critical. Squelching must be avoided!"</span><span lang="EN-US" style="color: #141413; font-family: LucidaSans;"><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="color: #141413;">People really need permission to walk on their wacky side. So far, as a facilitator, things I've found that work are:</span><span lang="EN-US"><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="color: #141413;">1) begin with some kooky inspirations (remind people about the World Naked Bike Ride, bicycle fashion shows, a beer dispensing bicycle, a bicycle-powered music festival, bicycle polo*) </span><span lang="EN-US"><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="color: #141413;">2) fearlessly model kooky thinking myself;</span><span lang="EN-US"><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="color: #141413;">3) celebrate whatever kooky ideas that pop out. </span><span lang="EN-US"><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="color: #141413;">It's a slow process, but I know those kooky ideas are out there somewhere!</span><span lang="EN-US"><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="color: #141413;">* All of which illustrate how creative ideas come from ramming seemingly unrelated ideas together.</span><o:p></o:p></div></span>Les Robinsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05638259315624082853noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4944057046348400019.post-72961068570081200392010-10-22T14:58:00.000-07:002010-10-22T14:58:21.113-07:00How to avoid thoughtI totally love this kind of thing.<br />
<br />
<a href="http://designthinking.typepad.com/.a/6a00e55095d9cd8833013480065166970c-pi">http://designthinking.typepad.com/.a/6a00e55095d9cd8833013480065166970c-pi</a><br />
<br />
It's from the blog of Australian futurologist Ross Dawson <a href="http://rossdawsonblog.com/">http://rossdawsonblog.com/</a> who actually looks like very useful guy in terms of saving me having to think for myself.Les Robinsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05638259315624082853noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4944057046348400019.post-14005991610218835622010-09-09T04:07:00.000-07:002010-09-09T04:07:16.525-07:00OpenIDEO - changing the world with friends<!--StartFragment--> <br />
<div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Lucida Sans";">Just had coffee with Grant Young, a web consultant who’s working at the convergence of design thinking, social media and sustainability. His company is Zumio and his work includes community-building web sites for WWF and the NSW Cancer Institute. He introduced me to a whole world which, narrow-minded dolt that I am, I’ve managed to remain ignorant of.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Lucida Sans";">So what is ‘design thinking’? It’s a convergence of industrial design and anthropology, in some ways re-invention of good old 1970s Participative Action Research, but applied to the design of products and services. IDEO and Live|Work are firms at the cutting edge of this field. <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Lucida Sans";">The simple idea is, when you’re designing a product or service, spend time becoming intimately acquainted with the lives of users. If possible, become immersed. Then proceed by designing and testing prototypes. This makes perfect sense for designing gizmos and widgets. So why not use the same method to design services and solutions to social problems? Why not indeed! <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Lucida Sans";">He sent me some wonderful links (below). <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhCqTPiQtq9QP_4coCgErUUI6HOEjvI54e6Rs1M5VYvDC0WHtQYExmVhwewDJ5y8jeanaYoxveNgWClR9sJ_2l4ckyMyOD_J0KM15VWNOuJp-7c5WYLSf5zyC-iU9OnLASSOO6VGgead7w/s1600/open+ideo+page.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="223" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhCqTPiQtq9QP_4coCgErUUI6HOEjvI54e6Rs1M5VYvDC0WHtQYExmVhwewDJ5y8jeanaYoxveNgWClR9sJ_2l4ckyMyOD_J0KM15VWNOuJp-7c5WYLSf5zyC-iU9OnLASSOO6VGgead7w/s320/open+ideo+page.jpg" width="320" /></a><span style="font-family: "Lucida Sans";">The most exciting of these is OpenIDEO. It’s so fantastic it makes me feel faint.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Lucida Sans";">Have a look. <a href="http://openideo.com/">http://openideo.com</a><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Lucida Sans";">OpenIDEO is a web site that enables a community of collaborators to design new products and services together, sharing their inspirations and concepts as they go. The beautiful thing is – you can use it to solve social problems too. And the community of collaborators can be virtually unlimited.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Lucida Sans";">Just check out the brilliant range of ideas it generated to tackle childhood obesity. <a href="http://openideo.com/open/how-might-we-give-children-the-knowledge-to-eat-better/concepting/">http://openideo.com/open/how-might-we-give-children-the-knowledge-to-eat-better/concepting/</a><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Lucida Sans";">OpenIDEO solves one of the biggest problems that bedevil designers of change programs. It’s the small gene pool of inspiration and creativity available to the typical project team/committee. You are always limited by the number of active collaborators x the time they have to think. With OpenIDEO you can invite creative input from a huge range of people and spread the collaborative process beyond the time available for meetings. <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Lucida Sans";">What I also love is the attention to the Inspiration phase. We always cut this short, or forget it entirely. But it’s vital. OpenIDEO requires and enables an expansive trawl for inspirations before we start to assemble solutions. <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Lucida Sans";">Promise to me: I’m gonna find a way to use this!<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Lucida Sans"; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">Grant’s blog is at: </span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: LucidaGrande; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"><span style="color: windowtext; font-family: "Lucida Sans";"><a href="http://zum.io/">http://zum.io</a></span></span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Lucida Sans"; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Lucida Sans"; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">Some illuminating links he sent me after our talk:<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: LucidaGrande; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"><span style="color: windowtext; font-family: "Lucida Sans";"><a href="http://www.livelocal.org.au/">http://www.livelocal.org.au</a>/</span></span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Lucida Sans"; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"> - the sustainability community developed by Digital Eskimo<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: LucidaGrande; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"><span style="color: windowtext; font-family: "Lucida Sans";"><a href="http://johnnyholland.org/2010/07/13/mobile-diaries-discovering-daily-life">http://johnnyholland.org/2010/07/13/mobile-diaries-discovering-daily-life</a>/</span></span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Lucida Sans"; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"> - a bit more info on the "Mobile Diaries" process (from Penny Hagen, who I mentioned in conversation, with the article based in part on the work we did together for WWF-Australia)<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: LucidaGrande; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"><span style="color: windowtext; font-family: "Lucida Sans";"><a href="http://www.rethinkclimate.org/debat/rethink-technology/">http://www.rethinkclimate.org/debat/rethink-technology/</a></span></span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Lucida Sans"; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"> - introductory post from Ezio Manzini on the small, open, local, connected concept<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Lucida Sans"; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"><a href="http://sustainable-everyday.net/SEPhome/home.html">http://sustainable-everyday.net/SEPhome/home.html</a><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Lucida Sans"; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">has a host of case studies of social innovation towards sustainability.<o:p></o:p></span></div><!--EndFragment-->Les Robinsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05638259315624082853noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4944057046348400019.post-59368584982939800932010-09-08T01:12:00.000-07:002010-09-08T01:12:25.154-07:00Perfectly said<div class="MsoNormal">Some nice aphorisms for those working on change projects:</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">"It’s difficult to remove by logic an idea that is not placed there by logic in the first place."</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">"If the map doesn’t agree with the ground, the map is wrong."</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">"We are what we do."</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">"Feelings follow behaviour."</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">"Not all who wander are lost."</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">"We flee from the truth in vain."</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">"Mental health requires freedom of choice."</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">"The only real paradises are those that are lost."</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">"Be bold, and mighty forces will come to your aid."</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">All from ‘Too Soon Old, Too Late Smart’, a pithy book that lists 30 things Gordon Livingston learnt in his career as a therapist.</div><!--EndFragment-->Les Robinsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05638259315624082853noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4944057046348400019.post-48869534565881284802010-08-29T16:55:00.000-07:002010-08-29T16:55:06.502-07:00Mysterious trends and fadsFrom Google Trends, a popularity chart of social change buzz words over time (in Australia).<br />
<br />
Noticeable:<br />
<br />
...the decline of "environmental education" and (thankfully) "capacity building";<br />
<br />
...the rise and rise of "social marketing";<br />
<br />
...the steady popularity of "behaviour change";<br />
<br />
...the strange invisibility of "diffusion of innovations" (arguably the only one of these buzz words that represents a coherent body of knowledge!)<br />
<br />
<script src="http://www.gmodules.com/ig/ifr?url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.google.com%2Fig%2Fmodules%2Fgoogle_insightsforsearch_interestovertime_searchterms.xml&up__property=empty&up__search_terms=behaviour+change%7Ccapacity+building%7Cdiffusion+of+innovations%7Csocial+marketing%7Cenvironmental+education&up__location=AU&up__category=0&up__time_range=empty&up__compare_to_category=false&synd=open&w=320&h=350&lang=en-AU&title=Google+Insights+for+Search&border=%23ffffff%7C3px%2C1px+solid+%23999999&output=js" type="text/javascript">
</script>Les Robinsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05638259315624082853noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4944057046348400019.post-42550467195423940242010-08-18T19:23:00.000-07:002010-08-18T19:23:44.871-07:00A nice insight – teams of two<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Lucida Sans';">One of the problems of organisational life is the weird centrifugal force that spins people into their own corners of the office where they become pressurised teams of one. And of course this isn't great for motivation, imagination, creativity, or morale.</span><br />
<div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="font-family: 'Lucida Sans';">I always thought the solution was “multidisciplinary teams”. But what about the Team of Two?<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="font-family: 'Lucida Sans';">Here’s an insightful article </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Lucida Sans';">that just changed my mind on this subject:</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Lucida Sans';"></span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: 'Lucida Sans';"><a href="http://www.jpb.com/report103/archive.php?issue_no=20100818">http://www.jpb.com/report103/archive.php?issue_no=20100818</a></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="font-family: 'Lucida Sans';">P.S. It’s true. I just finished a complicated Cycling Strategy where I was unintentionally in a team of two with a passionate cycling advocate. The team work was enjoyable and effortless. I can’t imagine it being that way with a bigger team. </span></div><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Lucida Sans';"><br />
