Good egg, bad apple
How can you use the human tendency to sort everything to see your problem in new ways?
This is Andrew Benedict-Nelson, social change strategist and innovation educator. Each week, I share a question that you and your organization can use to find a new perspective on the toughest problems you face. Reply to the e-mail or comment on the site and we can talk about them together!
NOW FOR THIS WEEK’S QUESTION…
As we move through the world, we tend to sort things into “good” and “bad” whether we ought to or not. How are these categories used in the world of the social problem you are trying to solve? Are there explicit ways things are sorted into “good” and “bad” in your organization? What about unconscious ones? What assumptions might you be able to challenge if you let go of these categories?
The human brain is a sorting machine. It’s the root of much of our cleverness, but it can also trip us up. Stereotypes, logical fallacies, errors in judgment, and other problems come from our conscious and unconscious tendencies to put everything in boxes. Even if you are aware of it, it’s very hard to stop, especially when a lot of data is being thrown at you.
This exercise takes that tendency and hacks it, using our own unconscious biases to explore the social forces around our problem. We do it by using two simple, crude categories: “good” and “bad.”
Almost nobody actually has boxes labeled “good” and “bad” in their office. Yet in any social setting, you can usually find the categories right under the surface. We know which tasks everyone in the organization loves and which ones they hate. We know which board members are easy to deal with and which ones pitch a fit. As much as we would love to deny it, teachers are aware of how the “good” and “bad” labels float over their students. Same goes for nurses and their patients.
It makes anybody a little queasy. Yet unpacking these categories can teach us a ton about howe we approach out problem and how we might find new approaches too. Let’s get into it:
HOW TO DO IT
Make a list of nouns - Think of four or five different nouns that come up frequently in the life or your organization or the social problem you are trying to solve. I find it’s easiest to start with people or things you encounter every day. But you might also look at concepts and phenomena connect to your topic that evoke strong feelings. In any case, this doesn’t have to be a perfect list, just a quick sample from your problem and the world around it.
Visualize good and bad for each - Now apply the words “good” and “bad” to each noun. Good client, bad client. Good policy, bad policy. Good expenditure, bad expenditure. Try to visualize both sides and write down a few of the attributes of what you see. This can make people uncomfortable, especially when applied to people, so feel free to distance yourself from your conclusions a little. You can do this by saying, “Well, even though I know we shouldn’t, we sometimes talk about noncompliant individuals as if they were ‘bad patients.” If you really hate the idea, make a promise to yourself to throw our your list when you’re done.
Compare and contrast - If you are working with a group and feel comfortable sharing, see if other people approached the “good” and “bad” categories in the same way you did. This exercise can often lead to nervous laughter, and I usually take that as a sign of success. You’re unearthing things that aren’t usually spoken about in a group. However, if you are really worried about conflict in your group, ask everyone to do the exercise privately and just share their insights from the following steps.
Analyze in both directions - Once you’ve described the “good” and “bad” examples for the various nouns, you should look for patterns in two ways. First, did you learn something new about the original words you wrote down once you looked at their “good” and “bad” extremes? Might the words encompass more than you originally thought? Next, consider whether all of your “good” examples have anything in common, as well as all of your “bad” ones. What can you learn about what people value in the world of your problem?
End with behavior - This “good and bad” exercise gets at lots of unspoken attitudes and beliefs. But in the end we are trying to understand behaviors that are objectively observable, even if the reasons behind them may be a little unclear. So try to connect these murky categories to concrete things you have seen people say or do. It may help to think in sentences like, “Because we secretly consider X to be ‘bad’ we often avoid talking about it.” You can tell the exercise is a success if you have gained new insight into these behaviors. The beliefs about “good and bad” behind them may show you a social norm that you need to change.
CAN YOU GIVE ME AN EXAMPLE?
A theme that I’ve noticed doing this exercise with many groups over the years his how many of the “bad” behaviors are not inherently harmful, but instead actions that create friction within a system through noncompliance. User experience designers have known for a long time that when lots of people are not using a system as intended, they are offering clues on how to improve the system. But in fields like health care or child welfare, the stakes are so high and the resources so restrained that noncompliance can have serious consequences. Because of these consequences, many of these patients or clients get sorted into the “bad” categories like “difficult parent” or “frequent flier” just because the system isn’t meeting their needs. But understanding the patterns of behavior behind these categories can help when we decide it’s time to make the system better for everyone.
COOL, SO WHAT MAKES THIS WORK?
This question is an example of how to view your problem in new ways using the configuration dynamic. It’s one of six innovation dynamics I help people master to improve their critical thinking and build strategies for social change. Reply to this e-mail with your answer to the question and I’ll let you know what I think! Or learn more by visiting http://www.teachingsocialchange.com.
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