An empowerment spiral
An empowerment spiral
Information, knowledge, action
Why do people still smoke, even though they know it causes cancer? Why do people still travel by air, even though they know it adds to climate destruction? Why do people continue using chemical pesticides even though they know that they destroy life in the soil?
The relation between information, knowledge and action is not simple. We constantly screen out information offered to us by science, the media, other people, and even our own experience. If it doesn’t ”fit”, we reject it.
Why be surprised when some new scandal breaks showing that scientists have manipulated the ”facts” to suit what they wanted to find? You and I do it all the time. Admittedly a scientific education is supposed to teach how not to do that, but it generally misses out one very important factor: not only our minds but also our beliefs and feelings are involved in the conversion of facts to knowledge.
What I know is great, and what I don’t know is no problem because I can find out. The problems come with what I believe, or think I know.
Most information campaigns and many educational programs are designed along the ”scientific” (i e mind-focused) model:
It all seems very logical. But we also know very well that it’s a poor model of reality. We inform and inform, for example about the risks of smoking. If the scientific model were an accurate picture of reality, there would hardly be a smoker left in the world today.
In practice almost the opposite seems to be true. Each of us is bombarded with gigantic amounts of information every day, unimaginably much more than we can actually absorb. Somehow, each of us decides what to hear and what to activate.
A circular relation
One way to understand what goes on is to view information and action as two elements in a circular or even spiral relationship. The third element is attention, or caring. It works like this:
- I take in information about things I care about. If you decide to buy a mountain bike, you see nothing but mountain bikes where you saw none before.
- I care about things I believe I can affect by my own actions.
Conversely, things I believe I can’t influence are things I care little about; therefore I take in little information about them. For instance, if I fully believe that there is nothing I can do to reduce my travel by air or by car, then I will probably not even notice the new train timetables or cycle paths.
There are of course exceptions. I might be passionately interested in cars even though I see no possibility of owning one. Some people take in information about things they believe they can’t influence, often in a limited subject area, without actually taking it in, but rather spewing it out again over anyone who will listen. You may know someone who seems to delight in telling you that the world is about to come to an end, or the moral fibre of the country is in total collapse? Still, most of us in most contexts behave in accordance with the circular diagram.
Bad conscience
Sometimes we allow ourselves to care about something despite believing there is nothing we can do about it. This is when we acquire a bad conscience: we take in information but because of our beliefs (whether correct or incorrect) are quite unable to take action in that area.
Many people feel they should use the car less (but then I’d never get all my work done…) or should send money to Amnesty (but there are so many other things I need the money for…) or should spend more time with their parents (but then I’d be neglecting the children…), and so on.
This is a really interesting condition. On the minus side, it takes a lot of time and energy to maintain a bad conscience. On the plus side, it opens up a possibility for change.
Breaking into the circle
If you want to bring about change, for yourself, for other people, or for an organization, you need to break into the circle. The circular relationship can be very rigid and quite difficult to break into. Or… more correctly, it’s extremely difficult to break into the circle only via information, as the description shows. This is where most of us try to do it, most of the time.
The other two points on the circle can be more fruitful.
I can break into the circle at the point of action, which seems quite the reverse of all conventional wisdom on influencing people’s behaviour. First comes the changed behaviour, then the thirst for information, then the change in attitudes and beliefs.
I can also break into the circle at the point of caring, especially if I have personal interaction with people. This is why – as the best salespeople know – the most important skill in selling is to be able to listen. In a coaching situation, this means above all listening for meaning. What is important to this person?
The circle becomes a spiral
Once the circle has been breached, it can in the best case become an upward spiral – an empowerment spiral:
Between the three pillars of the spiral (Caring, Finding Out, Taking action) are three other important dimensions of empowerment.
Between Caring and Finding out come questions. Learning to formulate good questions is a basic element of empowerment.
Between Finding out and Taking action comes intention. As we become more empowered, we become more skilful in using our will-power to formulate attractive, feasible intentions; and to formulate our own criteria for success.
Between Taking action and Caring comes feedback. Seeing the results of my actions – whether ‘successful’ or not – is a prerequisite for expanding my scope of caring – and thus moving up the spiral.
