PART EIGHT

Personal Concerns of the intervener

 

A major thesis of the Intervention and Collaborative Change model is the importance of the intervener as a person to the intervention's success. The expectations for the intervener using this approach are high and demanding.

·          Organizer

·          Role model

·          Leader

·          Coach and trainer

·          Resource for the ICC method and procedures

·          Authentic person in the here and now

 

Managing all these roles while maintaining a balance with the outside world and the rest of your life is another of the challenges of an intervention. And one that may determine the fate of a change program if the intervener becomes so emotionally involved and irretrievably enmeshed that she loses all perspective while the intervention becomes her life. Interveners may also flee the hectic pace and conflict of an intervention by becoming remote and detached, losing their personal prestige and authenticity. It is a difficult balance to maintain and doing it well becomes very much a part of the consultant's total lifestyle.

One dimension of the balance is pace—how many interventions can be worked on at the same time, how many hours a day can be put into an intervention, and what is happening in the rest of the intervener's life. Another challenge for the intervener is to find ways of meeting personal needs within or outside the intervention. It is important to have people to talk to about the hassles in an intervention and get some personal support and recognition. Considering the usual hectic pace—the physical demands on a consultant—during the change project, it is a challenge to be physically capable of handling the expectations.

 

Personal Support System

The ICC process of systems change produces dynamics which usually include frustration and/or hostility directed toward the intervention. This hostility may be left over from previous interventions, may arise in a control phase if the intervener is perceived to have power, or be the expression of resistance to change. If the intervener has mobilized a "grass roots" group to coerce the system into certain actions, the hostility will be even more direct.

In a systems change program it has been my experience that I rarely feel that I know all that is going on and am on top of it. This is in contrast to my work with individuals and small groups where I usually feel on top of things. Systems change involves so many variables that a simple analysis and diagnosis of what is happening is very unlikely. This "not knowing" feeling, coupled with an awareness that the intervention is not having much impact, has occasionally left me wondering about my competencies. I am also aware that I need a certain amount of positive reinforcement and social support as I work on an intervention.

As this became dearer to me a few years ago, I embarked on building an active support system component in any intervention. I put a lot of energy, though a lesser amount of time, into this task of finding a person or group of people who would accept me and talk with me about what's going on, or in other ways meeting my needs. Immediately on moving into a new situation, I look around and start checking out where I am going to find my support. In some systems I build in a support system by creating a planning group or steering committee. In others I suggest a team which then has one or more of my colleagues working with me. Or I may take along students or key players from other projects to assist me. But in a lot of interventions I build my support system among the stake-holders: this usually does the trick and often leads to some permanent friendships.

The Social Health Indicator of an Intervention (Figure 25) is to help you assess the strength of your social support network in an intervention. If your answers to these questions average out to below the mid-point it suggests you should work at increasing your support and enjoyment or perhaps turn the intervention over to another consultant.

 

Health and well-Being

Now that you have your personal support system in place, or if not have made its creation a priority, let's look at other factors contributing to your health and well-being. Eating, sleeping, fitness and relaxation top the list here as interventions create special problems for all of them. Once the action gets going it is easy to get caught up in it and work late into the night, miss meals or settle for fast food snacks, party with the participants after the day's work is done and spend no time exercising or relaxing. These may seem like remote considerations sitting in the comfort of your living room and reading this at your own pace but interventions can be hectic, exciting beyond words and entirely consuming.

On interventions away from home I have seen my assistants and sometimes my colleagues who could hardly stand up after a week in the field and if they sat down tended to fall asleep. Once I found a colleague sound asleep on the toilet. At one time I was working on three change programs a day and after a few days I had difficulty remembering which group I was with and what their major issues were. Another colleague would get so tired he'd sleep in and miss the meetings with the group.

Over the years I have developed two practices which I think have helped me (and others who picked them up) deal with these forces. First is a pacing practice where I think of the intervention as a marathon run and spread out my energy to last the course. Part of my pacing includes getting a good night's sleep two nights out of three, eating one peaceful (non-working) meal a day, and getting in an exercise period at least every other day. The second practice to handle intervention pressures is taking charge of the planning for my personal well-being, especially when I'm away from home. I plan or participate in the arrangements for travel, accommodation, food, working schedule, recreation and physical activity opportunities. The time I put into this is worth it ten times over and my participation always saves the stakeholders money. Think and plan ahead about what will help to keep you in top form for your consulting challenges.

Personal and Professional Development

They are still arguing over whether leaders are made or born but everyone agrees that outstanding leaders are all learners. Being a model of an adult learner for the stakeholders and helping then learn how to learn has been identified as a primary role of the consultant. Let's now look at intervener learning and growth on a more personal focus again. This discussion was started early in this book talking about the personal qualities of the intervener. Many specific competencies and skills have been described as part of organizing the ICC program. Most of these were of a technical, procedural nature. The following questionnaire on the next page (Click here) brings us back to more personal qualities. Interveners are encouraged to rate themselves on this list showing their range on each item and then showing with an arrow, the direction in which they would like to expand their range of behaviour on that item. There are no best places to be on these items but the direction of the arrow shows your judgement of whether more or less of the quality would strengthen your competence. They may help you focus on some of the goals for your personal learning.

