Tag: activism

WinDG

Posted on by josuter

WinDG

Problem:  Democracy cannot function without good sources of information.    

Stories can be factually correct and still misleading if framing is incorrect or key parts omitted.  The same can be said for “truth”.   A better concept is “useful information”.   Useful Information (UI) implies a need for ideas and information to complete a specific task or answer a specific question.  It may require a search and more discussion.  

How do we even talk with people who have their own facts, or seem uninterested, or intent on building a counter narrative?   We can challenge them to a game of discovery.  We may discover new things too.  The tools of discovery involve the creation of small group structures to help find and filter useful information. Organizers of such groups can even make a small profit, a Win!   How do we start?

Good Question

We are all asked questions by family, friends, and teachers early in our own development.  Many of us will learn how to ask ourselves good questions.  Leaders and talking heads ask questions too, some of which are rhetorical questions – to which, of course, they have the answer.  Some questions are intended to mislead or incite some action in the audience.  The point here is that these questions initially come from someone else, even an outsider.  These may or may not be the best questions.  With a bit of practice and a few other people, we can learn to frame the problem, develop better questions, and search for solutions in a more efficient and effective manner.   

How Do You Know?  

This question, “How do you know – anything?” is an essential question to make progress toward solutions.  If this question is not asked, people don’t know that they don’t know.  Trusting the source is often equated with trusting the information.  The opposite is equally true, i.e. not trusting (or not liking) the source will lead us to reject information from them. 

Create Information Filters with Discovery Games (DG)

One can create an information filter on the receiving end (not the broadcasting end) by using Small Groups (SG) of people divided randomly into teams with a few players each, plus some judges, also picked randomly, who can decide which team has the best information and wins the prize.  This is real competition for a short period of time – minutes, hours, and sometimes days if the search time must be extended. Players and Judges (PJ’s) are mixed and remixed as needed.  Outsiders who may believe different facts can be invited a few at a time and folded into the mix.  One does not have to argue with them in public.  Simply challenge them to bring their facts to the game.  

Play Ball

Discovery Games follow the model of sports, except that the goal is to find and filter ideas and information rather than to hit a ball into the net.  There will be look-alikes who swear they have found the truth, but their results can be run through another filter at any level.  Which one will you believe?  The process must be efficient and take almost no time of the organizer or sponsor.   PJ’s can even start their own game.  If necessary, they can each put in a small bit for a prize to help focus their minds for a short period of time.  

Push the Process

DG’s can be useful, but the real power lies in pushing the DG process itself to other small groups and other communities.  Starting a new DG in another place can be the goal of a preliminary DG. Getting outsiders to use DG’s may require a larger starting prize, but not too high.  The prize should be just enough to hold attention for the duration of the game.  

And what issues?  What is the Discussion Question (DQ)?   It can be almost anything in which better information could make a difference, but there is really no limit.  It could be a personal question, a local issue within a church or school.  Even national and international issues are fair game. 

Campaign finance is often associated with ‘getting out the message’.  The number of votes received often correlates with the amount of money spent but this is not always the case.  It should be about finding better information.  Better information in political campaigns can be achieved with a DG-type filter.  This requires debates within the private team setting before presentation to each panel of  judges.  Debate is essential.  Andy Grove, CEO of Intel during an especially turbulent transition period, learned the importance of having a vigorous debate before making decisions that would affect the whole company.   Democracy now needs more real debates on many issues and at many levels.  

DG’s are not a social gathering. The goal is the finding and filtering of useful information.  Players can use any source of information.  Keep prize money local and offline if possible.  Challenge other small groups.  They must often make the discovery themselves.  An example might be a tobacco company who want to make cigarettes in a local factory to provide jobs.  Not everyone believes that is a good idea for their long-term health. 

Win Win Win

Readers of this web site (YOU) can start a DG and make a profit.  Your added value lies in organizing people who may not normally talk with each other.  You are giving them the tools to move forward on some issue.  Once people understand the game and want to play, they can contribution a small amount of money.  You keep 10% for organizing the game.  

You do not have to be the moderator, however.  Simply invite a dozen people (5 minimum) and divide them into 2 or 3 teams of Players, plus Judges (PJ’s).  Give a DQ (Discussion Question) and a time limit.  Teams meet in private.  Judges decide on the winning team and a prize is awarded.  Players and Judges can be re-mixed (or not) and the next DQ is announced.  This process is repeated until PJ’s find better information or have something to act on.  Follow-up to an action can be done with the same structure.

