Page 262 - The Power to Change Anything

Change the Environment 251

behavior inevitable. People don’t like to confront others—
particularly scary and powerful others. Left to their own
proclivities, residents would do what anyone else would do—
toggle from silence (holding our complaints inside) to violence
(blowing up in a verbal tirade). So Silbert turns feedback into
a ritual, calls it Games, and then lets the Games begin. Three
times a week without fail.

SUMMARY: CHANGE THE ENVIRONMENT

When you first read that sociophysical guru Fred Steele thinks
that most of us are environmentally incompetent, it’s only
natural to become defensive. That’s a harsh term. Who died
and left him in charge of measuring our competency? But then
when you read of the dozens of environment-based strategies
influence masters routinely employ as a means of bringing
about change, you realize that most of us really don’t turn to
the power of propinquity or the data stream or any other phys-
ical factor as a means of supporting our influence efforts.
When it comes to developing a change strategy, we just
don’t think about things as our first line of influence. Given that
things are far easier to change than people, and that these
things can then have a permanent impact on how people
behave, it’s high time we pick up on the lead of Whyte, Steele,
Wansink, and others and add the power of the environment to
our influence repertoire. And who knows? Someday an every-
day person may even be able to say the word propinquity in
public without drawing snickers.