Concreteness

Park Howell saw our column about “Triggers” in Fast Company and wrote us with a great story:

In 1999, we created the “Water – Use it Wisely” conservation campaign that was completely built on environmental triggers. I think we were simply more intuitive (lucky) in our approach than brilliant (good) when creating the campaign, but it has stood the test of time and has grown to be the largest educational outreach for water conservation in the world. The campaign currently has more the 350 private and public partners using elements of the program.

The whole concept is based around surprising, but highly effective water-saving devices. Like a toothbrush, for instance. It is a physical prompt that reminds you to turn off the water while you brush your teeth (a razor does the same thing for shaving). The campaign is all about presenting these “water-saving devices,” each with it’s own number to emphasize the main campaign theme: “There are a number of ways to save water, and they all start with you.”

You can check out the campaign here.

Here’s a story we received from Peri Chinoda, an AP & Honors World History Teacher at Hume Fogg Magnet High School in Nashville:

Background Information: In 1885 the Chancellor of Germany, Otto Bismarck, convened a meeting attended by 13 European colonial powers including the USA and the Ottoman Empire. The Africans whose land was to be divided among the Europeans were not invited. The Europeans agreed on a number of things to ease colonization and prevent fighting among them.

Activity:Two or three students were asked to volunteer to bake cakes in the shape of the African continent. On the day of the lesson, I convened the conference with all other students representing European colonial powers and those who baked the cakes representing the Africans.

The “Europeans” gathered around arranged conference tables. The Africans were either sent outside the room or made to sit at the corner of the room.

The Europeans cut the cakes and divided the pieces among one another. The “Africans” who baked the cakes were not allowed to eat the cakes. They just watched other students eat the products/fruits of their labor.

After this activity: (a) The Europeans/students were to write down how they felt about eating the cakes while the people who baked the cakes were watching. The Africans/students were also to write how they felt when other students ate their cakes and they did not. (b) They were to read about the colonization of Africa, and write an essay reflecting on European Colonization of Africa.

Students talked about this experience for a long time. The lesson stuck on their minds for a long time. Even parents called the school expressing their appreciation for the experience their children went through to understand the process, effects and the moral issues involved in colonization.

Check out this very clever campaign for Wyoming’s libraries. (One bumper sticker offers a more literate twist on a classic: “You can have my book when you pry it from my cold dead fingers.”) And the mudflap girl is a must-see (and, while it would be stretching it to call her a must-buy, she is indeed for sale).

Mudflap book-girl is a good example of “idea judo,” which we discussed in a recent Fast Company column. A classic example of idea judo: Adbusters’ brilliant “Absolut Impotence” ad, in which the Absolut bottle is shown in a flaccid state. The hope of Adbusters is that, each time you are exposed to an Absolut ad, you can’t help remembering the limp-bottle ad, thus turning Absolut’s own marketing expenditures against it.

Here’s a story from Dave Rendall, who has a blog called the Freak Factor. (I love his post that argues that if you’re getting rejected, you’re doing something right.)

I hadn’t seen Tammy in almost a year, when she approached me in the hallway. I was there to teach an evening class for non-traditional students. She told me that her cohort was about to complete their last class and invited me to join the celebration. When I arrived, she was anxious to share some news.

Tammy had taken my course in Organizational Behavior the previous fall and one of the topics is change management. The classic model for this concept is Kurt Lewin’s force-field analysis, which helps managers to envision the driving forces pushing change and the restraining forces acting against change. By understanding and manipulating these forces, effective changes can be achieved. However, this is a relatively abstract concept and can become very complex in the context of an organization.

In order to make this concept stick, I use a few of the SUCCES principles from MTS. I start by keeping it simple. Instead of applying this model to an organization, I start by asking students to choose a meaningful change that they’ve been wanting to make in their own life, but haven’t started yet. Selecting a change that matters to them also creates an emotional link to the activity.

They write this change in the middle of a piece of paper and then I ask them why they want to make this change. These reasons are the driving forces and are listed on the left side of the paper on arrows pointing to the right. We then consider the barriers to making the change. These restraining forces are listed on the right side of the paper on arrows pointing left.

To make the activity more concrete, I try to physically illustrate the action of the two forces. I stand in front of the class with a chair and ask for a volunteer. The chair signifies the change, I am the driving forces and the volunteer is the restraining forces. I push the chair and the other student pushes back. The chair doesn’t move. It is “frozen.”

This illustrates the importance of “unfreezing,” which is the first part of Lewin’s change model. “Changing” occurs when driving forces are strengthened or added and when restraining forces are weakened or removed. Before explaining this, I ask the students how I can get the chair to move. The suggestions usually include the four options listed above. Without even reading the text, students can figure out how the process works in the physical world. In fact, during one class a student’s 10 year-old son was in the room. When I asked how to move the chair, the room was silent. The first person to respond was the young boy. He said, “Add more force!” He was exactly right and I was very pleased. I had made Lewin concrete and simple enough for a child to understand.

The activity is also credible because it offers a testable credential. Students are asked to assign numerical values to the strength of their driving and restraining forces. The cumulative scores for each set of forces shows why they haven’t made the change yet (not enough driving force and/or too much restraining force). We then work to increase driving forces and decrease restraining forces. The students always come up with creative ideas that they can apply to their own life. We discuss these as a class so students can see for themselves how it can work in their situation and those of their classmates.

I also share stories of how I’ve used this model to create change in my life. Each time I teach this concept, I choose a change that I want to make and work through the exercise along with the students. This creates a growing list of stories of success and failure, which brings us back to Tammy.

She wanted to start her own business. During the course of the exercise, she explained her driving and restraining forces. I asked if it was possible that her current job might also be a restraining force. Since she liked her job and was paid well, she did not have a lot of natural motivation to go out on her own. Even though she had a good job, it might actually be a barrier to achieving her change. I don’t recall her response at the time and I didn’t think much about it or hear anything from her until ten months later.

When I went to her classroom, she explained that she quit her job shortly after class and started her own business as a Spanish language interpreter. The business was even more successful than she anticipated and she was very happy. She credited the Lewin exercise for giving her the necessary insight and motivation to make a major change in her life. Needless to say, this is a story that I now share with classes to demonstrate the potential power of applying Lewin’s force-field analysis.

I almost spit up my coffee when I got to the punchline on this one.

From Tony Pratt:

I’m a first year teacher (4th Grade) in the New Orleans Recovery School District. The one common thread that I’ve noticed between the lessons that have stuck was a relation to something the kids were familiar with or interested in. I frequently relate math lessons to the beloved Saints and create bizarre scenarios to maintain student interest. The best and most interesting story, however, came from a colleague. He was teaching the concept of probability and went into a long monologue about how small of a probability you have to win the lottery. He relayed the particularly sticky stat that it is more likely that you will be struck by lightning than win the lottery. The lesson was memorable enough that several students went home and told family members.

One student, Jarred, relayed his story, “I saw my uncle buying lottery tickets last night. I told him that he was more likely to be struck by lightning than he was to win the lottery and that buying lottery tickets was a bad idea because of probability.”

“What did he say?”

“He told me to get the F out of his face.”