Shared language and explaining Options

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.

When you develop an option, you want to implement it. There is often a decision-maker to whom you have to explain it (immediate supervisor, the country office, the headquarters, or even the donor). There is also team of implementers with whom you need to work. In order to have productive conversations, you need to be prepared. Use Do No Harm to provide a shared language to discuss impacts on social dynamics.

Prepare all the people with whom you need to work on any decision, both decision-makers and implementers. From the beginning of your interaction with them, discuss the context with them through Dividers and Connectors and the patterns of ABCs you have identified. Make sure they understand how you (and your team!) see the situation. Offer some thoughts on the sorts of changes that might occur and what your responses might be.

Make this conversation a regular feature of your relationship with all of these people.

Prepare yourself. Use the Relationship Framework to organize your information so that you can tell a clear and concise narrative about the context and the ongoing impacts.

Talking to decision-makers

Having prepared the decision maker or makers, and gotten them accustomed to Do No Harm language, you can quickly bring them up to speed on your thought-process. Discuss whatever changes you suggest as opportunities that are based on the ongoing learning in which you and your team are engaged. Have this conversation as soon as you can after developing a new Option.

Talking to implementers

Make sure they are familiar with Do No Harm and the sorts of insights it will provide. Of course, it is best if they are the ones generating the insights!

Also make sure they understand that changes in implementation are a positive thing that reflects learning on their part. Changes are not a negative thing that reflects failure or leads to punishment. We change our implementation because we are constantly learning about how to do our work better. We learn through observing the social dynamics through Dividers and Connectors, and we are attentive to our role within the overall context.

The most important thing to remember is that a choice can be undone or altered—especially if everyone is prepared. Even if the “wrong” option is selected, if something is missed, you and your team can catch it with a thorough and ongoing analysis, and you can find an option that works better.

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