Zootopia

Zootopia comes out this weekend and I am really excited to see it! Although I don't know exactly what it is about, I'm going to give you my take on it.

The title "Zootopia" is a fun play on the word "utopia" which may have several definitions, but the one that comes to my mind is "perfect society". As you know the word society means a group of people, but in this story it is a group of animals, hence the word "zoo"!

What makes a great zoo is a large collection and diversity of animals that are different and unique from each other. What makes a great society are all those different animals, working together, in harmony, for things to run perfectly.

My family unit is like a little society with eight different kinds of people. And, if you add step family and extended family and in laws, you get a real zoo of diversity. It is almost as if every member of the family could, in fact, represent a different kind of animal.

Now each animal has a different make up and each behaves differently. We may want the lions to act like dogs and zebras to act like cats but lions will be lions and zebras will be zebras. The challenge for any society is to create order and organization in such away that society is regulated without eliminating diversity.

My father, Grandpa Karl, may seem slow like a sloth, now, and a shadow of his former self due to old age and health issues, but he is really a gifted man who earned a PhD in Psychology. He spent years studying organizational psychology which is, in a nutshell, the world at work. He even use to call it "the world at work"

Now, in the world at work, as my father used to say, there are three main areas of focus: Decision Making, Problem Solving and Project Completing.

So it is with us. Each of us have decisions to make, problems to solve, and projects to complete. The challenge is how we include and interact with the other animals, in our society, to get things done.

Grandpa Karl went on to introduce me to the Fabulous Five Facilitators.

Holder
Modeler
Helper
Sharer
Soloer

A facilitator is one who facilitates interaction between two or more parties or people. And these five were the areas of facilitation: holding, modeling, helping, sharing, soloing.

A holder, for example, like a cross walk guard, he or she holds back traffic so students can cross the road. A helper helps you do something, but doesn't do it for you. For example, you might get help with homework, but the helper doesn't do it for you. A modeler, like an art teacher or piano teacher, models the desired behavior and then has you do it on your own. Sharing works like this: when we share we do something together and both people equally act together. When we solo, we just do something on our own without anyone else. Showering is an excellent example of something you want to do on your own.

Some people, however, want to do everything on their own without contact or responsibility to others. But society just doesn't work that way. Someone grows and harvests the food you eat, makes the clothes you wear and the car you drive, extracts the oil and gas from the earth, you use, creates and supplies electricity, manufactures building materials and buildings, and a host of other goods and services, and relies on you and I to do our own part.

The hardest thing about having a utopia, or perfect society, is being on the same page with others because people are so different.

Dr Karl made a list of questions to help with this. As a small boy I learned and memorized the list, from my father, and I still remember the list today.

1. What are you trying to make someone do?

2. What could happen?

3. What is wanted (what do you want? What does the other person want?)

4. Why?

5. What is valued?

6. What is being done to get what is wanted?

7. How is it going?

8. What is being learned?

9. What is being celebrated?

The first question, alone, is very telling. What are you trying to make someone do? Can you really make someone do something?

In life, sometimes force is necessary, but it is usually the hardest thing to do and least effective way to do it. For centuries, governments and societies have been run by fear and force, but the lives of many were miserable. Sadly, guns are the most familiar tool used to make someone do something.

But, as difficult as it may appear, the rule of law is still important and some laws will be strictly enforced. (Think about TSA at an airport)

As you go down the list of questions you soon discover that facilitating results is a difficult task.

Try changing the question a little.

What are you trying to ask someone to do?

What could happen?

What is wanted (what do you want? What does the other person want? or Is that what they really want?)

Why?

What is valued?

What is being done to get what is wanted?

How is it going?

What is being learned?

What is being celebrated?

From the two lists of questions we realize that there really is a difference between asking and making.

As facilitators we can encourage or we can enforce. Sometimes we have to do one or the other.

We can request or we can demand. Sometimes both are required.

We can influence or we can incarcerate.

We can persuade or we can pressure.

It would be easy to just say we should encourage, request, influence, or persuade without enforcing, demanding, incarcerating, or pressuring, but, if the first options don't work, we are only left with the alternatives.

The secret is to ask yourself this question: if I don't like being told what to do, am I doing things of my own free will and choice? What kind of member of zootopia am I?

It is better to ask for something, in the beginning, without threatening. Asking doesn't hurt and asking simply goes a long way.  And, decision making, problem solving, and project completing are accomplished, with greater harmony, when we are willing to participate, by just being asked.

Even better, without being asked.

I believe a utopia or "zootopia" is possible! Enjoy the show!