</span> <!--EndFragment-->Les Robinsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05638259315624082853noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4944057046348400019.post-77546596293622587002010-06-24T03:46:00.000-07:002010-06-24T03:46:35.348-07:00On tackling wicked problems<!--StartFragment--> <br />
<div class="MsoNormal">I recently stumbled across a fantastic publication, one that ought to be on the reading list for anyone working in the business of change.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">It’s called <i><a href="http://www.apsc.gov.au/publications07/wickedproblems.htm">Wicked Problems, A Public Policy Perspective</a>.</i><span style="font-style: normal;"> <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">It published by the Australian Public Service Commission and carries its authority. The author(s) are anonymous, but they have done a beautiful job of crisply summarising a literature and critically assessing its huge implications for government.<o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">Firstly, what are “wicked problems”? <o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">Wicked problems are complex multi-dimensional problems like indigenous<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>health, climate change, catchment management, and school bullying. In fact, practically every problem we deal with in environment or health is a wicked problem.<o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">Wicked problems:<o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">- are difficult to define (it depends on who is asked);<o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">- are often unstable…(understandings evolve over time, presenting a moving target);<o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">- have many interdependencies and causes;<o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">- have no clear solution (solutions “are not verifiably right or wrong, but rather better or worse or good enough” (p4) and solutions often have unforseen consequences);<o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">- are socially complex (“it is the social complexity of wicked problems, rather than their technical complexity, that overwhelms most current problem-solving and project management approaches p4”);<o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">- hardly ever conveniently sit within the responsibilities of one organisation;<o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">- involve changing peoples’ behaviours;<o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">- are characterised by chronic policy failure.<o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">Stumbling upon this publication was timely because I was just writing up recommendations for organisational change in the Southern Rivers Catchment Management Authority. It handed me a really useful framework for assessing the organisation’s capacity as a change agency.<o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">It’s this: An effective change agency should exhibit seven capacities:<o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">1) Capacity for innovation;<o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">2) Capacity for learning and adaptive management;<o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">3) Capacity to work across silos, in multi-disciplinary teams;<o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">4) Capacity to collaborate with multiple stakeholders and the public in understanding problems and devising and implementing solutions;<o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">5) Capacity to influence the behaviours of stakeholders and the public;<o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">6) Staff capacity in communication, big picture thinking, influencing others and the ability to work cooperatively. <o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">7) Capacity to critically review accountability frameworks.<o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">Of course, as soon as you think about these capacities, it’s obvious why of most government agencies and local councils are hopeless at tackling difficult problems. The authors say this so much more diplomatically: <o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">“A traditional bureaucracy, divided into vertical silos, in which most of the authority for resolving problems rests at the top of the organisation, is not well-adapted to support the kinds of process necessary for addressing the complexity and ambiguity of wicked problems. Bureaucracies tend to be risk averse, and are intolerant of messy processes. They excel at managing issues with clear boundaries rather than ambiguous, complex issues that may require experimental and innovative approaches.” (p13)<o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">In short, if you want to change the world you can’t afford be a traditional, hierarchically managed, value-free, service-delivery agency like a Department or local Council. You just can’t. You need to be small, nimble, passionate, and happy to “fail informatively”. CMAs are one promising model; PCPs (Primary Care Partnerships in Victoria) are another; Alliancing is another (used for large infrastructure projects); outsourcing to NGOs like Landcare groups and local Environmental Centres is another.<o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">Here are some nice quotes from <i>Tackling Wicked Problems</i>:<o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">“Because of social complexity, solving a wicked problem is fundamentally a social process. Having a few brilliant people or the latest project management technology is no longer sufficient.” (p28, quoting Conklin, L. 2006)<o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">“It has been argued that the public sector needs to adopt more systematic approaches to social innovation as opposed to the current rather ad hoc approach: ‘How many departments or agencies have a board level director responsible for innovation..? How many have significant budgets for innovation..? How many can point to the flow of new models in their service that are being cultivated, developed, improved and tested.’” (p13, quoting Mulgan G. 2006)<o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">“A concomitant condition to increasing adaptability is a broad acceptance and understanding, including from governments and Ministers, that there are no quick fixes and that levels of uncertainty around the solutions to wicked problems need to be tolerated.” (p15)<o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">“Critically, tackling wicked problems also calls for high levels of systems thinking. This big picture thinking helps policy makers to make the connections between the multiple causes and interdependencies of wicked problems that are necessary in order to avoid a narrow approach and artificial taming of wicked problems…A multi-disciplinary team approach is one practical way to garner all the required skills and knowledge for tackling any particular wicked problem.” (p33)<o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">“Collaborative strategies are the best approach to tackling wicked problems which require behavioural change as part of the solution.” (p10) <o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">“The fact is that a true understanding of the problem generally requires the perspective of multiple organisations and stakeholders, and that any package of measures identified as a possible solution usually requires the involvement, commitment and coordination of multiple organisations and stakeholders to be delivered effectively.” (p11)<o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">“Is the requirement to tightly specify programme outputs and outcomes useful in an environment where even defining the problem and solution is difficult?” (p23)<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">“There is increasing evidence that some types of pre-set performance measures, especially lower-level indicators, may undermine the responsiveness of the delivery of complex services and could even distort or constrict the services by making the indicator (or the target) rather than the service the focus of provision. In the case of devolved services both service providers and service users can find themselves playing second fiddle to programme reporting regimes.” (p24)<o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">----------------------</div><div class="MsoNormal">Australian Public Service Commission (2007) <i>Tackling Wicked Problems – A Public Policy Perspective, </i><span style="font-style: normal;">downloadable from <a href="http://www.apsc.gov.au/publications07/wickedproblems.htm">www.apsc.gov.au/publications07/wickedproblems.htm</a></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><!--EndFragment-->Les Robinsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05638259315624082853noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4944057046348400019.post-84825102010913804232010-05-22T04:42:00.000-07:002010-05-22T04:42:02.404-07:00How Bushcare is innovating<div class="MsoNormal"></div><div class="MsoNormal">All over Australia there are thousands of hard working teams of nature conservation volunteers – Landcare, Bushcare and their cousins – each with a handful of active members, scratching their heads about how to grow their numbers.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">The reason that Landcare and Bushcare groups get stuck is, surely, not just because of poor marketing, but because of what Landcare and Bushcare ARE. If all you’re doing is weeding the same patch of blighted bushland month after month it’s no wonder your membership gets stuck. So it’s possible that recruiting more volunteers might depend on evolving a better kind of Landcare/Bushcare experience. A more meaningful and enjoyable Bushcare experience would mean more inspired stories to share, better word of mouth (the only kind of marketing that counts) and more people dipping their toes in the water. And a better experience means they’re likely to stay. </div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">And of course there ought to be plenty of innovators already out there, just waiting for a chance to share their ideas.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">So, at the 2010 Sydney Bushcare Forum, I facilitated a session with around 100 reps from groups all over Sydney to share their Bushcare innovations.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">It turned into a marvellous idea-fest. Here are a few of their innovations:</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><b>Reframing the vision from bushland to wildlife corridor<o:p></o:p></b></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">Ross Muller of Roselea Bushcare Group described how his group joined up with two nearby groups and changed their focus from bushland rehabilitation to creating a Wildlife Corridor (a more visionary goal). They have nesting boxes all along the corridor, each one sponsored by a local family (one with a family of seven sugar gliders living in it). They also joined up with a local Heritage group to set up a Heritage Walk.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><b>Partnerships with schools<o:p></o:p></b></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">Ross’s group also talked to a nearby school and now have 25 students spending an hour a week helping out. Several other groups were doing the same thing. (In fact plenty of schools are desperate for someone to walk in and offer this kind of “Beyond the Fence” learning opportunity for kids).</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><b>Outsourcing your nursery<o:p></o:p></b></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">Ross’s group have a “native grass farm”, essentially a patch of dense native grasses. They invite school kids to harvest the seeds, plant them in boxes, take them home to germinate, and return to plant them as seedlings.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><b>Cool branding<o:p></o:p></b></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">Chris Bartlett of Cooks River Mudcrabs reckons that having a memorable brand (“Mudcrabs”) really helps. They wear their Mudcrab T-shirts whenever they’re on the job, and have a clean one to wear socially.