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The Culture Hack Curriculum

The Culture Hack Curriculum

Deep Dive: Developing a Point of View

The Point of View

The Point of View is the first step in the Culture Hack Labs methodology. It is essentially a statement that outlines the context and goals of the narrative intervention you want to engage in. Developing a point of view is a first but crucial step for the rest of the methodology. It sets the foundation; the goal and intention of the narrative intervention and informs and contextualizes the data collection and analysis stages of the methodology.

The Point of View is an opportunity to bring together the different stakeholders of the narrative intervention and engage in a collective exercise designed to more deeply understand these people, their context and what it is that they want to achieve together. When we plan collectively, we bring individuals into a collective identity: a group or a coalition. It does not mean we are erasing individual narratives, it means we must find the unifying thread through each of our stories of struggle and motivations, and find the commonality that shows us how interconnected we are. In this respect, the point of view is akin to coalition building in that it creates sufficient common identity that people are willing to join a common goal.

We can use the following principles as guides as we think about our shared point of view:

  1. Only together we all know everything.
  2. People are experts in their lives. Local knowledge is legitimate knowledge.
  3. The problem is the problem; the person or community is never the problem. The problems to which we respond have their origin in a structural inequity.
  4. We are not neutral. We want to contribute to creating stories that strengthen people and communities, in which it is possible to recognize their dignity, not precarious.
  5. Identity is a collective achievement, not an individual one.
  6. Identities are multi-historian, not historical mono.
  7. We document knowledge to transcend the moment.
  8. Create links to help enable the worlds we want to see.

The Point of View statement is composed of four smaller statements that address important questions towards outlining a common collective identity and a common goal. To answer these questions, we invite you to organize collective exercises, workshops and any other collective decision-making methods you may be familiar with.

Who are you? 

The first aspect of the statement is about defining who we are, with an emphasis on two aspects: the project team and the group of stakeholders who this matters to. It is therefore helpful to ask the following questions:

  1. Who are the people working on the project and what are their skills and capacities? Be sure to add details like geographic location, demographics and other details that you think define you as a group of people.
  2. Who are the stakeholders for the project / narrative intervention? In what way will this impact these stakeholders?

What is the motivation for this project? 

The second aspect of the Point of View statement is listing the most important insights into why this project is important to you as a collective. This requires defining the key insights or facts that drive the desire to change the narrative. The following questions need to be answered.

  1. What is the motivation for the project? Why does it matter? 
  2. What important facts determine the scope of the intervention? 

What is the desired outcome of your narrative intervention?

The third aspect of the Point of View statement is articulating the outcome you wish to obtain through your narrative intervention. In other words, what do you want to achieve? To articulate this third statement, you must consider: 

  1. What is the impact this intervention can make?
  2. What does success look like? 

How will you or your movement create the change that you desire? 

The fourth and final aspect of the Point of View statement is a list of actions that can be taken in order to achieve the desired outcome. You may have done some of these actions already or you may have thought of them. What is key here however is that you are listing these actions in light of the common goal you set for yourself as a group and knowing that you are about to embark on a process of data collection and analysis that will likely help you refine existing strategies. 

Ask yourself:

  1. What needs to be done to achieve the desired outcome?
  2. How can we represent the different voices in the room?

Examples of POV statement

Further Reading:

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