Communicating Sustainability in different cultural context: Experience from KAIL Indonesia Catharina Any Sulistyowati Kuncup Padang Ilalang Kompl. Giri Mekar Permai IV/ Blok C-18, Bandung INDONESIA

KAIL Vision & Missions KaiL is a non-profit-organization, which create conducive-environment to increase personal and organizational capacity for transforming society. Vision: The establishment of dynamics of fair and equal society and all creatures. Missions: To develop conducive-environment for supporting agents for transforming society through training and assistance. To develop a community of transformative society. To develop an alternative discourse about society’s problems.

KAIL Activities -Training and workshop on: -Knowledge -Personal Development -Peer mentoring group -Community/Group Proces Facilitation: visioning, planning, evaluation, team building

What have we learned about communicating sustainable development?

Expand time horizon The roots of actions Level of perspectives Systems Thinking: New way of seeing できご と Behavior patterns Structure Model Mental Events See the whole, including the intangible Leverage Modified from Systems Thinking Module by Sustainability Institute, USA & Change Agent, Japan

For the last 7 years we focus on: - facts/events - analysing trends - understanding structure but not very much on understanding mental models

The result was: We were successfully creating awareness of sustainable development issues, but We hardly creating fundamental and significant change that is needed for sustainable development

The way we promote sustainable development are: Focus on the data, rationality, which is processed in our conscious mind. Our subsconscious mind might have different beliefs. Sometimes we know that something good in our head, but we have hardtime to act according to our new knowledge/awareness  we feel powerless. Why? Reason 1

What is Mental Model? Deeply ingrained assumptions, generalizations, pictures, images or stories that determine how we understand the world and how we take action. Paradigm, mindset, worldview, perspective, belief system Sometimes, we realize that consciously, sometimes, we don’t.

“Believing is Seeing” Say, What is a sheep doing up in clouds? Modified from Systems Thinking Module by Sustainability Institute, USA & Change Agent, Japan

Challenges to See and Change Mental Models We’re fond of our arguments Our models are “transparent”, invisible to us We don’t want to lose or be wrong We don’t want to upset or embarrass others So... We tend to stay “stuck” in our position, and don’t see other possibilities. Source: Richiro Oda’s (Change Agent, Japan) slide KAIL workshop on Ladder of Inference, Bandung, 2009.

Belief system (Life Script) Interaction of peope with their complex environment (was developed since we were small children) will create belief system (Life Script). Belief = ideas + agreement.

Our brain Consists of : -12% conscious mind -88% of subsconscious mind Mammalian brain is the place of the subsconscious mind

Examples We want to promote activities that reconnect children with nature. Reason: nature is good and loving nature is very important for child development and environmental conservation. but People think that nature is a dangerous place and we need to stay as far as possible from nature. Implication: learning in nature is dangerous for children.

Why? Reason 2 An organization/group working with different mental model can go no where. They get trap into endless debate about what is important and should be done. The energy does not go to action, but to the debate. Sometime, debate is necessary, but when it comes to action, it really need to have same clear undertanding about the problems and the approaches for solution.

How different mental model creates different actions? Learning from biogas case

Some Data -A lot of cow dung is not use in the village -It create unpleasant smells in the village and polluting the water in the village -The cow are mostly owned by richer farmer. The more cow they have, usually the richer they are. They get the money from selling the cow milk. -Vegetable farmers are the poorest in the area. Sometimes they take the cow dung for their fertilizers, if they do not have money to buy chemical fertilizers.

Problem formulation Environmental problem: waste management Socio-economic problem: poverty

How two different mental model create two different actions: - Let’s use biogas as a way to make profit/new source of income for cow farmers - Let’s use biogas as a way to create social equity

Some comparisons Your mental model Biogas as source of income for cow farmers Biogas as way to promote social equity What you promote/ tell community members -Cow dung is economic property -Cow farmers can sell the cow dung to vegetable farmers -The vegetable farmers should pay for getting cow dung as their fertilizers -Cow dung is common property -Waste management is “responsibility” of the cow farmers -As part of responsibility, they should “reward” the vegetable farmers for taking care of their cow waste Implication-Income gap will be higher -Cow dung will goes to the most actors that can pay to the cow farmers – sometime it can be going outside the area – outflow of organic material from the area and replace by money for cow farmers as results. -The needs for collaboration between cow farmers and vegetable farmers. -Might goes slower, because no money involve. -Reducing income gap between cow and vegetable farmers. -The organic materials need to be inside the villages and benefiting the area and the people there.

All mental models are wrong (not complete/not perfect) Being wrong is not a problem as long as it is useful Not knowing it is wrong is the problem Source: Richiro Oda’s (Change Agent, Japan) slide KAIL workshop on Ladder of Inference, Bandung, 2009.

Dialogue Talk and think what matters “here and now“ together by creating a safe container Important principles: – Suspend one’s mental model – Listen – Respect – Voice your mind and heart Source: Richiro Oda’s (Change Agent, Japan) slide KAIL workshop on Ladder of Inference, Bandung, 2009.

How can we identify mental model?

Context And Model Action Data available Data selection Data interpretation Making conclusion The Ladder of Inference Modified from Sustainability Institute Lecture Slide Presentation on Ladder of Donella Meadows Leadership Fellows Program, batch 3,

Ladder of inference I do action based on what I believe I have certain belief about the world I make several conclusion I make assumption based on what I have learnt in the past I learn some understanding (personally & culturally) I select several data from what I have observed Data that can be observed and my experiences What I believed influence the way I select the data in the future Modified from Sustainability Institute Lecture Slide Presentation on Ladder of Donella Meadows Leadership Fellows Program, batch 3,

Exercise: Group discussion Choose one sustainable development initiative you would like to promote. Think about mental models of the people that will be supportive of your initiative? Think about mental models of the people that might be against your initiative? Try to indetify some communication strategies to make them change their mental models that are against your initiative.

Share your group findings in the plenary