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><b>Making it fun</b></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">The Cooks River Mudcrabs have a birthday party for their group each year.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">Another group has annual awards, including “Asparagus Assassin”.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">Most groups have morning tea (though this was a surprise to some!) </div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">One group has a regular baking competition to see who made the best cake.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">(I’ve been told that The Illawarra Youth Landcare Group always do something social after each work session…swimming at the beach, playing cricket, or going to the pub together.)</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><b>Variety<o:p></o:p></b></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">Some groups go and help out other groups occasionally (“sister groups?”). This turns a weeding session into a special occasion and “spreads the love”. </div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">Have a few sites in different environments and shift between them e.g. frog habitat. Make one site could be near pristine so people can really experience the beauty of nature.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">Don’t forget to mix in higher energy activities for men and young folks.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><b>Spreading the message<o:p></o:p></b></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">Don Wilson of Willoughby Bushcare talked about the “Major Day Out” initiative. They arranged for all of Willoughby’s bushcare groups to run “bush open days” on the same day so it becomes a major community event. Groups in other parts of Sydney and one in Brisbane are picking up the idea. (Hey isn’t that how Clean Up the World began!?) Just Google “Bushcare Major Day Out”.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">One group has a “why we are here” pamphlet and gives it to people when they are in the field, starting a conversation and inviting them to join in.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">Another group invited their local State MP (and she became a regular member!).</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">One group has occasional spotlighting nights, including a BBQ.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">Another organises bus trips “free scenic bus trip and bushwalk”.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">Give volunteers a special title and spoil them.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">Another invited a Mens’ Shed on a tour.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">Another invited 8-10 year olds to “Adopt an Animal” as a class research project and then come along and help restore its habitat.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">Spot the kind of people who already use the park for recreation and devise a special event for them.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">Bronte Gully Bushcare has a website www.brontebushcare.org.au<o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">A flowering calendar of local plants, so everyone can do their bit on their own properties.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><b>More ideas<o:p></o:p></b></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">Who knew that Boy Scouts and Girl Guides have a Landcare badge?</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">One group had an inventor, so they let him make wheelbarrows and equipment (“let people do what interests them”).</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">Instead of spraying, one group uses overlapping paper and cardboard, to show “we can be organic”.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">One group invites their kids along and gives them their own site to look after responsibly.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><b>And I might add:<o:p></o:p></b></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">An idea that came up in a recent workshop with health promoters who are looking for ways to get and keep volunteers: When you communicate with potential volunteers, clearly specify the extent of their expected commitment (e.g. “two hours per month”), the kind of work, and the support and mentoring they’ll receive. Also clearly identify the extent of their autonomy – the decisions they’ll be able to make themselves, even down to their choice of days. This degree of detail ought to lower potential volunteers’ anxieties about engaging in an unfamiliar activity.</div><!--EndFragment--> <br />
<!--EndFragment-->Les Robinsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05638259315624082853noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4944057046348400019.post-73682303925644750312010-03-06T20:54:00.000-08:002010-03-06T20:54:36.642-08:00WWF-UKs push for values-based campaigning<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;"><span lang="EN-US" style="color: black; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">World Wildlife Fund UK has recently taken a deep dive into the murky world of psychology to try to understand why those darned humans are so reluctant to do the right thing, especially with a global emergency that doesn’t allow us the leisure of waiting around for people to get it.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;"><span lang="EN-US" style="color: black; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">The work is led by Tom Crompton, WWF-UKs “Change Strategist”.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;"><span lang="EN-US" style="color: black; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">Crompton’s first publication, <i><a href="http://www.wwf.org.uk/research_centre/research_centre_results.cfm?uNewsID=2224">Weathercocks and Signposts</a></i></span><span lang="EN-US" style="color: black; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">, in 2008, was a tortuous read. Essentially it asserted that environmental campaigns that asked people to do easy steps for shallow reasons like saving money or looking good (aka green consumerism) probably wouldn’t be able to leverage those easy behaviours into harder behaviours. To do that we should probably be appealing to deeper values.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;"><span lang="EN-US" style="color: black; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">In 2009 he wrote <i><a href="http://www.wwf.org.uk/research_centre/research_centre_results.cfm?uNewsID=2728">Simple and painless - The limitations of spillover in environmental campaigning.</a></i></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;"><span lang="EN-US" style="color: black; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">Here he claimed that “<i>If those in government, business or the third sector persist in advocating ‘simple and painless’ behavioural changes as a meaningful response to today’s most pressing environmental challenges, this must be because they are persuaded that such changes will encourage the adoption of other, and particularly other more ambitious, behaviours.”</i></span><span lang="EN-US" style="color: black; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"> <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;"><span lang="EN-US" style="color: black; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">[That sounds like a straw man argument, but we’ll let it go. He does conceded that many campaigns don’t aim for spillover effects “For example installing loft insulation”.]<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;"><span lang="EN-US" style="color: black; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">By spillover he means the assumption that an easy behaviour like recycling might lead to a harder behaviour like leaving the car at home. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;"><span lang="EN-US" style="color: black; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">[My comment: I don’t know any campaigner who operates on this principle, do you? Not only is there little evidence for spillover effects, but it would be an unprofessional program design practice. There’s another kind of spillover, of course, “vertical spillover”, where going along to a workshop about solar panels DOES make it more likely that a person will install solar panels. But I don’t think he’s talking about that.]</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;"><span lang="EN-US" style="color: black; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">In order to encourage spillover he suggests environmental campaigners should make clear the environmental arguments behind new behaviours [ie. not “saving you money” but “saving rainforests”], and to frame around values [like providing “a safe world for our children”].<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;"><span lang="EN-US" style="color: black; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">His latest and most coherent effort (but still a dense academic read) is <i><a href="http://assets.wwf.org.uk/downloads/meeting_environmental_challenges___the_role_of_human_identity.pdf">Meeting Environmental Challenges - The Role of Human Identity</a>,</i></span><span lang="EN-US" style="color: black; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"> co-written with Tim Kasser, professor of psychology at Knox College, Illinois. (June 2009)<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="color: black; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">This book reasserts Crompton’s key argument that environmental vaues should be promoted through appeals to positive, deep values (aka identity).</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="color: black; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">Unfortunately Crompton and Kasser take an selectively negative view of values/identity. They focus on:<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="color: black; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">- negative “values and life goals” like power, egotism, wealth, rewards, achievement and status;</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="color: black; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">- “in-groups and out groups”: people who [apparently] define nature as an ‘out-group’; and<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="color: black; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">- “coping with fear and threats” where they hand-wring over the human capacity for denial in all of it’s guises.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;"><span lang="EN-US" style="color: black; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">[They seem never to have heard of strengths-based community development or any of the other approaches that build on positives. Instead they prefer to attack the negatives in human nature – don’t they know that only makes them stronger?]<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;"><span lang="EN-US" style="color: black; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">They go on to propose “identity campaigning” as an answer.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;"><span lang="EN-US" style="color: black; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">Their strategy is: <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;"><span lang="EN-US" style="color: black; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">(i) decrease the extent to which bad values are modeled socially; <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;"><span lang="EN-US" style="color: black; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">(ii) help people cope with feelings of insecurity in more adaptive ways; and <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;"><span lang="EN-US" style="color: black; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">(iii) develop programs and policies that promote intrinsic values like spirituality, community, and health.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;"><span lang="EN-US" style="color: black; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">They say that environmental organisations should stop appealing to people’s selfish or materialistic values e.g. “green consumerism”, “business cases”, “sustainable development” and “valuing environmental services”. This, they say, “<i>has actually served <span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;"><span lang="EN-US" style="color: black; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"><i>to reinforce the dominance of these values and goals</i></span><span lang="EN-US" style="color: black; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">.”