Some members of families in our Focus Group may have grown up waiting, waiting, waiting, getting very frustrated, then angry, being totally dependent on the State, zest for life often dulled (from a very young age) by dependence on prescribed and then illegal mood-altering substances, personal power being eroded by experts, perhaps in and out of care type institutions (including open institutions), and finally prisons, with some of their children following the same path.
Including people who have experienced all the above in decision making is not plain sailing.
But if they are included, we immediately see how much more urgent doing something is rather than 1): talking about doing something, 2): making grand plans, or 3): researching what needs to be done.
And, this is not one sided – like everything in the website, the challenge of inclusion is, of course, two-way!
Let us say that our grounding is in formal education, and we are passionate, and want to do something – i.e. make a difference. Sometimes, when we come face to face with the (often) chaotic nature of the day-to-day life of the Focus Group, usually precipitated by trauma (and in particular the anger, fear and the uncertainty it brings), we may default to what we know best, (i.e. the easy way out, cite health and safety, HR procedures, proper governance, etc.) which will exclude people but still alleviate our conscience, (‘we tried everything’, or ‘there was nothing we could do’, or, ‘it was her/his own decision’ etc.) as someone drifts away and is ultimately, once again, excluded.
It is usually very challenging – if we’ve had a lot of formal education – to share power and look beyond the paradigm favoured by the Pillars because firstly the messages of the primacy of Pillars thinking have been swallowed from a very young age in home and school and general society, and secondly we can say (with a lot of conviction) it-worked-for-us.
Now, let us say our background is in a family with some or all of the characteristics of the Focus Group (perhaps we grew up very resilient, left formal education early, and survived many setbacks) and we want to do something, i.e. aspire to help others in our own communities and families. On our journey we may find it challenging to learn the professional boundaries that have to be adhered to if progress is to be made, if the work is to be safe, and if confidentiality is to be maintained.
This could entail bringing parts of our unconscious into full awareness, a process that can be both enriching and painful, and during which we need good support and supervision. It could also involve taking responsibility for what might trigger chaos, anger or crisis that might, in turn, distort reality and rationality in a course of action.
For example what worked as a short term tactic may be seen to be now getting in the way of long term progress.
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There is an old saying; old habits die hard, and, take it from me – the blending of experience and knowledge and the forging of both into coherent action will be as emotionally challenging for the formally educated as it is for people whose grounding is in lived experience.
There is one final point worth mentioning here. It comes from the findings in the book Spirit Level that I reference elsewhere in the website .
That is, that people perform worse when they know that there are others, who they have been socialised into believing are superior to themselves, present – i.e. more educated, more qualified and, perhaps, from more privileged backgrounds.
This has implications for our work and it is important to be aware of it!