Sensible Social Policy

Must we make policy decisions about things like national security, environmental protection, welfare, social security, and prescription drugs by seeing who can win a fight over ideology. And of course these fights are often shaped by lobbyists, re-election concerns, and assorted influence peddlers. Those three forces are at work in all levels of government.

Nonprofit organizations are often focused on a socialist, "progressive" or conservative perspective on issues. This is not necessarily bad but can result in advocates only using evidence and logic to promote their own ideology. That is very, very bad indeed!

We should demand science-based logical policies that support widely held human values. Who cares if the policy resulting in a certain case is conservative or liberal? (Actually, almost everyone cares, which is a bit of a problem for my idea.)

This idea is related to my post on the Impact of Ideas Initiative (see the archive for this post). What we need to do is create a program or a new nonprofit devoted to development of sensible policy alternatives.

The Sensible Policy Initiave would exist to design new ways to reach our societal goals. The Initiative would devote resources to the utopian task of creating policies that really do meet these three criteria:

1. Science based - this would include a combination of natural science and social science; theory and research

2. Logical - the policies will have to pass at least some fundamental logical tests; plus they will have to endure an analysis of likely consequences, including the slippery but often tremendous secondacy consequences

3. Values-based - Researchers would not care if anyone's conservative or liberal values are supported; the point is to see that widely-held human values like health and family are at least respected, if not enhanced by any initiative.

The short-term work of the Initiative may actually be focused on evaluating current and yet-to-be-proposed policies according to those three criteria. Staff could also issue white papers containing their own suggestions. Later, consulting on policy and legislation seems to be a possibility.

The Initiative would be a nonprofit organization, or a program run by a larger nonprofit. The Initiative could address social and environmental policy in general or it could focus on a particular area, like education or drugs.

What do you think of this idea? And do you have any suggestions for names that top Sensible Policy Initiative? (Given the way the world works maybe Forlorn Hope Policy Center would be a good name!)

Promoting Change Through Education

No, I'm not saying that teachers should be social activists in their classrooms. This post is about a tool that educators could use to promote social change. The tool I'm referring to is the direct teaching of thinking skills.

Edward De Bono was the first (I think) to create a program of training in thinking skills. You can read more about the program, CoRT Thinking Lessons, at his official web site. The lessons need to be taught in more of our schools, as do the related Six Thinking Hats lessons.

Speaking of decisions, you may know of many ways that our minds can lead us astray when it comes time to make a decision. Harvard Business Review's latest issue is devoted to decision making. One of the articles - now I'm writing off the cuff and have no copy of the magazine - focused on psychological traps that can undermine our decision making process.

Maybe students need to learn about those traps and how they manifest themselves in everyday decisions?

I've recently read another book on thinking skills called Why Didn't I think of That? Some of the author's lessons on effective thinking could be turned into lessons for students in high school or college.

So, what is the point? Aside from just teaching young people to think more effectively there is a broader purpose, one that does really relate to social change. But let me start out my explanation by reminding you of the roots of human behavior:

1. Social pressure
2. Habit
3. Biology
4. Genetics
5. Psychology
6. Culture - nroms, beliefs, goals

The teaching of thinking skills will not change anything on my list. We may as well try to breed people to breathe methane gas!

The point is to intervene in the process that leads social pressure, habit, culture, and psychology to shape our behavior. Many of the decisions we make because of outside influences are harmful to us and to society. Consider smoking, gang membership, "keeping up with the Joneses", and suicide bombing to mention just a few examples. Giving students formal tools that they can use to examine habit, cultural expectations, psychology (their own and other peoples'), and peer pressure should do the trick.

The big problem with teaching people to think more effeectively is that we will, inevitably and by design, lose control over what people think and do. Maybe this is why thinking skills are not more widely taught in schools.

I still wish we could include thinking skills training, perhaps as a half-year of "life skills" training. Who knows what may become of our institutions, norms, and beliefs as they face more scrutiny by more people? If they can't withstand scrutiny from the people who live with them then they should be replaced!

Thinkertoys and social change

Michael Michalko's (1991) book Thinkertoys is about creativity for business problem solving. Thinkertoys describes 34 techniques for creative thinking along with techniques for evaluating ideas and for becoming more creative in general. This post is about using those techniques in government, activism efforts, nonprofit management, education, and social entrepreneuership.

Most of the challenges that governments, activists, and nonprofits face fit into three categories: design, improvement, and marketing. New programs, policies, or services need to be created (design). Existing programs, policies, and services could be made more effective (improvement). We want people to change peoples' behavior in a certain way or garner their support for some effort of ours (marketing).

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I just now learned that a second edition is due out in May. The second edition contains some new techniques and some new examples.

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If you decide to read Thinkertoys and use the techniques then consider these two pieces of advice. The first is that you should decide what sort of challenge(s) are facing you now. Are they design challenges? Improvement? Marketing?

If you are trying to "sell" people on donating money, voting (at all), voting a certain way, becoming paid members of your organization, or changing their behavior then your challenge is one of marketing.

If you want to get better results from a program of any sort, then this is improvement.

If you want to create a new fundraising campaign, public education project, protest form or method, education program, or social service program then your challenge is design.

With those thoughts in mind, the second piece of advice is to consider which of Michalko's techniques are useful for your type of challenge. Here are my ideas regarding which types of challenges can be best addressed with which techniques:

Marketing - idea grid (with modifications), intuition, fantasy questions, SCAMPER, Phoenix Checklist, mind maps, analogies, scenarios, diagramming, random stimulation, analogies

Improvement - SCAMPER, attribute listing, dreams, intuition, reversal, fractionation, diagramming, random stimulation, analogies

Design - mind maps, fantasy questions, intuition, incubation, dreams, morphological analysis, SCAMPER, matrix (with modifications), random stimulation, analogies

Salesmanship and Social Change

Jump Start Your Business Brain by Doug Hall is a worthwhile read for activists. Why? The book is about selling products and services. What do most activists want to do? They want to sell some idea, policy, law, lifestyle change, or behavior change.

And why should the rest of us care about what you are selling? Maybe the answer is obvious: we/you must do _______ to make society better! If that is really your attitude toward whatever you are "selling" to the rest of the world, please do yourself a favor and study Jump Start Your Business Brain. Why? Here are some thoughts inspired by the book:

1. Can you define what benefit your idea offers?
2. Do you know what your audience will perceive as a benefit?
3. Can you deliver one of those benefits using your idea?
4. Why would we believe that you can deliver the benefit that you promise?

Hall walks readers through creating compelling answers to questions 1, 3, and 4 (2 you will have to tackle on your own). He also offers extensive information on the science of marketing, which he refers to as marketing physics.

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And finally, do not expect logic or values to carry the day for you! As Edward De Bono describes in Serious Creativity we all have our own "logic bubbles" from which we evaluate new ideas and information.

Next Time: How can we create powerful new strategies, tactics, policies, and programs? Read my thoughts on Thinkertoys by Michael Michalko.