</span></span></i></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;"><span lang="EN-US" style="color: black; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">The alternative is for environmental organisations to wear their higher values on their sleeves, for instance, by talking about the importance of nature to the human spirit. [This is straight out of George Lakoff's script, and it makes good sense. Crompton has already pointed out that appeals to selfish values can easily cause "negative spillover" where people <i>compensate</i> for good acts by doing more bad acts in other parts of their lives.]</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;"><span lang="EN-US" style="color: black; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">Interestingly, they suggest that enviro groups could benefit by providing social support for people who share their values. [A good example is ACF’s champions programs in NSW and Victoria].<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;"><span lang="EN-US" style="color: black; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">They also talk about promoting “implementation intentions” which means not only spreading values but specifying what choices those values require. An example might be “We value nature therefore we oppose destruction of habitat whenever we see it”. An interesting idea. The research ref is Gollwitzer, P. (1999) <a href="http://www.psych.nyu.edu/gollwitzer/99Goll_ImpInt.pdf">Implementation intentions: Strong effects of simple plans</a>, <i>American Psychologist</i></span><span lang="EN-US" style="color: black; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">, <i>54</i></span><span lang="EN-US" style="color: black; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">, 493-503.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;"><span lang="EN-US" style="color: black; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">Then they address out-group prejudice. They point out that by ascribing economic values to, for instance, Canadian harp seals, we may inadvertently make them an out-group that it’s OK to exploit. They talk about the importance of more contact between species to reduce out-grouping, for instance through nature-based workshops.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;"><span lang="EN-US" style="color: black; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">On the third of their identity problems, denial in the face of threats, <span lang="EN-US" style="color: black; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">they write that <i>“in order to help activate positive environmental behaviours, environmental organisations will ultimately need to develop approaches that help people express the fear, anger, sadness, angst or sense of threat from environmental challenges that many are probably already experiencing (whether consciously or otherwise)</i></span><span lang="EN-US" style="color: black; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">”. [Interesting idea. Maybe environmentalists would think more clearly if they weren't so grief stricken.]</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;"><span lang="EN-US" style="color: black; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">They also suggest that making people feel threatened might push them further into denial, citing campaigns that vilify SUV drivers. [About time someone said this.]<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;"><span lang="EN-US" style="color: black; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">They conclude by:<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;"><span lang="EN-US" style="color: black; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">1) asserting [unconvincingly] that aspects of values can be changed; and<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;"><span lang="EN-US" style="color: black; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">2) reasserting what has been Crompton’s main argument from the start: that environmental organisations should engage with identity through appeals to deep, abiding, positive human values.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;"><span lang="EN-US" style="color: black; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">[What is missing is more details on values…so here’s a few we could work with:<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;"><span lang="EN-US" style="color: black; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">- anything to do with children and being a good parent;<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;"><span lang="EN-US" style="color: black; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">- quality of relationships;<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;"><span lang="EN-US" style="color: black; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">- autonomy;<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;"><span lang="EN-US" style="color: black; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">- health;<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;"><span lang="EN-US" style="color: black; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">- altruism;<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;"><span lang="EN-US" style="color: black; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">- joy;<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;"><span lang="EN-US" style="color: black; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">- safety].<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="color: black; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"><b>What is good about this work: </b><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;"><span lang="EN-US" style="color: black; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">The importance of learning to communicate in terms of deep human values.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="color: black; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"><b>What’s not good: </b><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;"><span lang="EN-US" style="color: black; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">The academic language.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">Lack of examples of how to do it.</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;"><span lang="EN-US" style="color: black; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">The assumption that communicating directly to individuals matters much anyway. Perspectives drawn from Diffusion of Innovations, social networks, product design and setting modification are absent from Crompton’s work. He’s still hooked on traditional marketing assumptions that treat people as isolated individuals and ignore their technological, physical, institutional and social settings. That's where we can really influence behaviour.<o:p></o:p></span></div><!--EndFragment-->Les Robinsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05638259315624082853noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4944057046348400019.post-60886050654577853712010-02-12T23:22:00.000-08:002010-02-12T23:22:52.505-08:00The task before usI've been meaning to post this item from Sean Kidney's authoritative Climate Change <a href="http://blog.seankidney.com/">blog</a>, from the December Copenhagen Conference, which succinctly scopes some of the infrastructure and behavioural changes we'll need to see in coming decades:<br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #cc6600; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: x-small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 10px; line-height: 14px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: black; font-family: Verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium; line-height: normal;"><br />
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<div class="post hentry uncustomized-post-template" style="border-bottom-color: rgb(204, 204, 204); border-bottom-style: dotted; border-bottom-width: 1px; margin-bottom: 1.5em; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0.5em; padding-bottom: 1.5em;"><div class="post-header-line-1"></div><div class="post-body entry-content" style="line-height: 1.6em; margin-bottom: 0.75em; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><!--StartFragment--> <div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 14.0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;"><!--StartFragment--> </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 14.0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;"><span lang="EN-US" style="color: #191919; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">I've just come from a sobering presentation in Copenhagen by Yuki Tanaka and others of the Japanese Institution of Transport Policy Studies. They have done detailed modeling of global transport emissions and how we can reduce them by 2050.They've done different scenarios, and have settled on pushing for keeping emissions at 2000 levels because they believe the lower scenarios are not likely to be achieved. I started off sceptically, thinking "we'll need to figure out how to do better than that". But by the end of the presentation, overwhelmed by the robustness of their research, I can see why they made that decision.</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 14.0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 14.0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;"><span lang="EN-US" style="color: #191919; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">Bear in mind this is in the context of rapidly growing economies in Asia and Latin America.</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 14.0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 14.0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;"><span lang="EN-US" style="color: #191919; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">Key points:</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 14.0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 14.0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;"><span lang="EN-US" style="color: #191919; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">To keep emissions just at 2000 levels will require:</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 14.0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 14.0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;"><span lang="EN-US" style="color: #191919; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">- Cars: an enormous 60% shift of passenger traffic from cars to rail and bus. In cities 80% of remaining cars and 40% of light trucks will be electric by 2050.</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 14.0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 14.0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;"><span lang="EN-US" style="color: #191919; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">- Aviation: half of all sub-1600km trips shift to high-speed rail systems, plus 20-30% fuel saving technology improvements in aviation. They do also include some shifting to technologies like</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 14.0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;"><span lang="EN-US" style="color: #191919; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">video-conferencing.</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 14.0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 14.0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;"><span lang="EN-US" style="color: #191919; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">- Shipping: 30% reduction in emissions, largely through large scale engine replacement around 2020, when a disproportionate portion of the world's fleet comes up for renewal.</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 14.0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 14.0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;"><span lang="EN-US" style="color: #191919; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">- Bikes: for short-distance trips there'll be a substantial increase in non-vehicle transport - e.g. bicycles - helped by congestion charges and other traffic control techniques in all major cities.</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 14.0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 14.0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;"><span lang="EN-US" style="color: #191919; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">- Rail: large scale electrification of railways and various substantial improvements in rail efficiency. There will be a doubling (yes!) of kms of rail lines in the world by 2050. They have also assumed that the power grid shifts largely to clean energy during this period.</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 14.0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 14.0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;"><span lang="EN-US" style="color: #191919; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">The net extra investment needed above "business as usual investment" already expected is just under US$12 trillion, 54% in developing countries. And this just to keep at 2000 level emissions!</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="color: #191919; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">On the optimistic side, if we can ensure, with some tough government planning decisions that help ensure these investments pay a good return for pension funds, then it's a huge financing opportunity.</span></span><o:p></o:p></div><!--EndFragment--> <br />
