When I started this blog I knew my knowledge of social and behavioural sciences was (at best) rudimentary but I assumed I was at least aware of the main subject areas to look into. Or so I thought, until I read Difficult Conversations: How To Discuss What Matters Most by three authors who work for the Harvard Negotiation Project, and then On Dialogue by physicist David Bohm. Suddenly, the subject Dialogue appeared on my societal radar, and now I’d like to share it with you.

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In 2010 Muhammad Yunus, founder of Grameen Bank, gave a talk at the RSA entitled ‘Building Social Business’. It’s an inspiring talk, and among his many insightful comments he describes the social business as simply an alternative – rather than an opponent – to the organisations whose policies or services (in this case, lending money) are the source of the problem.

It’s an important mindset. A customer-focused mindset that any business needs – social or otherwise. A mindset that says instead of competing with or challenging organisations, a social business is there to offer another option for people to try – “if people are interested they will use it, if they don’t think it’s interesting it will disappear”. The role of the social business – or anyone serious about positive change – is not to challenge other organisations. It is to stand alongside them and let the customer decide.

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Avy Joseph is a renowned Cognitive Behavioural Therapist with an extensive background in Clinical Hypnosis. He is a director and co-founder of CityMinds as well as the training organisation CCBH Ltd. In 2009 he published Cognitive Behavioural Therapy: Your Route Out of Perfectionism, Self-sabotage and Other Everyday Habits.

In this video, Avy introduces Rational Emotive Behaviour Therapy (REBT) in his response to the What One Change question. REBT is  an approach to counselling and psychotherapy which is based on the idea that people experience emotional and behavioural problems mainly because they hold self defeating, unhealthy beliefs.  Avy talks about the importance of being able to accept ourselves and others as “worthwhile but fallible or imperfect human beings”, the impact that it on our judgment, and the social issues it affects.

I am particularly pleased to bring Avy’s ideas to the debate – not just because of his reputation in his field, but because he brings a much-needed ‘social’ balance to a debate that is typically dominated by economic and political theory.

Is social progress really a function of our mental health? That’s for you to decide…

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Hannah Sell is Deputy General Secretary of the Socialist Party, author of Socialism in the 21st Century and has written and spoken widely on political and social issues since entering politics in the 1980s. I recently met Hannah at the Socialist Party office to ask her What One Change she would make. In her response Hannah proposed that we “bring in to democratic public ownership the big companies – the banks, the big corporations – that dominate the British economy” and explains the impact this would have across society.

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In September I was lucky enough to meet Tze-Ki Hon, Professor of History at the State University of New York in Geneseo. In this video response to the What One Change? question, Professor Hon highlights the growing gap in income distribution and calls for a rethink about the impact of globalisation.

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I have a question for you. It’s the question behind the purpose of this blog.

What ONE change would have the biggest positive impact on our society?

Here are some pointers:

1. Firstly… think big! This is about root causes – big ideas that change society.
2. You don’t have to know how to implement your idea – this is about the what, not the how.
3. Do explain why it will work. What are the social mechanisms at play?
4. Please – no whingeing! This is about positive change, so please… be positive!

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“There is a paradox at the heart of our lives. Most people want more income and strive for it. Yet as Western societies have got richer, their people have become no happier.” So says Richard Layard in his 2006 book Happiness: Lessons from a New Science.  But the problem is not income, nor it’s addictive nature, nor the social issues resulting from widening gaps between the top and bottom earners. The problem, it seems, is happiness.

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Finally I get the platform I dreamed of… If you haven’t heard of his Radio 4 program before, comedian and activist Mark Thomas is creating a People’s Manifesto, taking suggestions from his studio audience and then getting them to vote for the best. Although I initially submitted my policy suggestion as a joke in order to ensure I got a ticket to see the recording, the BBC went with it and invited me to introduce it on the show. You can listen to the program on iPlayer here until 7pm on Thursday Feb 18th (it’s worth a listen as there are some great suggestions and Mark Thomas is sharp and entertaining as ever).

However, the idea I suggested – making governments accountable to the policies in their election manifesto – shouldn’t really have been a surprise given I was already building the Vote For Policies website at the time.  Monitoring how closely governments deliver on their election promises is the next logical step ensuring we focus on policies when we decide who we vote for.

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Winston Churchill, presumably warding off more 'average voters'

So said Winston Churchill, apparently. Was he right? It’s not difficult to see his point, let’s be honest. I say this because I include myself in the ‘average voter’ category. In fact, as someone who would struggle to tell you what the main political parties actually stand for (I mean really stand for) I wonder if I could even claim to be in the ‘average’ category at all.

Or maybe I’m being too hard on myself. After all, I only have the benefit of 17 years of education. How can I be expected to understand the difference between the political parties?  Just turning up at the polling booth is commendable enough, right?
Erm, no. That would be wrong.
Let’s face it, I doubt that Churchill would have changed his mind after a five minute conversation with me.

So if Churchill has a point, what’s the solution? Is he implying we should strip ‘the average voter’ of the right to vote? That would surely be a fairly drastic step backwards! My background in web usability reminds me that there is no such thing as user error, only usability error.  If we apply the same principle to politics, we can see the need for a better system for helping voters (like me) to make better use of their vote.

So how do we cut through all of the media spin, squabbling and negative advertising to make an informed decision about which party supports our vision for the future? Surely we would have to read through all of the party manifestos, extract policies for the issues we care about most, then compare them with each other. Who honestly has the time for that? And where do you start? If only someone else could do the leg-work for us… Maybe provide concise policy summaries from each party so we can pick those we agree with most, then find out which party they belong to. That would help us make a more informed choice about who to vote for based on real policies rather than personalities or media spin, right?

Well, guess what readers – someone has! This is my first foray into this arena, and I humbly offer you access to a very simple version of the kind of tool I have described above. More policies and parties are to be added so please offer your suggestions and feedback via the comments form on this post. If you’d like to get involved on any level, please also get in touch.

Try it here then post your comments!

In an earlier post, I described a desire to see societal issues tackled by identifying the root of the problem. To reiterate this point I’d like to draw from The Spirit Level which describes this approach much more convincingly. To quote directly…

“The health and social problems which we have found to be related to inequality tend to be treated by policy makers as if they were quite separate from one another, each needing separate services and remedies. More…