The Proof is the Pudding -- Or in this Case, The Cake

...that's exactly what an incredible group of leaders acccomplished over the past five years. In ten Minnesota communities, they changed the way youth THOUGHT about underage alcohol use, and that changed the way youth ACTED around alcohol. We're talking change to the tune of double-digit reductions in monthly youth alcohol consumption. That is the magic of Positive Community Norms: change the way people think about a behavior, and behavior change is just icing on the cake. 

The Minnesota leaders at our final meeting and celebration.

Five Years of PCN Yields Double-Digit Impacts

I’m on a plane again today, on my way to meet with leaders from ten Minnesota communities that have been implementing the Science of the Positive and Positive Community Norms over the past five years. The results have been astounding: some of these communities have measured double-digit reductions in monthly alcohol use among youth over the time we have worked together. We’ll spend two days looking at the results of their most recent student and community surveys, talking about what we’ve learned so far, and getting charged up for what comes next. Beside a lake, of course -- I hear there are 10,000 to choose from.

Does Culture Matter in Creating Good Health?

Earlier this month I traveled to Missoula to present at the Innovation and Imagination in Global Health Conference hosted by the Maureen and Mike Mansfield Center at the University of Montana. (I am honored to be a faculty affiliate at the Mansfield Center, which is dedicated to enhancing mutual understanding between the United States and Asia and to fostering ethical public policy and leadership relating to international affairs, public service, and the environment.)

In my talk I posed the question: DOES CULTURE MATTER IN CREATING GOOD HEALTH? The answer is a profound yes. The social determinants of health that shape the environments in which people are born, grow, live, work, and age have been well studied. But there is another element of culture that hides in plain sight: perceptions of norms. Our perceptions of how most people around us think and behave have a profound impact on our own beliefs, attitudes, and actions. What’s more, our perceptions of these norms are often wrong, leading us to make riskier choices. These culturally-embedded misperceptions of norms are hidden risk and protective factors become the powerful fulcrum for change upon which Positive Community Norms is based. 

 

Science of the Positive: Meteorology Edition

...and just like that, bike season begins. Ski you next year, Lone Mountain. I'll see you in July for the 2016 Montana Summer Institute. Funny story: last year, our entire group took the lift halfway up the mountain, where we were stranded by a lightning storm and pelted by marble-sized hail. We were ferried down the hill in a rag-tag rescue convoy of buses, construction trucks, and pickups, laughing all the way. Everyone stayed upbeat even in challenging circumstances -- a wonderful example of Science of the Positive leadership at work. I know that many of these terrific folks are braving the elements to join me again in Big Sky. And this year, we've left the ski lift reflection exercise off the agenda!

Montana Rush-Hour Commute

Driving back from Missoula after delivering the closing keynote at the Montana Department of Health and Human Services' conference on child abuse and neglect. I was honored to present 15 years of Positive Community Norms research -- research that this far-sighted agency funded way back when I first put the approach together. All these years later, the potential for Positive Community Norms to promote health and safety is still as wide and open as the road unspooling ahead. I'm returning home tired, inspired, and ready for what's next. 

Empowering the Next Generation of Native Research Scientists

Two weeks ago I paid my first visit to Stone Child College, the official Tribal College of the Chippewa-Cree Tribe. Stone Child is located in the gorgeous Bears Paw Mountains in North-Central Montana; rarely do I enjoy a drive to work as beautiful as the trip from Bozeman to the town of Box Elder. I was invited by the American Higher Indian Education Consortium to explore how the Science of the Positive might help empower the next generation of Native American research scientists. I had the honor of being accompanied by my dear friend and colleague Dr. Cecil White hat from Minnesota. Cecil and I spent two days with a dynamic group of Stone Child students and administrators unpacking the Positive Community Norms framework, discussing how native traditions can serve as Cultural Protective Factors, and talking about how perceptions of norms (how most people think others feel and act) act as powerful risk and protective factors when it comes to improving community health.  I was energized by how my colleagues there see the Science of the Positive as a bridge between Native and Western Science philosophies. I'm looking forward to great things from Stone Child graduates in the future, and to my next visit to this beautiful corner of Montana.