Food Chain and Food Web (Ecosystem) EVS, B. Pharmacy 1st Year, Sem-II
Change the message or change the people
1. Change the message or change the people?
Integral Theory Conference 2010
Dr Chris Riedy 30th July 2010
THINK.
CHANGE.
DO
2. Research Director at the Institute for
Sustainable Futures, UTS (Sydney, Australia)
Change agent, researcher and consultant
Sustainability
Futures studies / foresight
Climate change response
Social and cultural change
More at http://chrisriedy.com
4. “I don’t know of any intelligent
person who, after studying and
grasping the integral overview,
chooses a narrower alternative”
(Wilber 2004)
How could an integral
approach improve Australia’s
response to climate change?
5. The Eye of the Storm – research agenda
“Further exploration of the factors that influence subjective
development, particularly the conditions under which public
participation, constructivist education, community cultural
development and integral transformative practice are more
likely to promote positive subjective development”
Deliberative democracy and civic participation
Strategies for motivating pro-environmental
behavior
Action research project to map, review and connect change
creation practices for reducing energy-related greenhouse
gas emissions in Australia
6. Introduction
Integral theory and behavior change
AQAL scan of household behavior change
Translation strategies
Transformation strategies
Discussion: balancing translation and
transformation
7. Introduction
Integral theory and behavior change
AQAL scan of household behavior change
Translation strategies
Transformation strategies
Discussion: balancing translation and
transformation
8. Observe practice Identify domains or perspectives that are currently
neglected in theorising, designing and
implementing behaviour change initiatives
Integrate Use the Integral model to suggest ways to connect
and integrate complementary behavior change
initiatives that could be more effective in
combination
Develop Draw on the Integral framework to develop, adapt,
or design more effective behavior change strategies
9. Stage 1 AQAL scan on household behaviour change for climate change response
Stage 2 Further development and comparison of translation vs transformation
strategies
Stage 3 Interviews with change agents in Australia
Stage 4 Testing AQAL insights through new behaviour change initiatives
Possible
future
stages
• Interview change agents outside Australia
• Extend the focus beyond energy use to other behaviours that are
relevant to climate change
10. Introduction
Integral theory and behavior change
AQAL scan of household behavior change
Translation strategies
Transformation strategies
Discussion: balancing translation and
transformation
11. Introduction
Integral theory and behavior change
AQAL scan of household behavior change
Translation strategies
Transformation strategies
Discussion: balancing translation and
transformation
12. JITP article
To establish a desired set of
behaviors (UR), a behavior
change initiative must
sufficiently elevate and
maintain the individual
motivation to carry out those
behaviors (UL) while
providing supportive
systems and institutions (LR)
and cultural validation,
support and respect (LL)
13. Experiential
Values, beliefs, attitudes, mental models,
frames
Need to make climate change a tangible
experience
Need representations of climate change that
engage multiple audiences
Focus on positive messages
Motivate using existing interior structures
(translation)
Motivate by facilitating interior development
(transformation)
Behavioral
Observe current behaviors
• Carbon footprinting
• Direct and indirect emissions
Identify desired (target) behaviors
• Potential to bring about desired change
• Feasibility
Behavior categories (e.g. environmental
activism, non-activist public sphere, private-
sphere environmentalism, other – Stern, 2000)
Cultural
Need validation from identity groups
Supportive groups help individuals to initiate
and maintain new behaviors (e.g. EcoTeams,
TransitionTowns, CRAGs)
Social movements and activist cultures (e.g.
Climate Action Groups, Climate Camps)
Cultural change – symbols, media, discourse
Supportive change agent cultures
Cultural barriers – custom, myths
Dialogue with participants
Systemic
Systems help or hinder target behaviors
Hierarchy of preferential behaviors
Diffusion of innovations – different
strategies for early adopters vs mainstream
Feedback systems to support learning
Persuasive technology and choice
architecture
Information is important but not sufficient
Financial incentives and penalties
Supportive legal, political and social context
16. Howard Gardner
Linguistic
Logical-mathematical
Musical
Bodily-kinesthetic
Spatial
Interpersonal
Intrapersonal
Natural
17. Are there states in which individuals are more or less
receptive to change?
