One of my learnings – or growth edges, as we say – on my journey in community work has been awareness of why I tended to complicate things and use words and phrases that were metaphorical or, some people might say, flowery.
I think that one of the reasons was to make up for my own deficiency in fully understanding something, so I thought that if I impressed with big words or nice phrases it would appear that I understood – even when I didn’t.
But, thankfully, some very wise people in my life encouraged me to be simple and I try my best not to complicate things anymore.
So like the smoker who gives up fags and then gets a horrid dislike for them, I have developed a horrid dislike for complicating things that can be made simple, or using hard-to-understand words when simple words will do, or using jargony language because it looks good or sounds impressive. (If you want a good laugh at this kind of carry on have a read of John Murray’s highly entertaining book ‘Now That’s What I Call Jargon‘).
That having been said, I do like using different words, and because I have read and studied a lot I have picked up a good few of them. And I try to use metaphor in song-writing so it’s not all bad – and I don’t want to throw out the baby with the bathwater (to use a metaphor that, I think, everyone will understand).
Now I’m not saying that hard-to-understand concepts, processes or ideas should never be used. It’s just that firstly they shouldn’t be used if simple ones will do, and secondly they should be explained clearly, using easy-to-understand words.
I worked for a long time in an environment which was heavily Pillars based and I found it hard to shake it off fully. I got used to, kind of, complicating things out of habit – and I was not aware of its effect until it was pointed out to me. So if I slip unknowingly into complicated-ways-of-describing-things that you think could be simpler please let me know!
Now the reason that I am mentioning this at all is that I believe that of all the elements in working with people, research has the greatest potential to be unnecessarily complicated.
In engineering and science complicated research involving hard-to-understand mathematical equations, chemical processes and physical measurements has brought about great advances in progress for the human race. But it is a very particular type of learning more and more about less and less type of research.
In social studies a lot of what has been found to work well uses large dollops of common sense [1] tempered with humility [2]. Over the centuries we have become restrained and discouraged from using our common sense because it upsets people who are in power, who like to tell what should be done, and how it should be done.
Sometimes common sense goes against vested interests – particularly corporate vested interests, but also intellectual or academic or political vested interests. (If you have read the Chapters on Power And Control In Society and Important Descriptions you will get this).
And getting back to ancient wisdom, the story about the emperor having no clothes that I mentioned in the Sub-Chapter on Myth and Reality) is a very good example.
To sum up, I have come across all sorts of research studies that have an academic connection with the suffering which children and families go through every day due to imprisonment. All yield very interesting results but do not do much to alleviate suffering – even in the long term. And many of them use words and concepts that assume that the reader has a high level of formal education.
It is evident that the method I recommend we use (to evaluate or undertake research, and then publish it) needs to take into account that the work has very high emotional (and sometimes inspirational) elements at its core. The finished research, to be of any use to the people who matter most, should be easy to understand.
And application of common sense has, indeed, a high emotional content. It can involve risk taking, (to challenge the opposite of common sense) courage, anxiety, joy, sense of satisfaction, achievement and long term contentment, plus the burst of energy that results from the reduction of the level of myth and the acceptance of reality.
[1]. The humanistic modalities that I described already; (and in particular person centred therapy) all use common sense as a cornerstone of their methods. Neuroscience, though very complicated in itself, points to common sense and balanced left-brain, right-brain development, as of utmost importance in our emotional wellness.
[2]. All research done in the recent past on effectiveness of therapy posits the qualifications of the therapist as quite low in respect of change. Relationship scores the highest, and matters external to the therapy itself also score high.