Using Action Research to challenge the power of the system

What’s money got to do with it?Who creates the vast majority of money in

the economy?A. The Treasury?B. The Royal Mint?C. Banks and Building Societies?D. The tooth fairy?

What do banks say?

So What?Some Assumptions ….. The current money system is somewhere on a

continuum from ‘encouraging’ to ‘necessitating’ growth

There are limits to growth

Based on these assumptions …… There is a view that traditional financial

institutions are a significant part of the system that is driving the growth that is reducing sustainability

My ‘inquiry’

How do I engage the directorsof a large financial institution

in a conversationabout the inherent unsustainability

of the business they run (and are passionate about)

?

The Power of the System?Dimensions of ‘Power’ (Cynthia Hardy)1. Decision making power2. Non-decision making power3. Symbolic power

(used to make sure conflict does not arise)4. The power of the system –

works to ‘produce certain advantages without being consciously mobilised’

is about ‘unconscious acceptance of ...values, traditions and cultures ‘

is often about supposedly ‘neutral, functional constructs’

My ‘inquiry’ reframed

How do I work with themto challenge the power of a systemwhose power we are dimly, if at all,

aware of(and from which we all benefit!)

?

How do I engage with people who construct their world differently,

on a topic that really matters to me?

My Story – the processWith the Executive directors (2006 -2008)

Several cycles of ‘different’ reading7 workshops at offsite meetings4 cycles of 1 to 1 meetings

Plus 10 full day sessions with different groups of people from around the business (2007)

Eventually connected toThe ‘Sustainable Finance’ work being convened

by WWFAn investigation into financial exclusion

An attempt at a co-operative inquiry?

My Story – outcomes?A big step forward in terms of environmental

consciousness and actionAn authentic desire on the part of the directors

to ‘do something’, to be a ‘tempered radical’ organisation

Continuing time with the executive despite the ‘credit crunch’

Organisational engagement in the ‘sustainable finance’ work

And “Business as Usual”!

My story – why did they even listen?Making myself ‘vulnerable’

“Here is a truth about me – I don’t know what to do.”My journey

The fact that had done, and was doing, a ‘real’ jobNot preachingPersonal capital – if I took it seriously, there might

be something in it, and “An external would not have had the same impact.”A foot in the door (my MSc project)Inquiring ‘with’ them, not ‘at’ them or ‘on’ themAnd yet ............................

My story – explicit (co-operative) ‘inquiry’?

A Question .....Do we want to pursue some kind of inquiry into the current money system and its impacts, so that

we can better understand our impact on ‘sustainability’

and therefore understandwhat, if anything, there is that we want

to be ‘tempered radical’ aboutwhat we might choose to do to

accentuate the positive and mitigate the negative

Responses to the question ......

ranged from .....“the inquiry is vital for all sorts of

reasons”

to“stop inquiring and come with a proposal

and fast forward to what an alternative would look like”

My story – two worlds

In the room at the latest workshop

And a conscious parallel

The obvious can be very difficult to see

Some reflections.....This is about challenging how people

construct their worldsYou don’t have to be ‘CSR’ to do this - (in

fact.......)This is hard, detailed, workIt’s hard to maintain a sense of agency (will I

have made any practical difference?)What is my ‘obvious but difficult to see’?‘Lock in’ can be in people’s heads, even

intelligent, caring people’s heads