insights

“If something is not worth doing (at all) - it’s really not worth doing well
(so find instead enjoyment in the attempt)” - Stephen Forsyth

I have been meaning to write about the Doug McKenzie-Mohr training on Fostering Sustainable Behavior. Many of those working locally on societal and social change went to his advanced workshop recently (and seeing so many people there was inspiring in itself).

His model for community based social marketing came out of his work as an environmental psychologist. It’s rare to see a perfect model for systemic change. It highlights why many efforts at developing a healthy society partially miss the mark - even though motivated by very good intentions. He has also created an amazing resource for societal growth (and an impressive network for those who want to log in and learn from the successes of others).

Many of the issues we face in our organisations and our communities we all have in common and now have the answers to (e.g. water demand management, organisational culture change, community waste reduction, energy efficiency etc.). So the question is not so much about “What to do?” but more “Why don’t we?”. Doug answers this question.

The five steps of: 1. Selecting the actvity to encourage, 2. Identifying barriers and benefits to change, 3. Developing strategies using tools that cover those barriers and benefits, 4. Conducting a pilot to test in the area of response and 5. only then, broadly implement and measure - all seem sensible and logical. It is the essential sub-elements covered in the workshop that make the discipline behind his approach exciting in its potential.

But the problem with perfect processes is we are imperfect beings. There are lots of things we miss. For example, the consideration of the barriers and benefits to change should look at the new behavior, and also the barriers and benefits of the existing behavior. It should also consider the physical (UR), socio-structural (UR), cultural (LL) and intentional (UL) reasons - such as the pragmatics of action, the supporting laws, peer pressure and individual awareness. We would not often do all sixteen sets of inquiry.

Some others things that came up for me in the workshop that impact on otherwise excellent programs of behavior change were:

1. Lack of a Compelling Vision - “I get what you are saying - but so what!”.
2. No Effect Data - “We changed something - but tell me again why we did this?”.
3. No Impact Analysis - “Oops! - sorry, we’ll now need to fix that”.
4. False Barrier Perception - “Oh - You didn’t ask about that!”
5. Cross Functional Actions - “What, we both did it?”
6. Invisible Response Costs - “We can change that - but 50 other things will change too!”
7. Ongoing Iteration - “We were 58% successful - but only had funding for one go?”

With careful analysis we can get them all. These programs for sustainable change can be successful.

What is more interesting is why we wouldn’t follow the model and Doug’s learnings when these are available. In asking the question “Why don’t they? ” - the real insight is “Why didn’t we?”. That asks something about our own thinking.

This was the topic of a research paper on Sustainability Assessment I gave at the IAIA conference in Vancouver last May. Given the choice of changing our thinking or changing the process - we’ll often unconsciously change the process - so it doesn’t work. That’s fascinating.

It means even if we know how, without help, we might not. It is one of the topics I am speaking on at the 12th International Conference on Thinking next month.

but more on that later …