<!--EndFragment--> </div></div>Les Robinsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05638259315624082853noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4944057046348400019.post-67685917059716133572010-02-12T22:50:00.000-08:002010-02-12T22:50:07.147-08:00Some interesting responses <br />
<div class="MsoNormal">Some interesting responses to my article <a href="http://www.enablingchange.com.au/The_problem_with_Social_Marketing.pdf">The problem with social marketing – why you can’t sell change like soap</a><o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">From a senior social marketing consultant:<o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">I also find social marketing limited but have to report that it has become an industry. It now has to sustain itself and all the bureaucratic university and publishing infrastructure that has grown up around it. Many of the social marketing conferences seem to devote a fair slab of time to navel-gazing or defending the theory. Or they just keep expanding the horizons so it includes EVERYTHING. I recently sat in on a planning meeting for a new social marketing body in Australia recently and it was filled with University social marketing professors who were mainly concerned with the status of the publication associated with the conference.</span><o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">From a social science professor:<o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;"><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">Les - I agree - and I look forward to reading it in more detail – this takes me back to arguments I had in Canada with McKenzie-Mohr about 20 years ago!! - for me there is a big difference between 'enabling' change (which often first involves 'personal healing') and 'manipulating' change - the former is sustainable and co-evolving, whereas the latter is usually transitory and open to the next 'manipulation’.</span><o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">From a sexual health marketer:<o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;"><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">Thanks Les - an excellent, accessible article. I wish we could devote our sexual health marketing dollars to working directly with small groups of young people instead of paying kids in advertising agencies to come up with the next catchy 'grab'.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">From a health promotion officer:<o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;"><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">You raise lots of great points in your paper. I basically agree with what you say. When I first started out working in communications as a grad I started off by buying into the usual spiel around the influence of mass media etc. which is obviously still true to some extent but at that stage I wasn't able to be as critical of social marketing as I am now. Through my work over the last few years in health promotion, I really do feel like mass media advertising and the like is often money down the drain - it looks like you're doing more than you actually are. Unfortunately though, it's really difficult to use all of the principles you went through in your Enabling Change workshop because of lack of time and money. But I believe that I have personally gotten better at thinking more laterally and abandoning lots of usual practices that sound good but do nothing in terms of impact. Anyway, it's a work in progress and I still have a lot of learn about all of this!</span><o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">From an state agency social scientist:<o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 12.0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;"><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">Well argued! I think maybe you are a bit unkind to social marketing based programs and frameworks that extend the conception of barriers and benefits beyond the psychosocial, but you are certainly right as far as I can see that major government campaigns and the consultants who provide them tend to generate very narrow and inconsequential interventions (except in visibility impact - perhaps we need a more social change literate electorate policing these things and punishing low change, high visibility efforts). <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">Cheers.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">Also, interestingly, a stinging critique in the <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/09/health/09nets.html">New York Times</a> of the use of social marketing to promote the adoption of pesticide-treated mosquito nets in sub-sahara Africa.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><!--EndFragment-->Les Robinsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05638259315624082853noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4944057046348400019.post-48238867563576097732009-12-15T16:17:00.000-08:002009-12-15T16:17:51.809-08:00The marvel of multi-disciplinary mingling<div class="MsoNormal">Howard Jones, pioneering Green activist of the NSW south coast stood up at the annual Raspberry Day get-together this year and said, in his rich, thoughtful voice: “Copenhagen isn’t really about climate change. It’s about cooperation.” Nice.<br />
<br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: none; color: black;">I witnessed a marvellous case study in cooperation – at a somewhat smaller scale - when asked to facilitate an intensive day of multi-disciplinary planning by Housing NSW this year. The aim was to figure out how to green the public housing estate in NSW: 60,000 dwellings covering 70,000 hectares (and some are awfully bleak).</span><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi087sY8P8JyTOBO5SWYY0iCzupmp_t05i4P885FsYznqvs993LE6TZWsTct84Q9X8oOj6bB0xenZPMCurZBml-PRIYjzFjK68RvEMN0W5OAQsooOl6YnMoOPeary-NZ8Mi_fxI3bzcrP8/s1600-h/IMG_0741.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="226" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi087sY8P8JyTOBO5SWYY0iCzupmp_t05i4P885FsYznqvs993LE6TZWsTct84Q9X8oOj6bB0xenZPMCurZBml-PRIYjzFjK68RvEMN0W5OAQsooOl6YnMoOPeary-NZ8Mi_fxI3bzcrP8/s320/IMG_0741.JPG" width="320" /></a>We had 40 participants from a rich mix of professions - architects, landscape designers, community renewal staff, sustainability gurus, Housing NSW managers, community gardens facilitators - a smorgasbord of jargons and perspectives (but don’t ask me where the public housing tenants were…we obviously can’t achieve perfection overnight!)<br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">The day began with the Minister for Housing, David Borger, saying his goal was to make public housing estates “places you’re proud to live in and happy to come home to.” (deftly expanding the ambit of “sustainability” into the social realm…where it absolutely belongs, after all: no grass-roots buy-in, no sustainment).<br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">Next came 2 hours of inspiring 15 minute talks. Then we split the room into mixed teams of 5-6, each with a facilitator, and gave them a pile of plans and coloured pens. Two hours of brainstorming and mad scribbling later and we had 6 exciting plans for greening different kinds of housing estates.<br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">At the plenary session, well-known sustainability guru, Michael Mobbs, was the spokesman for the team dealing with one big, grim, western suburbs estate. <br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">He reported how each profession made its unique contribution to the plan:<br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">- the architects showed how joining two roads and transforming a rough footpath could make it easy for tenants to navigate the estate;<br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">- the landscape designers spotted two disused tennis courts along the footpath that could become a community garden and meeting place, shaded by a dense grove of trees;<br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">- Michael Mobbs then explained how the temperatures in those areas could be cooled by 10 degrees in summer by water tanks and evaporation pools(!); and<br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">- the community renewal manager showed how framing the changes around the tenants’ hot issues (crime and isolation) could bring them into the planning process;<br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">Then the council guy finally piped up and said, more or less, “that won't work because the road is too narrow and the council garbage trucks will just knock those trees down.” Michael Mobbs’ response was “well we’re just going to have to have that discussion with council’s waste services manager” - illustrating perfectly how making change means continually expanding the conversation.<br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">So, can we successfully bring together diverse professions with different strengths to plan together? And can their results vastly exceed what any single profession could achieve? The answer is “yes”.<br />
</div><br />
<div><br />
</div><div><span style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande'; font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: 11px;"><br />
</span></span><br />
</div>Les Robinsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05638259315624082853noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4944057046348400019.post-6929605850802935752009-09-26T22:51:00.000-07:002009-09-26T22:51:11.173-07:00Kuhn and Galbraith on habitual ideas<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande';"></span><br />
<div align="">Regarding your thoughts on habitual ideas Karla...I thought you might enjoy the following quotes.</div><div align=""><br />
</div><div align="">Thomas Kuhn, in <i>The Structure of Scientific Revolutions</i>, wrote that an accepted body of knowledge “does not aim for novelties of fact or theory, and, when successful, finds none.” (p52)</div><div align=""> </div><div align="">Even when confronted by severe and prolonged failure “though they may begin to lose faith and then to consider alternatives, they do not renounce the paradigm that has led them into crisis.” (p77)</div><div align=""><br />
</div><div align=""><div align="">J.K. Galbraith, in <i>The Affluent Society</i>, sought to explain the persistence of "the conventional wisdom". He wrote that “Numerous factors contribute to the acceptability of ideas. To a very large extent, of course, we associate truth with convenience – with what most closely accords with self-interest and personal well-being or promises best to avoid awkward effort and unwelcome dislocation of life. We also find highly acceptable what contributes most to self-esteem.” (p7)</div><div align=""><br />
</div><div align=""><div align="">“Ideas are inherently conservative,” he concluded. “They yield not to the attack of other ideas but to the massive onslaught of circumstances with which they cannot contend.” As a result. “like the Old Guard, the conventional wisdom dies but does not surrender.” (p17, p12)</div><div align=""><br />
</div><div align="">Sources: Thomas S. Kuhn 1962) <i>The Structure of Scientific Revolutions</i>, Third edition 1996, The University of Chicago Press</div><div align=""> J.K. Galbraith, <i>The Affluent Society</i> (1958) Penguin Books edition 1999</div><div align=""><br />
</div><div align="">The short answer is that habitual ideas often provide pay-offs, in career, prestige, income, power and convenience etc for those who hold them. These ideas become part of people's identity, so its not surprising they defend them to the death. Such ideas are rarely defeated by frontal attack...they have to be slowly exterminated by the social triumph of better ideas!</div><div align=""><br />