Emotional states – hope vs despair
Weather states – droughts and disasters
Economic states – financial crisis
Be prepared for emergent change opportunities
18. Some survey evidence (Australian) for gender
differences in concern about climate change and
likelihood to act
Some behavior change initiatives focusing on
women
1 Million Women
OxfamAustralia’s Sisters on the Planet
19. 1. Observe current behaviours and identify target behaviours
2. Identify and remove systemic barriers to the target behaviours
(technological, economic, informational, institutional etc)
3. Build in processes for group support and cultural validation for
participants (large or small scale)
4. Identify audience segments and translate messages to resonate
with these segments (informed by developmental psychology)
5. Experiment with transformative learning processes to help
people to develop more inclusive interior structures
6. Use diverse techniques to engage different types of people in
different ways (multiple intelligences, multiple types)
7. Be opportunistic and flexible – take advantage of states that
arise
20. Introduction
Integral theory and behavior change
AQAL scan of household behavior change
Translation strategies
Transformation strategies
Discussion: balancing translation and
transformation
21. Introduction
Integral theory and behavior change
AQAL scan of household behavior change
Translation strategies
Transformation strategies
Discussion: balancing translation and
transformation
22. Designing or tailoring messages to:
connect with people just as they are,
motivating and informing them in a way that
is in alignment with how they already see the
world.These communications resonate with a
person’s existing worldview without requiring
them to be a different person in order to take
action (Brown and Riedy)
Rapid deployment, immediate
benefits
Social marketing approach
23. Common in climate action groups /
grassroots
Inciting direct action and civil
disobedience
War, conflict, emergency,
mobilisation
Coal is the enemy!
Fight against climate-related
disasters
Heroic status
Mastery of nature
Endorsement by popular hip-hop
acts
24. Common within faith communities
Stewardship or care for the Earth
Christ has given the church the task of caring for people and the
creation. In regard to large-scale environmental issues, God’s call
to love our neighbours means taking a global focus...It means
genuinely loving our global neighbours through just, loving and
sacrificial action (Matt. 22: 34-40) – Australian Evangelical
Alliance
25. Failure to act on climate change is a sin
when we exploit God’s creation to breaking point, we
break the most fundamental commandment known
to us: out of our greed and selfishness, we knowingly
cause the degradation of the world’s ecosystems
instead of protecting the design that issues from the
Creator’s generosity.Wilfully causing environmental
degradation is a sin – Anglican Bishop of Canberra
Weekly meat-free day
26. Dominates government
messaging
Financial gains
Reduce energy bills
Increase the value of your
home
‘Smart’ action
People that act on climate
change are smarter – they
are getting ahead
27. Dominates large NGO
messaging
Focus on participation,
teamwork and support
Action for a better
world
Community focus
Workshops
Support teams
28. How to successfully blend messages
Crompton (2008)
Simple and painless steps that do not challenge values
will not deliver the scale of change required
Little or no evidence of spillover effect
Additional pro-environmental behavior is more likely if
the initial behavior is motivated by environmental values
Translation may deliver short-term wins but will entrench
counter-productive worldviews in the longer term
29. The critique is primarily of appeals to Orange
values
Perhaps we just need to get smarter with our
messaging
Plenty of scope to be more ambitious and creative
with appeals to particular values
▪ e.g. Climate Prosperity for Orange
Individual behaviour change occurs within a
shifting context that opens up new behaviours
e.g. carbon pricing shifts financial incentives for
Orange, opening up new actions that are value-
consistent
30. Introduction
Integral theory and behavior change
AQAL scan of household behavior change
Translation strategies
Transformation strategies
Discussion: balancing translation and
transformation
31. Introduction
Integral theory and behavior change
AQAL scan of household behavior change
Translation strategies
Transformation strategies
Discussion: balancing translation and
transformation
32. A change in the way a person sees
the world
Transformative approaches seek to
trigger personal development of
participants along one or more
developmental lines towards more
inclusive structures
Builds the developmental capacity
to take more perspectives
33. To truly understand and care about climate change requires
a worldcentric perspective
“climate change is a cognitively complex issue: it is a “big picture”
problem, and to understand its full implications a worldcentric
perspective is required as well as an ability to handle both complexity
and paradox [and]...a well-developed capacity to be self-reflexive
(O’Brien, in press)”
Can (and should) Integral change agents help more people to
develop worldcentric perspectives?