Professional development and renewal are a must for the intervener as a part of keeping up to the growing edges of the profession. Outside seminars, workshop and courses also help interveners maintain perspective on their programs and usually provide new insights about what really happened.

Many consultants keep a professional journal (I call it a learning log) which helps them think through what is happening in the change program and be able to reflect on it later. It is a great way to assess an intervention. Related focused reading is another important professional development activity. And similar to the professional journal experience, writing an article or case study about your experiences is another powerful way of enhancing your learning while hopefully contributing to others' development.

Ethical Considerations

A specific, predetermined goal such as a change in service delivery does not need to be the goal of an intervention. The goal setting can be left to the system to determine after the intervention gets underway. This takes the intervener 'off the hook' about the chief ethical concern of "who gets to do what to whom." Thus the intervener becomes a catalyst and just helps things that are already there to happen—it becomes a value free intervention. Hiding behind some imagined neutrality (how many really neutral, value-free people do you know?) is not the style of the ICC approach where the intervener is organizer, leader and role model.

A current joke on consulting has it that the three biggest lies in society are: "It's in the mail"; "I'll respect you as much in the morning"; and "I'm from the Government, I'm here to help you." Helping and intervening can just as easily be harmful as beneficial yet many "helpers" talk about their work as if it were automatically good. I like the concept of intervention, as it is dear you are interfering with the status quo. However, it has neutral connotation as judging whether it helps or hinders is in the 'eye of the beholder' or the evaluations of the stakeholders.

A number of years ago I was part of a team working on a community development project with the Mistassini band of Cree Indians. Even then, (and more now what with the James Bay Hydro project I in place and project n under consideration) it was critical that the traditional aboriginal lifestyle should be allowed to continue. Should they be allowed, or possibly encouraged, to continue their hunting and fishing in remote family camps or should they be brought into the mainstream of contemporary Canadian life. The latter would mean compulsory education, government housing (most lived in tents) and jobs or welfare. What did "helping them" mean and who got to decide what was helpful? Our team was split on this critical issue and we spent many a night discussing the ethical issues— which were really our points of view.

Everything we do is an intervention in some way. Just getting up in the morning and breathing means we'll take good oxygen out of the air and we'll consume non-renewable resources when we turn on the lights and coffee maker. To suggest that people don't have a right to intervene is nonsense. The question is what are good (or honest) interventions.

It is unlikely that there are any universally good goals and ones that seem self-evident in our society such as food and housing, health services and education may take a back seat to more important political goals at any time.

Let me propose three principles to speak to these questions about ethics. 1. People should have the freedom and opportunity to make informed choices about their lives. 2. The intervener is free to try to achieve personal change objectives as long as these are dear to the social system and are negotiated with them. 3. The method of the intervention is of vital importance and the ends do not justify the means.

Free and informed choice suggests an exploration of the strengths and weaknesses of any choice along with a full consideration of other possibilities. It also implies a certain level of knowledge and awareness for the choice to be an informed one.

The second principle places a high value on the reciprocity of influence —the intervener may end up being more influenced by the social system than influencing it. A number of sociologists once went to a Billy Graham revival meeting to study his methods and ended up walking down the aisle and being 'saved'. When everyone is open and honest about their goals, it is a level playing field and the ball can go in any direction. Posturing a false goal (remember the "we're here to help you" joke) or withholding the goal leads to unethical manipulation.

The ends do not justify the means, in fact years after an intervention the goals are often forgotten but the activities are remembered. How many of us remember what the War of 1812 was about? But most of us know where the battles were fought and who won, and where forts and canals were built as a result of the war. Power and coercion help achieve goals but they are unlikely to leave the system more able to deal with change in the future.

This then is the question that penetrates to the core of these ethical concerns: "Is the system better off in its ability to deal with change in the future?" A system that has been manipulated, coerced, or brainwashed will not be. Involvement, mutual negotiation, participation in decision making, and learning new group building and problem solving skills should help the system cope with future changing conditions in society. It is unlikely that an intervener's ethical philosophy determines his behaviour as much as his desire for power and personal gain. If this is true the question to ask is: "Are you more interested in achieving your objective or leaving the system better able to manage future change?" This takes us back to the beginning of our intervention planning and being dear about our goals and motives in the intervention and who is going to have what amount of control.

These then are the methods, skills and personal qualities that are required for a successful ICC or any other participatory change program They represent high yet achievable competencies and help us to understand why so many well-meaning community and organizational development programs based on stakeholder's participation have ended in frustration and dismay. Remember, there are no failures only interventions that participants learn from, and those they don't.

In selecting his generals. Napoleon was always told how competent they were and he would always ask "But are they lucky?" Now that you have increased your competence—Good Luck!