Actions and Behaviors are the mechanisms whereby interventions have Consequences, or impacts
Interventions, by their nature, bring in two types of things.
Resources as a result of the Action of intervention
They always bring in resources. The “action” of a intervention is applying resources into a context. Resources are generally considered the chief method and mechanism for creating change. While they are important, they are just one of the two mechanisms.
They also always bring in people, who demonstrate their values through their “behavior”. People send messages through their conduct and by the way behave with others. These messages are the other key method and mechanism for creating impact on social dynamics.
We send more messages through our behavior than we do with our words. Our conduct reflects our mindset. Our mindsets can be dividing mindsets or connecting mindsets. Each is characterized by a set of patterns that affect those around us.
When we are operating from a dividing mindset, we tend to see the world in a certain way; change is a zero-sum game and we cannot trust others. We communicate this attitude, this message, to the people with whom we interact. They pick up this attitude and reflect it back at us. Further, they take the mindset into their own interactions with others in their environment and, through this, make Dividers worse.
By contrast, a connecting mindset is based in trust, trustworthiness, and transparency. It presents a welcome open counter to the closed mindset of conflict. We can send positive messages through our behaviors and these can in turn affect the ways people interact both with us and with others around them.[1]
Do No Harm mapped these two mechanisms and found common patterns that repeat in all contexts. We can identify them, see them in action, and track the ways they have an impact on the context. Identifying and making use of these patterns is how we control our impacts.
Previous Page Lesson 3: Interventions interact with Dividers and Connectors
Next Page Lesson 5: The details of interventions matter
Related Topics
Lesson 5: The details of interventions matter
Lesson 6: There are always Options
Understanding and Using Patterns
Resource Transfers
Messages through the RAFT
Lesson 1: Interventions become part of the context
Lesson 2: Contexts are characterized by Dividers and Connectors
Lesson 3: Interventions interact with Dividers and Connectors
[1] “We can send positive messages through our behaviors and these can in turn affect the ways people interact both with us and with others around them.”
For an evolutionary perspective see Nonzero: The Logic of Human Destiny by Robert Wright.
For a business perspective see Collaboration: How Leaders Avoid the Traps, Build Common Ground, and Reap Big Results by Morten Hansen. Both books are profoundly hopeful about human potential.
