Options & Opportunities

The techniques and frameworks of Do No Harm are not simply about understanding a context more completely. They demand action. We do not intervene to avoid impact. We intervene precisely in order to create change. As contexts are ever-changing and the social dynamics are fluid, we need to be able to respond to change.

We facilitate change by developing Options and supporting Opportunities, and then implementing them.

Options and Opportunities are where the building blocks of the techniques and the frameworks join and work together. While the techniques can be used on their own to inform understanding of the context, they achieve real power when used together to help us identify how we can have an intentional impact on a context.

How to develop Options and support Opportunities

Use the patterns of the ABCs. The ABCs are remarkably clear and observable.

Changes in Dividers and Connectors can be mapped by using the patterns of the ABCs. As we ask ourselves how we know a Divider or Connector has changed, our attention to the patterns of the ABCs provides us with insight about the situation that we can use to mitigate violence and tension and/or to support local capacities.

Paying attention to the patterns can show us where things are going wrong or provide guidance about what needs to change. Paying attention to the patterns can show us how things are going right and offer clues about where we can assist people.

Noting the patterns at work is not enough. Mere attention is not the same as changing or working with them. The hard work of creativity comes when tying to figure out how to affect or use the patterns.

Previous Page Challenges in using the Action Framework
Next Page Using the Patterns of the ABCs