Dave Pollard on How to Change Hearts, Minds & Behaviours:
My Purpose is Provoking Change.So I’m very interested in the change process. I’ve observed how easy it is to persuade people about something if they have no preconceived views on it, and how hard it becomes once they’ve ‘made up their mind’. I’ve observed how our worldview ‘frames’ profoundly affect what we believe, and what we’re prepared to believe, and always trump facts. I’ve observed how hard it is to bring about real, sustained change in large organizations, even with coercion and massively expensive change projects. And lately I’ve observed that:We do what we must, then we do what’s easy, then we do what’s fun. There is no time or energy left for what’s needed to save the world, even if we can agree on what that is.
…[Then he presents his five-step model of persuasion, similar to social psychological treatments of the topic.]
We humans do change slowly! For three million years that was a blessing, keeping us from messing with Gaia’s remarkable balancing act. Now, as we careen out of control towards the end of an unsustainable civilization, it’s become a curse. But, as KF says, those of us who are ready to change are finding it more urgent, easier and more fun than it was even a few years ago. And as a result we will keep changing, and change faster. And we do, and will do, what we must.
I think Pollard’s right about how change efforts should be fun. I’m not feeling as optimistic these days, though.
Hey, I´m a german student of psychology and i just stumbled over your websites looking for a social psychology “praktikum”(i guess in the us it´s called “traineeship” or so). I´m glad and surprised, that there is such a thing as radical psychology and i hope that i can give some input to societal issues through my competences as psychologist in the future. Go on! greetings from Bielefeld, Germany,
So-Rim