Interior development is slow, inconsistent, unpredictable and
personally challenging
Transformative learning, ITP, coaching, psychotherapy
34. “the process by which people examine problematic
frames of reference to make them more inclusive,
discriminating, open, reflective, and emotionally
able to change. It can be provoked by a single
event – a disorienting dilemma – or it can take
place gradually and cumulatively over time.
Discourse is central to the process.We need to
engage in conversation with others in order to
better consider alternative perspectives and
determine their validity” (Cranton 2006)
35. Individual experience
Prior life experience – source of dilemmas
“Classroom” experiences – value-laden content, intense
experiential activities
Promotion of critical reflection
Engagement in dialogue with the self and others
Build trust and empathy
Equal opportunities for participation
Identify ‘edge of meaning’
36. Holistic orientation to teaching that encourages
engagement with other ways of knowing,
including the affective and relational
Awareness of context
Personal, sociocultural factors
Physical surroundings
Prior experience
Time
Establishing authentic relationships built on
trust and openness
37. Creating disequilibrium or dissonance, which
can be uncomfortable or even painful
What right do I have to encourage you to question
what you believe?When is it a responsibility, and
when is it an imposition?When is it empowering,
and when is it destructive? At what point do I need
to leave aside my ego and thirst for learners to do
as I do? (Cranton 2006)
38. Participation in transformative approaches needs to
be voluntary
This limits the scope of transformation as a basis for
behavior change initiatives
Duty of care to provide support and resources to
help participants work through difficulties
Form relationships with participants and
understand where they are at in their
transformative process
39. Introduction
Integral theory and behavior change
AQAL scan of household behavior change
Translation strategies
Transformation strategies
Discussion: balancing translation and
transformation
40. Introduction
Integral theory and behavior change
AQAL scan of household behavior change
Translation strategies
Transformation strategies
Discussion: balancing translation and
transformation
41. Translation is clearly the only practical strategy for
reaching large numbers of people
Need rapid assessment tools to identify values and
worldviews in target audiences
Further development and testing of creative messages for
different levels
Experimentation with blending of messages
Reflection on how to integrate translation strategies with
broader systemic change strategies
42. Dilemma:Translation may not deliver sufficiently
deep changes, whereas transformation is too slow
and limited in scope
Possible response: Employ both strategies
simultaneously, playing to their strengths
Focus time and resource-intensive transformative
approaches on potential climate leaders – a climate
leadership elite
Climate leaders use translation to reach out to everyone
else
43.
44. Do you know of good examples of translation messaging?
Level-specific
Blending
Are you aware of other transformative strategies that could
be effective?
What is your position on the ethics of transformation?
Can the approach to balancing translation and
transformation proposed here succeed?What are the
openings for pursuing this?
Are there opportunities to collaborate to build this kind of
approach?
45. Brown, BC & Riedy, C 2006, "Use of the Integral Framework to Design Developmentally-
Appropriate Sustainability Communications," inW Filho, Innovation, Education and
Communication for Sustainable Development, Peter Lang Scientific Publishers, Frankfurt, pp. 661-
688.
Cranton, P 2006, Understanding and PromotingTransformative Learning: A Guide for Educators of
Adults, Jossey-Bass, San Francisco.
Crompton,T 2008, "Weathercocks and signposts: the environment movement at a crossroads."
Retrieved from http://assets.wwf.org.uk/downloads/weathercocks_report2.pdf
Gunnlaugson, O 2005, "Toward Integrally InformedTheories ofTransformative Learning." Journal
ofTransformative Education, vol. 3, no. 4, pp. 331-353.
Kegan, R 1982, The Evolving Self: Problem and Process in Human Development, Harvard University
Press, Harvard.
O'Brien, K, in press, "Responding to Climate Change:The Need for an Integral Approach," in S
Esbjörn-Hargens, IntegralTheory in Action: Applied,Theoretical, and Critical Perspectives on the
AQAL Model, SUNY Press, NewYork. Retrieved from http://integrallife.com/files/Integral Climate
Change Karen OBrien.pdf
Riedy, C 2009, "Household Behavior Change for Climate Change Response: An Integral Scan."
Journal of IntegralTheory and Practice, vol. 4, no. 4, pp. 103-120.