</div><div align="">- Les</div></div></div>Les Robinsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05638259315624082853noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4944057046348400019.post-22886323760647236472009-09-21T22:34:00.000-07:002009-09-21T22:34:35.020-07:00The problem with Social Marketing - why you can't sell change like soap<div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Verdana;">If you work in health promotion or sustainability, you’ll have heard of “Social Marketing” and “Community-based Social Marketing”. <o:p></o:p></span><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Verdana;">Lately I’ve noticed how these communication methodologies are being treated with almost magical reverence, as if they are the long-awaited silver bullets for the complex social, health and environmental problems we all struggle with. <o:p></o:p></span><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Verdana;">I believe many of the expectations being placed on Social Marketing and Community-based Social Marketing are seriously overblown and it’s time social change practitioners reassessed their attitude to these practices.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Verdana;">Here’s why: <o:p></o:p></span><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Verdana;">Of course you can market <i>brands</i></span><span style="font-family: Verdana;">. But behaviour change is not like buying a different brand of beer, it’s about getting people to DO THINGS THEY ARE UNCOMFORTABLE WITH, DON’T WANT TO DO OR CAN’T DO, or they would already be doing them. Like parents letting their kids walk to school, or smokers quitting, or drivers switching to public transport.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Verdana;">These kinds of social, health and environmental behaviours are intractable because they are part of complex, “</span><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wicked_problem"><span style="font-family: Verdana;">wicked</span></a><span style="font-family: Verdana;">” or messy social problems. That’s why they are still with us. They are intractable for very good reasons: they are fixed firmly in place by a powerful matrix of institutional, technological and social factors. To be effective change programs must therefore do more than just communicate persuasive messages, they must aim to modify those factors. <o:p></o:p></span><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="color: #231f20; font-family: Verdana; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">Paul Stern of the Division of Behavioral and Social Sciences and Education of the UK’s National Research Council</span><span style="font-family: Verdana;"> explains that many behaviours are simply not amenable to voluntary change: <a href="http://www.blogger.com/post-create.g?blogID=4944057046348400019#_edn1" name="_ednref1" style="mso-endnote-id: edn1;" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;">[i]</span></span></a><o:p></o:p></span><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;"><span lang="EN-US" style="color: #231f20; font-family: Verdana; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">“This pattern of [contextual] influences implies that effective laws and regulations, strong financial incentives or penalties, irresistible technology, powerful social norms, and the like can leave little room for personal factors to affect behavior…”<o:p></o:p></span><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="color: #231f20; font-family: Verdana; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">In other words, when people have very little choice how they act, structural changes (like regulation, pricing, infrastructure, service provision, governance reform, social innovation, and technological innovation) should be the preferred approaches. <o:p></o:p></span><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="color: #231f20; font-family: Verdana; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">He goes on to say that: “[however] when contextual influences are weak, personal factors…are likely to be the strongest influence on behavior.” However, if we are realistic, there are very few situations where contextual factors are weak. Every personal decision is thoroughly embedded on its context. Even a simple voluntary behaviour like “turning off the lights” is determined by technology and pricing.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Verdana;">The fact is, every effective social change effort has been predominantly structural. Improving the anti-social behaviour of drinkers, for instance, has required collaboration between police, community leaders and licensing authorities; physical re-design of venues; modified management practices; training for staff; advocacy; political leadership; and legislative change. Marketing has been the least important factor in the mix. Most solutions to “wicked” problems are like this. They involve multi-faceted strategies, and are very much about building relationships and re-designing practices, places and institutions, with marketing taking an important supportive role.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Verdana;">Of course there’s nothing wrong with good marketing. It’s a vital part of the mix. It spreads knowledge, creates interest, helps get people buzzing, and helps spark political action so that politicians get busy with the work of changing institutions and supporting technological innovation. It is an important handmaiden of change, but not the driver....<o:p></o:p></span><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">The rest of this paper is at <a href="http://www.enablingchange.com.au/">www.enablingchange.com.au</a> It looks at the shape of successful interventions into "wicked problems", details weaknesses in the Social Marketing approach, and suggests an alternative approach.<br />
</div><div style="mso-element: endnote-list;"><br clear="all" /> <hr align="left" size="1" width="33%" /> <div id="edn1" style="mso-element: endnote;"> <div class="MsoNormal"><a href="http://www.blogger.com/post-create.g?blogID=4944057046348400019#_ednref1" name="_edn1" style="mso-endnote-id: edn1;" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-size: 10.0pt;"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;">[i]</span></span></span></a><span style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 10.0pt;"> Paul C. Stern (2005) <a href="http://www7.nationalacademies.org/dbasse/Environmental%20Law%20Review%20PDF.pdf">Individuals’ Environmentally Significant Behaviour</a>, <i>Environmental Law Reporter News and Analysis</i></span><span style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 10.0pt;"> 35 10785<o:p></o:p></span><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 13px;"><br />
</span></span><br />
</div></div></div>Les Robinsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05638259315624082853noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4944057046348400019.post-71027056783291511482009-09-13T04:32:00.000-07:002009-09-13T04:32:25.223-07:00How to bust silos<span style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande'; font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 11px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #565656; font-family: Tahoma, verdana, Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">An <a href="http://www.hcamag.com/features/34639/details.aspx">article</a> by Graham Winter, an Australian organisational psychologist, with some nicely expressed ideas about minimising organisational silos.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><b><br />
</b></span></span><br />
<strong><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">When initiatives failed<br />
</span></span></strong><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">Our studies showed that when business initiatives failed, the 'players' were likely to be:</span></span><br />
<ol><li style="list-style-image: url(http://www.hcamag.com/images/buller_red02.gif); margin-left: 15px; padding-bottom: 3px; padding-left: 3px; padding-right: 3px; padding-top: 3px;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">pursuing their own agenda: there was no shared bigger picture between units and little understanding or empathy for others, and leaders allowed conflicting agendas to prevail</span></span></li>
<li style="list-style-image: url(http://www.hcamag.com/images/buller_red02.gif); margin-left: 15px; padding-bottom: 3px; padding-left: 3px; padding-right: 3px; padding-top: 3px;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">avoiding and denying: employees avoided reality checks, there was a limited use of data in feedback and decision-making and the company had poor problem-solving practices</span></span></li>
<li style="list-style-image: url(http://www.hcamag.com/images/buller_red02.gif); margin-left: 15px; padding-bottom: 3px; padding-left: 3px; padding-right: 3px; padding-top: 3px;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">stifling communication: there was an absence of listening, e-mail was used as the main means of communication, there was a prevalence of hoarded information and alternative views were often dismissed</span></span></li>
<li style="list-style-image: url(http://www.hcamag.com/images/buller_red02.gif); margin-left: 15px; padding-bottom: 3px; padding-left: 3px; padding-right: 3px; padding-top: 3px;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">protecting their own turf: employees prioritised and planned in isolation, used their status to influence decisions and fostered inconsistency in processes and systems</span></span></li>
<li style="list-style-image: url(http://www.hcamag.com/images/buller_red02.gif); margin-left: 15px; padding-bottom: 3px; padding-left: 3px; padding-right: 3px; padding-top: 3px;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">playing 'I win, you lose': employees were blamed as soon as things went wrong, and success was rewarded inside the silos rather than across the company.</span></span></li>
</ol><strong><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">When initiatives succeeded</span></span></strong><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><br />
When business initiatives succeeded, the 'players' were likely to be:</span></span><br />
<ol><li style="list-style-image: url(http://www.hcamag.com/images/buller_red02.gif); margin-left: 15px; padding-bottom: 3px; padding-left: 3px; padding-right: 3px; padding-top: 3px;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">sharing the big picture: companies created and shared one big picture, found common goals and synergies and focused on what was best for the organisation</span></span></li>
<li style="list-style-image: url(http://www.hcamag.com/images/buller_red02.gif); margin-left: 15px; padding-bottom: 3px; padding-left: 3px; padding-right: 3px; padding-top: 3px;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">sharing the reality: employees were focused on real performance, made fact-based decisions and had the tough conversation rather than avoiding reality</span></span></li>
<li style="list-style-image: url(http://www.hcamag.com/images/buller_red02.gif); margin-left: 15px; padding-bottom: 3px; padding-left: 3px; padding-right: 3px; padding-top: 3px;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">sharing the air: companies invited ideas from employees in every area of the business, and employees expressed opinions clearly and succinctly and listened to others</span></span></li>
<li style="list-style-image: url(http://www.hcamag.com/images/buller_red02.gif); margin-left: 15px; padding-bottom: 3px; padding-left: 3px; padding-right: 3px; padding-top: 3px;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">sharing the load: employees prioritised and planned together, were clear about roles and expectations and looked for common ground</span></span></li>
<li style="list-style-image: url(http://www.hcamag.com/images/buller_red02.gif); margin-left: 15px; padding-bottom: 3px; padding-left: 3px; padding-right: 3px; padding-top: 3px;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">sharing the wins and losses: companies paid close attention to joint results, learned and adapted together and rewarded true performance.</span></span></li>
