The eight superhero upgrades can work independently of each other, but together they have greater synergy and can be though of as a global plan.
Few people are interested in global plans. How is Group Genie’s work different?
Most global plans try to work at the international level, often with United Nations organizations. These plans usually get bogged down by politics and bureaucracy. They are also often written for specialists. This plan works from the individual level — as soon as a handful of people are using it, the plan is working. Ratification by 195 nations is not needed.
What makes the plan powerful?
Several things. First, people get benefits early on, whether or not the plan spreads around the world. But the fact that people get multiple benefits will likely help cause it to spread globally.
Second, the basic five tools of the CLEAR Superprogram are very simple to use. Even teenagers can learn to use them. One of the reasons that the basic tools are very powerful is that they help people increase their spare time, money, skills and energy so that they can do more for themselves, and more to help others. Another source of power is that, when people are ready, they pass on the program to at least two people. That way, a chain reaction of empowerment can rapidly take place.approach is much more powerful than conventional approaches. In other words, almost all efforts to help people or change the world operate on one of the bottom two rungs of the Ladder of Empowerment below:
The lowest rung is direct action, such as feeding the hungry or giving shelter. The second rung is teaching one skill or addressing one issue at a time. The majority of organizations are like this, they address one issue or one narrow set of problems. Only a very few programs in the world teach people how to learn to change their lives (the third rung.) Our plan operates both the top two rungs, and participants can apply it to the bottom two rungs as well. The top rung can result in a chain reaction of empowerment. A chain reaction goes slowly at first, but the depth of change is greater. Imagine that we start with one person who begins the program and six months later supports two people to do the program. If each person supports only two more at this pace, the empowerment could spread around the world (in theory) in 17 years. (Click on chart to enlarge.)
With the Internet the spread could be much faster. This illustration doesn’t mean that we believe everyone would participate. It’s just meant to contrast a chain-reaction approach with a mass-communication public-relations attempt to spread the program. Few people on Earth have enough money to promote a program in a traditional fashion so as to reach a global audience. Yet, almost everyone has the ear of a few friends who will take seriously their request to investigate it. And most everyone can learn the basic skills of ongoing support, as well as gather the needed ingredients for learning.
Doing the CLEAR Superprogram wholeheartedly is one way to produce the top two rungs of the ladder.
A fourth strength of the program is that, once people master the basic program, they can add whatever “upgrades” and “add-ons” they like. These upgrades and add-ons allow them to tailor the plan to their lifestyle and needs. They also dramatically increase the participant’s impact.
What are the benefits and advantages of our approach as compared to traditional volunteering or traditional self-improvement approaches?
There are so many benefits that we’ve created a separate Benefits page to explain them. We also describe the approach’s advantages over other approaches. But here we can summarize how it feels: You’ll probably feel more optimistic about your life because you will have an ongoing support and ongoing learning structure that helps you increase your skills and abilities. These skills and abilities can improve every aspect of your life — your health, your inner mental life, your career, your relationships and your enjoyment of life. You will feel some optimism about the world’s future as soon as you understand the plan; but you will feel much more optimism when you see it working in your life; and your optimism will grow even stronger when you successfully pass on the program to a couple people. Then you will know the plan is working and growing.
If you care about the millions of people who are oppressed economically, politically or psychologically, you will feel some relief for their sakes because you will understand how superprograms can furnish them with the resources and support to improve their life situations. You will also understand how Helper’s Helper can increase the volunteer time and donations to the many worthy organizations that are already improving the world. — Of course, our plan doesn’t aim to replace all these organizations. Instead, it can help the people in these organizations be more efficient, and it can proactively reduce problems because people are being proactive in their lives.
The idea of a global plan seems utopian or “too good to be true,” because human nature doesn’t change. What do you say to that?
All through human history there has always been wars and great suffering — but only in some parts of the world. In other parts of the world people have had the skills, habits and knowledge to maintain a stable society. So a global plan would help “export” the know-how and resources to the problem areas of the world. Also, human nature does change when people learn new attitudes, skills, habits and values. One of the things that makes Group Genie’s plan powerful is an original upgrade that we created that boosts human learning and change. This upgrade is a new breed of educational structures called superprograms. Another thing that makes our work powerful is a continuing emphasis on asking what the priorities are. Smart people sometimes fail because they don’t have someone who keeps asking them what the priorities are, and then keeps supporting them to stick to the priorities.
How will people know the plan is working?
First, very tiny numbers of people will publish weekly updates on the Results page. Then we will be emailing surveys to determine longer term impacts, for instance, after four months of effort. In theory, both the updates and the survey answers could be exaggerated or untrue. But since we encourage people to use screen names for privacy, there’s little incentive to keep lying or to pretend that you are participating. We will also encourage some participants to make videos that we can link to. These will probably be more convincing, since it’s harder to fake it on video. But the strongest proof will be when you see the methods working in your own life, or in the lives of people you personally know.