Taylor, EW 2009, "FosteringTransformative Learning," in J Mezirow & EWTaylor, Transformative
Learning in Practice : Insights from Community, Workplace, and Higher Education, Jossey-Bass, San
Francisco, pp. 3-17.
Wilber, K 2004, 'Foreword', in R Slaughter (ed.), Futures Beyond Dystopia: Creating Social
Foresight, RoutledgeFalmer, London and NewYork, pp. xi-xiii.
Editor's Notes
It’s important to say a bit about myself and where I’m coming from so that you understand the experiences and practices that inform my perspective.I come to integral theory from a sustainability perspective, and as a practitioner more than a theorist.I want to take you on a little journey of how I discovered integral theory and how I’ve been using it, before getting into the detail of this presentation.
Established in 1997Long history of working to create changeTrying to use Integral Theory to make our theories of change more explicitSustainability lens / change creation lens
Tell the whole story of how I shifted direction
I welcome interaction along the way, so feel free to raise questions or comments as they arise. I’ll pause a couple of times along the way and try and leave plenty of time for discussion at the end as well.
I welcome interaction along the way, so feel free to raise questions or comments as they arise. I’ll pause a couple of times along the way and try and leave plenty of time for discussion at the end as well.
Today, I am focusing on Stages 1 and 2. Stage 3 is about to commence.
I welcome interaction along the way, so feel free to raise questions or comments as they arise. I’ll pause a couple of times along the way and try and leave plenty of time for discussion at the end as well.
I welcome interaction along the way, so feel free to raise questions or comments as they arise. I’ll pause a couple of times along the way and try and leave plenty of time for discussion at the end as well.
This is a quadrant scan from a change agent perspective.Signing petitionsInfluencing your organisationLets pause for a couple of minutes to ask whether anything is missing from this scan – what have I left out?Note the translation vs transformation distinction last and promise to come back to it
The previous slide has a lot going on, so here’s a simplified version I used with the Queensland Government. It focuses a bit more on the opportunities for policy intervention to bring about behaviour change.
Here is a representative sample of disciplines adopting each of the quadrant perspectives on behaviour change.
Opens up creative strategies for making climate change tangible for different peopleEngage multiple intelligences to increase effectiveness of behavior change initiatives
More research needed. New area for me, little research, therefore speculative.
More research needed. New area for me, little research, therefore speculative.
Many behaviour change initiatives only consider the first two principles.I want to focus today on the 4th and 5th principles. You will see here that the primary focus is on translation but there is room for experimentation with transformative approaches.
I welcome interaction along the way, so feel free to raise questions or comments as they arise. I’ll pause a couple of times along the way and try and leave plenty of time for discussion at the end as well.
I welcome interaction along the way, so feel free to raise questions or comments as they arise. I’ll pause a couple of times along the way and try and leave plenty of time for discussion at the end as well.
Note that I’ve only looked at red to green. Any examples of teal from audience?These messages do work with the relevant audience, but there are limits.
Translation works – these messages do appeal to target audiences.
Nevertheless, there is still an open question about the balance between translation and transformation. So what is the alternative?
I welcome interaction along the way, so feel free to raise questions or comments as they arise. I’ll pause a couple of times along the way and try and leave plenty of time for discussion at the end as well.
I welcome interaction along the way, so feel free to raise questions or comments as they arise. I’ll pause a couple of times along the way and try and leave plenty of time for discussion at the end as well.
This understanding of transformative learning resonates with integral theory and developmental pyschology, but there are differences.
So we have some ideas about how to foster transformation. We also have the idea of integral transformative practice. But should be seek to foster transformation?
There are both ethical and practical reasons – important not to coerce, but also requires people to come to the process with an open mind.
I welcome interaction along the way, so feel free to raise questions or comments as they arise. I’ll pause a couple of times along the way and try and leave plenty of time for discussion at the end as well.
I welcome interaction along the way, so feel free to raise questions or comments as they arise. I’ll pause a couple of times along the way and try and leave plenty of time for discussion at the end as well.
State of the World: Lacks a TL focus but has begun process of identifying climate leaders. TL could be a next step.Climate Project: No TL focus but is training people to go out and spread the word on climate change. A TL and leadership focus could be a next step.