</ol></span></span></span>Les Robinsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05638259315624082853noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4944057046348400019.post-75692143347239484162009-09-12T15:14:00.000-07:002009-09-12T15:14:09.106-07:00The dream team to tackle obesity<span style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande';"> <span lang="EN-US" style="color: black; font-family: Verdana;">A recent US National Research Council report, <a href="http://www8.nationalacademies.org/onpinews/newsitem.aspx?RecordID=12674">Local Government Actions to Prevent Obesity</a> provides a nice summary of the kind of interventions that have the best potential to tackle childhood obesity. </span></span><div><span style="font-size: large;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 17px;"><br />
</span></span></div><div><span style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande';"><span lang="EN-US" style="color: black; font-family: Verdana;"></span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Verdana;">According to the press release: “Many of these steps focus on increasing access to healthy foods and opportunities for active play and exercise. They include:</span></span></div><div><span style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande';"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Verdana;">- providing <i>incentives</i></span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Verdana;"> to lure grocery stores to underserved neighborhoods;</span></span></div><div><span style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande';"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Verdana;"><i>- eliminating</i></span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Verdana;"> outdoor ads for high-calorie, low-nutrient foods and drinks near schools; requiring calorie and other nutritional <i>information</i></span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Verdana;"> on restaurant menus; </span></span></div><div><span style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande';"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Verdana;">- implementing local <i>"Safe Routes to School" programs</i></span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Verdana;">; </span></span></div><div><span style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande';"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Verdana;"><i>- regulating</i></span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Verdana;"> minimum play space and time in child care programs; </span></span></div><div><span style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande';"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Verdana;"><i>- rerouting</i></span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Verdana;"> buses or developing other transportation strategies that ensure people can get to grocery stores; and </span></span></div><div><span style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande';"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Verdana;"><i>- using building codes</i></span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Verdana;"> to ensure facilities have working water fountains.”</span> </span> </div><div><br />
</div><div>So, here's the dream team you'd need for a comprehensive attack on obesity at the local government level:</div><div><br />
</div><div><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Verdana;">- an incentive manager;</span></div><div><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Verdana;">- a regulator; </span></div><div><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Verdana;">- a building code planner; </span></div><div><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Verdana;">- a nutritionist; </span></div><div><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Verdana;">- a transport planner; </span></div><div><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Verdana;">- an educator; </span></div><div><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Verdana;">- a courageous politician or two to drive these changes through; and</span></div><div>- a facilitator, to pull it all together.</div>Les Robinsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05638259315624082853noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4944057046348400019.post-80009264891962469502009-09-04T00:14:00.000-07:002009-09-04T00:14:34.222-07:00What to do about "habits"My friend Karla rang me and asked if I knew of any research about "habits". I had a look (Google Scholar "psychology, habit") and discovered that the psychology of habit is seriously under-researched.<br />
<br />
(Except for <a href="http://www.informaworld.com/smpp/content~db=all~content=a758761495">one article</a> that argued that habit was "goal-directed automaticity".)<br />
<br />
So I thought about it, and I think that habit might consist of at least 5 different entities. Interesting thing is, when you consider each entity separately you get some ideas about how to overcome what can seem to be ingrained habits.<br />
<br />
1) Pay-off. Some habits are maintained because they "work". So, for instance, someone habitually accepts plastic bags at the supermarket, because that delivers ease and convenience.<br />
<br />
Solution: make the practice less convenient, and it's alternative more convenient.<br />
<br />
2) Obliviousness. Some habits are maintained because we aren't paying attention. For instance, I habitually ignore roadside speeding signs because I just don't see them (really!) The human brain only has so much attention to spread around, and we might be just habitually paying attention to other things (like our thoughts). [Google "salience"].<br />
<br />
Solution: prompt people to pay attention to the matter.<br />
<br />
3) Sunk costs (or 'loss aversion'). We may have invested a lot of money, time or prestige in a particular practice. Because humans naturally overestimate losses compared to potential gains, we often defend our investments to the point of stupidity. [Google "Loss Aversion"]<br />
<br />
Solution: encourage people to consider the 'big picture' or 'long view' where the the long-term gain is worth the short-term loss.<br />
<br />
4) Denial or resistance. Where fear of the unfamiliar causes us to avoid information about it, and resist pressure to change our behaviour.<br />
[Google "Cognitive Dissonance" and "Psychological Reactance"]<br />
<br />
Solution: increase the familiarity of the new practice.<br />
<br />
5) Social identity. Where someone's social identity is wrapped up in a practice, change can threaten their identity and relationships, so naturally they actively maintain that practice (a case of denial, really).<br />
<br />
Solution: connect the new practice to people's values.Les Robinsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05638259315624082853noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4944057046348400019.post-50933524003010364982009-09-03T22:54:00.000-07:002009-09-03T22:54:12.179-07:00The uncanny similarity between counterinsurgency warfare and social changeJust got my issue of <a href="http://campaignstrategy.org/mailman/listinfo/campaignstrategy_campaignstrategy.org">Campaign Strategy</a> eLetter. Chris Rose mentioned David Kilcullen's <a href="http://smallwarsjournal.com/documents/28articles.pdf">28 Articles: Fundamentals of Company-level Counterinsurgency</a> so I looked it up. (Kilcullen is a former Australian Army lieutenant colonel who served in Iraq as a senior counterinsurgency advisor and now works for the US State Department).<br />
<br />
It's uncanny how closely these hard-edged lessons in counterinsurgency warfare resemble sensible lessons in running social change projects. Just have a look. I suppose we should have suspected that, after all think about Sun Tzu's "The Art of War".<br />
<br />
I especially liked his "4 What-ifs". See if this resonates with your experience of trying to get things done in the real world.<br />
<br />
<br />
<div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">Four What Ifs</span></b></div><div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">The articles above describe what </span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">should </span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">happen, but we all know that things go wrong. Here are some "what ifs" to consider:</span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><b><br />
</b></span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">What if you get moved to a different area? </span></b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">You prepared for ar-Ramadi and studied Dulaim tribal structures and Sunni beliefs. Now you are going to Najaf and will be surrounded by al-Hassan and Unizzah tribes and Shiía communities. But that work was not wasted. In mastering your first area, you learned techniques you can apply: how to "case" an operational area, how to decide what matters in the local societal structure. Do the same again - and this time the process is easier and faster, since you have an existing mental structure, and can focus on what is different. The same applies if you get moved frequently within a battalion or brigade area.</span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><b><br />
</b></span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">What if higher headquarters doesn't get counterinsurgency? </span></b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">Higher headquarters is telling you the mission is to "kill terrorist", or pushing for high-speed armored patrols and a base-camp mentality. They just do not seem to understand counterinsurgency. This is not uncommon, since company-grade officers today often have more combat experience than senior officers. In this case, just do what you can. Try not to create expectations that higher headquarters will not let you meet. Apply the adage "first do no harm". Over time, you will find ways to do what you have to do. But never lie to higher headquarters about your locations or activities: they own the indirect fires.</span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><b><br />
</b></span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">What if you have no resources? </span></b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">Yours is a low-priority sector: you have no linguists, the aid agencies have no money for projects in your area, you have a low priority for funding. You can still get things done, but you need to focus on self-reliance, keep things small and sustainable, and ruthlessly prioritize effort. Local community leaders are your allies in this: they know what matters to them more than you do. Be honest with them, discuss possible projects and options with community leaders, get them to choose what their priority is. Often they will find the translators, building supplies or expertise that you need, and will only expect your support and protection in making their projects work. And the process of negotiation and consultation will help mobilize their support, and strengthen their social cohesion. If you set your sights on what is achievable, the situation can still work.</span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><br />
</span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">What if the theater situation shifts under your feet? </span></b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">It is your worst nightmare: everything has gone well in your sector, but the whole theater situation has changed and invalidates your efforts. Think of the first battle of Fallujah, the al-Askariya shrine bombing, or the Sadr uprising. What do you do? Here is where having a flexible, adaptive game plan comes in. Just as the insurgents drop down to a lower posture when things go wrong, now is the time to drop back a stage, consolidate, regain your balance and prepare to expand again when the situation allows. But see article 28: if you cede the initiative, you must regain it as soon as the situation allows, or you will eventually lose.</span></div><br />
That all sounds like great advice!Les Robinsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05638259315624082853noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4944057046348400019.post-89957975406111531892009-09-03T20:19:00.000-07:002009-09-03T22:55:15.902-07:00How calculating eco-footprints undermines good behaviourI always felt a little uncomfortable about the idea of calculating my own ecological footprint...now I know why:<br />
<br />
In an experiment with 212 undergraduates, Psychologists Amara Brook and Jennifer Crocker found that for those "not heavily invested in the environment", negative feedback about their ecological footprint undermined their environmental behaviour.<br />
<br />
"Rather than changing their ways to protect the environment, the results of this study suggest that these [people] may give up on their efforts to protect the environment", they wrote.<br />
<br />
However for those "more invested on the environment", calculating their ecological footprint promoted more sustainable behaviour.<br />
<br />
