The details of an intervention matter

The details are where impacts come from, not the whole. An intervention is a series of choices before it becomes actions and activities. People make these choices and people can change them. People make decisions about what to do and how to do it.

Choices are the details of our work, our projects, and our programs. We decide who to work with, where, and when. We decide who our staff will be, what criteria we will use to hire them, and how they will do their work. We decide on our partners and how we will select them. We decide how we will interact, both formally and informally, with local authorities and their structures. We decide what the actual resources will be that we introduce into a situation and how many, how often, and to whom. We decide how we will do all of these things, and more.

By analyzing the details of an intervention—our choices—we can determine how Actions and Behaviors have impacts on the context.

Choices constrain actions, limiting the way we perceive the situation, and limiting our responses.^[1]

It is crucial to remember that we set these limits. They are not imposed on us by the situation or by facts outside of us or by other people. Every choice can be remade in order to change the impact we are having.

Critical Detail Mapping (CDM)
 
The tool for examining the details is Critical Detail Mapping. Not every detail matters everywhere. Do No Harm has found that some are critical in any situation. CDM provides a way to map intervention criteria that highlights the most significant.
 
CDM also calls attention to which constraints actually have an impact on an intervention and are important to understand and chart.

Previous Page Lesson 4: Actions and Behaviors have Consequences
Next Page Lesson 6: There are always Options

Related Topics
Lesson 6: There are always Options
Critical Detail Mapping
Criteria Matter
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
Lesson 4: Actions and Behaviors have Consequences

[1] “Choices constrain actions, limiting the way we perceive the situation, and limiting our responses.”
 
Confirmation bias affects our perception of reality, especially when we are invested in a particular decision. Because we have made that decision, we interpret our experience as justifying it. We look for reasons why the decision was correct and ignore information that suggests that it was wrong or misguided.
 
Chip and Dan Heath discuss the effect of confirmation bias on decisions in Decisive: How to Make Better Choices in Life and Work.
 
For commiseration on the sheer challenge of thinking see Thinking Fast and Slow by Daniel Kahneman.