And in the centre of the spiral – actually as the first point – is the question of focus: what is our dialogue or our action actually about? What is it we are trying to be or do?
Intervention
In a classic behaviour-change model (information -> knowledge etc.) there is only one intervention point; with the empowerment model there are six.
The six intervention points
Intervention at the Focus point is about delimiting the area in which change is sought.
Example of focus: Composting food waste
Better use by the community of communal composting of food waste, as a contribution to a more sustainable society. |
Intervention at the 'Caring' point is about asking questions - and listening to the answers.
Caring: examples of questions
Do you use the municipal composting facilities? What might induce you to make (more) use of them? What is stopping you? |
Methods/media can vary, from one-on-one to web-based audit. The point is to elicit concerns and values. By asking and listening, you make it clear that you yourself care, both about the issue and the person /people.
Questions. Your questions help respondents to clarify their own concerns, and thus to formulate their own questions, which is the next stage.
Examples of questions about questions
What do you want to know, to support your composting action? For instance, What happens at the municipal composting centre? How is the methane in the food waste dealt with? What are the end products? |
You can also offer direct help in formulating questions of relevance to each person: What is interesting? What is important? What do I need to know in order to take action?
Intervention at the 'Finding out' point is about answering questions: providing information for which there is already a demand.
Find out
Where and how might you find the answers? If the information is not readily available: can we help with contacting experts? |
To help trigger the next stage (Intention), information can be supplied partly in the form of invitations to experiment - an important concept in empowerment. It is easier to formulate an intention and act on it in a spirit of experimentation than to make a once-and-for-all decision.
Intention. There are several methods to arrive at feasible intentions, which can be offered as support. Some of the common questions are variations on: What do you most want to change? How will you know when you have succeeded? What will be different in your life?
What is your ambition? - examples: I will eliminate ALL food waste from my household garbage, and I will influence at least 5 more people to use the composting facilities.
When will you reach it? - examples: I will reach my personal goal by tomorrow (no need to wait!) and will contact other people in the next two weeks. How: Do you need any resources? - examples: I need a list of exactly what can be put in the compost bag, but that's available on-line; and the special compost bags, but we have lots of those. |
Intervention at the 'Taking action' point is (of course) supportive of the action, which can take many forms; one important form is to help further clarify and perhaps quantify criteria for success: how will you know or decide that this particular action was successful? In this way you prepare for the next stage, Feedback, by clarifying what to record/measure/look for.
Example: the coach or facilitator could host a demonstration; or have compost bins moved closer to the users; or could help negotiate with the service provider, eg to supply more frequent statistics, or to empty compost bins more frequently. |
Feedback. The coach can contribute to a well-functioning reporting, analysis /synthesis and feedback system.
Example: Process data from the service provider to show trends, publicise the results. |
Focus - again. At any point it can be useful to recall the reasons for the work: what is it we are trying to be or to do?
Status check:
Are we moving in the desired direction. i.e. with less food waste in the general garbage bin? Is it time to shift the focus from 'better handling of food waste' to 'less food waste produced'? |
Spirals can have more than one direction
One reason empowerment is so important today is that there are many forces combining to create downward spirals.
At a time in history when humankind, especially affluent humankind, has powers of choice formerly only dreamed of by kings and emperors, more and more people experience themselves as powerless.
Isn’t it strange?
The great filmmaker Tarkovsky once said that all great art is empowering. This is clearly not a criterion popular with mass media, especially those with most influence: newspapers and television. Their menu of failures and disasters, usually clinically free of context, is guaranteed to help most people experience helplessness and frustration.
The rapid change and shifting balances of power in the world have also created a situation where there is for most people a widening gap between what we believe about the way the world is, and what is actually happening. Consequently, we are able to take in less and less of the information that might help us make sense of life and the world, creating a disempowerment spiral.
Consider again the statement that this is a time in history when humankind, especially affluent humankind, has powers of choice formerly only dreamed of by kings and emperors. Is that how you experience your life? Can you take in that statement and make it part of your frame of reference for understanding the world?
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method(s)
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