Why is privacy important?  Why is competition important?  These can be Discussion Questions for a game.  The DQ process must be transparent to the PJ’s, enough so that they can trust the results.  First games can start with any Discussion Question and then move toward more serious issues.  

Push Uphill

Once players understand the game structure they will expand its applications to other groups and other communities, near and far.  Competition can be with any other group and on any issue. Pushing one community uphill toward sustainability can be a series of games with many parallel DG groups focusing on that one community.  Why push others uphill?  Because a lot can be learned and brought back home to use.  Plus it can be fun. 

Notes on the Nation-State

Posted on by josuter

Notes on the Evolution of the Nation-State (NS) – see previous entries NS – A, B, C

The ship of state can be changed without resorting to violence or revolution if we use Small Groups (SG) for Feedback (FB) to decision makers (DM) and others. This process finds and filters Useful Information (UI) creating additional feedback from outside the established power structures and is a type of Information Power.

Good FB can be independent of the type of government or style of leadership.  With a series of self-generated Questions, an SG creates organization from within and creates a Division of labor for Information Gathering (DIG).  Each SG can be 3-5 people.  Incentives or gradients can be created to engage more people.  A rapid series of SG’s define the problem and offer serious solutions.  Other SG’s will be used to judge the best ideas.

Throwing money at many social and political problems will not be sufficient.  People need organization to find and filter UI.  People avoid making tough choices.  There is a natural resistance to change, even at the grass roots.  Some may not see the need to change.  They may fear looking ignorant or losing respect, so the SG process must offer some privacy.    We can put people in situations where they can make choices without too much stress. 

Many “bad decisions” are never really explicit decisions at all, but are mistakes made by people looking to others on their left and right and, being unable to read clear signals, become afraid and then make a move based on a Story that did not fit.  This does not mean we should ignore those to the left or right but we must expect them to do better in gathering and communicating information.  Give them the tools.  SG groups can then be used to counter the mis-information by public officials or by mainstream media in a timely manner.   

The question remains: “Will grassroots citizens be willing to participate in efforts to change the course of the Nation-State?”  Not if it requires endless sacrifice.  The game-competition model is more likely to succeed.  Can we use people who have low self-confidence?  Of course!  SG team privacy helps to elicit information and ideas from anyone and provides a platform for further growth. 

Mountain climbing is a useful metaphor since most of us have instincts to gain a better position or at least hold our place and push others down.  In many ways, however, we now recognize a slope that is steeper and we are tied to other people.  We can only get to the top if we point out footholds to others and Push them UpHill (PUH).  The results can benefit the larger community.

Gradients and incentives may be needed to start the process.  Like any sport, these incentives can be positive or mildly negative.   If Target Learners (TL) are used, they are chosen by the SG, but prize money is only for SG participants, not the TL.  Yet TL’s have their own power since they will lead a team in the search to find answers to some specific question or grow in a new direction.  Winning will require good communication efforts. 

Questions addressed by any SG can be either an Issue Question or a Process Question.  Push the SG Process too and create more SG’s in other places.  SG’s can push other people to make decisions – or the SG can make decisions for them.  Whether or not those decisions are accepted, the ideas get out there and create a starting point.  

International issues such as Beyond The Border (BTB) can still be started locally with a goal of finding or creating safe zones in the other country, thereby decreasing immigration pressure.  After some initial ideas by a local SG the next questions will center around finding an individual outside the SG who will be willing and able to travel to the foreign country as an unofficial liaison. 

Starter questions can be Big Questions around some national or international issue, or smaller Local Questions such as how to improve test scores of students on some specific subject.  Grassroots people can challenge and be challenged by other grassroots people, both near and far.   The SG process allows engagement of people who may not like each other but recognize that instability of the other group will drag us all down.

Local Issues can include in Education, Catch-up Classes, Healthcare, and Addiction.  International issues for application of SG seed groups include Haiti, Israel-Palestine, Ukraine among others.  The violence in these places seem overwhelming but seeds of new solutions can start anywhere.  If one can gather a dozen people and create several SG’s to debate the homeless issue, for example, then big problems start to look not so big.  There will be discovery of new ways to approach it.