This research was reported in <a href="http://www.usatoday.com/tech/science/environment/2008-08-13-green-psychology_N.htm">USA Today</a>, but doesn't seem to have been formally published yet because I can't find it on Google Scholar.<br />
<br />
However if you're keen you could email Amara directly on atbrook@scu.edu and maybe she'd send you a copy.<br />
<br />
It's easy to guess at the mechanism at work: a straightforward (and, when you think about it, fairly predictable) case of DENIAL (aka Cognitive Dissonance).<br />
<br />
Incidentally, while I was tracking down info on Amara Brook I stumbled across a "Conservation Psychology" website with an amazingly detailed collection of resources, including a huge number of scholarly articles on the subject: <a href="http://www.conservationpsychology.org/resources/articles/">http://www.conservationpsychology.org/resources/articles/</a><br />
<br />
The USA Today article also reported some interesting research, by Elizabeth Nisbett and John Zelenski at the Carleton University in Ottawa, that found that people tend to systematically underestimate how much happier they'll feel from spending 15 minutes outside, and overestimate how happy they are being inside.Les Robinsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05638259315624082853noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4944057046348400019.post-64196763191834139862009-08-28T21:43:00.000-07:002009-08-28T21:43:18.385-07:00A crib sheet for program planners<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiSsLCRLgDf9OnDVZ9Yb5mGfq39mumqJD7EdftBcKvCZkbdESxxF117NZag29GF85j0q9Ep7OJjbaNDpHkavOY_TQVFxtLGV1mJBJFgxk60cnw3HZW-FIkbmgdRA86-Arpqc_Jm7oMTDYo/s1600-h/crib_sheet.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiSsLCRLgDf9OnDVZ9Yb5mGfq39mumqJD7EdftBcKvCZkbdESxxF117NZag29GF85j0q9Ep7OJjbaNDpHkavOY_TQVFxtLGV1mJBJFgxk60cnw3HZW-FIkbmgdRA86-Arpqc_Jm7oMTDYo/s400/crib_sheet.jpg" /></a></div>It's a hell of a job thinking outside the square. One thing I've noticed in strategic planning sessions is that educators often have trouble thinking beyond "awareness", PR types beyond "change attitudes", engineers beyond "building stuff", planners beyond "plans of management" and so on.<br />
<br />
So here is a crib sheet for those participants who need a little help to think outside their professional bubbles.<br />
<br />
It's at <a href="http://www.enablingchange.com.au/crib_sheet.pdf">http://www.enablingchange.com.au/crib_sheet.pdf</a><br />
<br />
I especially designed it for Step 3 in the <a href="http://www.enablingchange.com.au/the_enabling_change_process.pdf">Enabling Change process</a>, where a diverse group of participants select intervention points in the "system of improvement" (a.k.a. "program objectives").<br />
<br />
There are just so many ways to change the world!Les Robinsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05638259315624082853noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4944057046348400019.post-19340340925162950722009-08-27T05:41:00.000-07:002009-08-27T05:41:28.034-07:00A nice way to think about the choice between voluntary and structural approaches to changing people's behaviour<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;"><span lang="EN-US" style="color: #231f20;">Paul Stern of the Division of Behavioral and Social Sciences and Education at the UK’s National Research Council, proposes a sensible way to strategise the choice between involuntary and structural approaches to influencing peoples’ environmental behaviours.</span><o:p></o:p><br />
<span style="color: #231f20;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"></div><div class="MsoNormal">He writes:<br />
<br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #231f20;">“The influences on environmentally significant behavior…can be roughly classified as shown in Table 1. Generally speaking, the stronger the contextual influences (those toward the top of the table), the less important are the personal factors toward the bottom.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;"><o:p></o:p></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEicqT6cm0JmFJlSDi5fi-6e8TTbaibmDOnVQB3W6sp7t-xWKA91Jc1v47YT9cBdItW0kNmroKUE9Y6ijP0hiywFMa0Pzadwzfg5zLaXKywmN7h9ESwTEqhT1uO3a4nKLhTpYibin_rOqGc/s1600-h/Stern+table+1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEicqT6cm0JmFJlSDi5fi-6e8TTbaibmDOnVQB3W6sp7t-xWKA91Jc1v47YT9cBdItW0kNmroKUE9Y6ijP0hiywFMa0Pzadwzfg5zLaXKywmN7h9ESwTEqhT1uO3a4nKLhTpYibin_rOqGc/s400/Stern+table+1.jpg" /></a></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;"></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #231f20;">“This pattern of influences implies that effective laws and regulations, strong financial incentives or penalties, irresistible technology, powerful social norms, and the like can leave little room for personal factors to affect behavior…</span><br />
<span style="color: #231f20;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;"></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;"><span lang="EN-US" style="color: #231f20;">“The pattern of influences on behavior also implies that when contextual influences are weak, the personal factors at the bottom of the table are likely to be the strongest influence on behavior. <o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="color: #231f20;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;"></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;"><span lang="EN-US" style="color: #231f20;">“Also, when the contextual factors cannot be changed, the personal factors may provide the only levers on behavior, even if they are weak or only apply in restricted situations.</span><br />
<span style="color: #231f20;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;"><span lang="EN-US" style="color: #231f20;">“In most real-world contexts, both contextual and personal factors are involved in shaping environmental behavior, so a variety of factors are potentially available for bringing about behavior change. For example, the environmental impact of traveling to work is usually shaped largely by the location of home and of workplaces, the availability of public transportation, the fuel economy of an individual’s motor vehicles, and habit. But even with behavior that is as strongly context-determined as commuting, personal factors can matter, particularly at key decision times. These include the times when people obtain new vehicles, make choices about their maintenance, and, particularly when their homes or workplaces change, making it relatively easy to form new commuting habits."</span><br />
<span style="color: #231f20;"><br />
</span><br />
<span lang="EN-US" style="color: #231f20;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: bold;">TRANSLATION: When people don't really have much choice about their behaviours, focus on structural change.</span></span><br />
<span style="color: #231f20;"><b><br />
</b></span><br />
<span lang="EN-US" style="color: #231f20;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: bold;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal;">He also suggests some principles for designing interventions:</span></span></span><br />
<span style="color: #231f20;"><br />
</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #231f20;">“The complexities of person-situation interactions and a careful reading of the research lend support to a set of general principles for behavior change such as listed in Table 3.</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjPi7WqKL362g6YoS6R63x-jIT1mpv5aZLShagxdN7OyKdffUjsoRlLQeuaRFyGgHoR-vzxGSK-Vtn699BDvbFGyQvS70PcELCD88b1xYmGLbKfACbG9BSHT-Mu7kq5nDRQsFHX92aYc_c/s1600-h/Stern+table3.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjPi7WqKL362g6YoS6R63x-jIT1mpv5aZLShagxdN7OyKdffUjsoRlLQeuaRFyGgHoR-vzxGSK-Vtn699BDvbFGyQvS70PcELCD88b1xYmGLbKfACbG9BSHT-Mu7kq5nDRQsFHX92aYc_c/s400/Stern+table3.jpg" /></a></div><div class="MsoNormal"></div><div class="MsoNormal">Paul C. Stern (2005) Individuals’ Environmentally Significant Behaviour, <i>Environmental Law Reporter News and Analysis</i><span style="font-style: normal;"> 35 10785<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><a href="http://www7.nationalacademies.org/dbasse/Environmental%20Law%20Review%20PDF.pdf">http://www7.nationalacademies.org/dbasse/Environmental%20Law%20Review%20PDF.pdf</a><o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"></div>Les Robinsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05638259315624082853noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4944057046348400019.post-89605002118464618232009-08-27T00:05:00.000-07:002009-08-27T00:05:03.435-07:00Why most of us buckle up<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEheBxf7Ny7L4V8PX0XOU8VJAEQWP_Lt6eB6zUoO9xkIVd6qe1USFIPRWturUfQEIayfd41hlnO2fLnF_Ovk0yu5j6PweMbFKDuy7MeHRG6kTQPFCEAnVd5_GDvv73jf7jVNoJC4nmfUvh8/s1600-h/Seat+belts+in+Finland.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="208" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEheBxf7Ny7L4V8PX0XOU8VJAEQWP_Lt6eB6zUoO9xkIVd6qe1USFIPRWturUfQEIayfd41hlnO2fLnF_Ovk0yu5j6PweMbFKDuy7MeHRG6kTQPFCEAnVd5_GDvv73jf7jVNoJC4nmfUvh8/s400/Seat+belts+in+Finland.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><br />
Just found this great graph in WHO's 2004 <a href="http://whqlibdoc.who.int/publications/2004/9241562609.pdf">World Report on Traffic Injury Prevention</a> (yes, I know, get a life).<br />
<br />
It shows how high profile law enforcement has made a big difference to buckling up behaviour, for 80% of Fins at least.<br />
<br />
Of course that's still 20% of Fins NOT buckling up..a lot of people.<br />
<br />
Incidentally eleven US states now exceed 90% compliance. In New Hampshire, the only US state without mandatory seat belt laws (true to its motto "live free or die"), the rate is 63.5%. In Australia it's 90% - 97% for those well-behaved Victorians.<br />
<br />
<br />
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 12pt;"></span>Les Robinsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05638259315624082853noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4944057046348400019.post-45277966270609585752009-08-25T03:45:00.000-07:002009-08-25T03:45:54.032-07:00Arrg! Not in the face, again!<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgcg6HOfacBiZg1LIgK4DtajgD_DSvXFOJMGTt05rdzLO9Qt-TzXaq76WGbpx8QAAIw0RUoQqvddQu7LWiE5JXemBpfUOpyORO-r6Sh1QSMKqP6xJMpjvFD433R_lR3gXNTRYCJLD1FXlE/s1600-h/vomit.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgcg6HOfacBiZg1LIgK4DtajgD_DSvXFOJMGTt05rdzLO9Qt-TzXaq76WGbpx8QAAIw0RUoQqvddQu7LWiE5JXemBpfUOpyORO-r6Sh1QSMKqP6xJMpjvFD433R_lR3gXNTRYCJLD1FXlE/s320/vomit.jpg" /></a></div><br />
Arrgh! No. Not. No. Port Phillip City Council's Youtube ads are supposed to influence people not to piss or vomit in public. <a href="http://www.youtube.com/user/portphillipcouncil">http://www.youtube.com/user/portphillipcouncil</a><br />
<br />
Ok..we're talking about drunk people here. Do drunk people even remember what they saw on Youtube last night? So maybe the aim is get other people talking...and I guess it might have, after all it's not typical council fare. And the point of that is?<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div>I feel like opening a whole folder on "in your face theory". That's the theory that says that, if people aren't doing the right thing, then they need to be slapped in the face. And if that doesn't work, punched in the face. And if that doesn't...thumped a whole lot harder. It's an amazingly common theory...a kind of atavistic monument to bad parenting. Is there any evidence, anywhere, that this theory does anything other than reinforce bad behaviour? No. But it just keeps on coming.<br />
<br />
How about, instead of validating bad behaviour, we asked ourself what good behaviour might look like - good bystander behaviour for instance - and validate that. The "Tosser" campaign and the RTA's "little finger" speeding campaign have a go at that. If you want to improve the standard of public decency in Fitzroy, the an "I love Fitzroy" approach, demonstrating good bystander behaviour, is likely to be way more effective.<br />
<br />
If you want to disgust people, how about lower their resistance to the message with a light touch: <a href="http://osocio.org/message/what_did_mama_say">http://osocio.org/message/what_did_mama_say</a><br />
<br />
And if you really HAVE to use irony...try to be funny. Like <a href="http://osocio.org/message/buy_a_tribute_to_the_person_that_you_killed">http://osocio.org/message/buy_a_tribute_to_the_person_that_you_killed</a><br />
<br />
If you want to create a viral message, light and funny really does travels faster and further than grim and disgusting.Les Robinsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05638259315624082853noreply@blogger.com1