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…
For every social problem, there are rules and laws that shape the behavior holding that problem in place. But very few sets of rules function in exactly the same way all the time. If you think about it, you can probably identify circumstances where at least some of the rules change and different behaviors result. What can you learn from such unusual situations? Are there behaviors you wish you could import from those times into normal life? How might you do it?
I used to love indoor recess. In case you’re from a part of the country that never has bad weather, this is what we would do in Kansas when there was a thunderstorm or other event that made it unsafe to play outside.
I’m sure part of the reason I loved it was because I was never much of a jock — my friends and I were more likely to be acting out scenarios from Star Trek on the playground. But my enthusiasm was much more about the treasures that would emerge from some mysterious closet only unlocked during bad weather. These included board games galore, including Castle Risk, which I had only ever encountered in that setting.
Looking back, though, I think what was really special about indoor recess was the way it changed relationships among the kids in the class. Kids who would have played soccer every day were suddenly available for other activities. Some of the popular kids were isolated from their peers in other classrooms and would actually acknowledge folks outside the clique. I bet the teachers were aware of even more changes than we were. All these changes happened because us kids were in a different environment with different rules.
When we think about it, for almost any group of people we spend a lot of time with, there are special circumstances where we have seen different behaviors. This exercise uses those experiences to gain insight into your problem. Here's how it goes.
HOW TO DO IT
Find your indoor recess. To start with, think of a temporary, unusual situation where the rules around your problem became really different. For some people, this comes naturally, but don’t feel bad if it doesn’t — many of us file these experiences away deep in our brains because they are so strange. If you can’t find it right away, take a walk to jog your memory, or perhaps talk to a family member or friend who might remember how you were affected by the unusual circumstances.
See the entire classroom. When I use this exercise with folks, someone almost always raises their hand and says, “Does our staff retreat count?” Maybe, maybe not. If you are trying to solve a persistent problem within your organization, then yes, you can learn more about the relevant behaviors by seeing how everyone acted on the ropes course. But if you are looking for answers to a social problem that is bigger than your organization, you also need circumstances are big enough to affect more than just your group, even if you only experienced it through that group’s perspective.
Another frequently asked question is whether you can run this exercise using rule changes that occurred during natural disasters. Yes, those almost always work. Just remember to look at how everyone’s behavior changed, not just yours.Focus on your Castle Risk. You may not be able to remember every way in which things changed during the unusual time you’ve chosen. But you can probably find a few really good or really bad behaviors that stick out. It’s better to drill down into this particular memory or memory than to paint a comprehensive view of what happened. Are there aspects of this change that you wish you could hold on to all the time? Or if it's a bad memory, why has it stuck with you even after that time ended?
After the storm passes. The last step is figuring out what these unusual behaviors mean for normal times. To bridge the gap, I often tell myself something like, "Remember, these different behaviors came from the exact same people.” Does this mean that the social norms followed most of the time are just a result of the normal “outdoor recess” environment? Or perhaps there is a version of the unusual behavior that occurs all the time that you could draw out or enhance. In any case, this exercise isn't truly finished until you’ve used the unusual circumstances to critically examine the normal ones.
CAN YOU GIVE ME AN EXAMPLE?
Sure, we’re all still living through one: the COVID-19 pandemic. Heck, there’s a good chance that was the special circumstance you picked.
Of course, the pandemic is a tough example because it isn't over yet, and many of its effects will never completely go away. But I’ll use a relevant example from the near-total shutdowns of 2020. Scientists have estimated that even though mechanized travel of all kinds fell significantly in 2020, humanity’s total carbon output only dropped about six percent. On the one hand, this shows us that carbon is deeply embedded into our society’s infrastructure — individual behavior changes like not flying won’t get us very far.
On the other hand, we also learned that society did not collapse just because most office workers stayed home. So a more positive lesson we might take away from that time is that we should be more open to bending the rules when the outcomes lower carbon emissions and increase quality of life. The key is to use these experiences as a jumping-off point for critical thinking about the future, not as a binary choice between two different versions of the past.
COOL, SO WHAT MAKES THIS WORK?
This question is an example of how to see your problem in new ways using the limits 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.