Quadrant Behavior Theory
Edging the Center the Potential for Change and Inclusion
Testimony, personal experience is such fertile ground for the production of libratory feminist theory—When our lived experience of theorizing is fundamentally linked to processes of self-recovery, of collective liberation, no gap exists between theory and practice. Theory emerges from … efforts to make sense of everyday life experiences, efforts to critically intervene in my life and the lives of others. Personal because it usually forms the base of our theory making. While we work to resolve those issues that are most pressing we engage in a critical process of theorizing that enables and empowers.
—bell hooks, 1992
FINDING MY VOICE and maintaining a strong identity as a Black woman, a woman of African descent living in the United States of America, has been and continues to be a journey of choices, consequences, and celebrations. My voice is valuable, and I have something to say. I stand by this statement as I share my work, and the circumstances that led to the development of my Quadrant Behavior Theory.
The choices that I have made have largely been shaped by a community of Black women and men living, teaching, and learning in Detroit during the sleepy 1950s and the turbulent 1960s. I am a child of the Jim Crow-Desegregation-Civil Rights era. I learned about “race pride” early in my education, and about collective work and organizing as a teenager in Detroit during the automobile strikes, the civil disobedience riots, and the amazing socially expressive music of the artists of Motown like Marvin Gaye, Stevie Wonder, and Mary Wells. I carry into my work the dedication to the work of inclusion, to continue true integration, and recognition of the importance of community, the value of the knowledge and dignity of the “common person.”
As a college student at Wayne State University (WSU) living through the riots of the 1960s and the devastation these events created in cities I was very interested in the findings of the Kerner Commission Report on Civil Disorders and the work of Abraham Citron, The Rightness of Whiteness (1963). These writings addressed the role and responsibility of White America in creating the circumstances that led to the civil disobedience of the 1960s. The work of Citron discussed the implications of believing that White was right in all manner of things in our culture. I carried values and learning from my community, WSU, and my earliest social justice professor, Morel Clute, a pioneer in Urban Education and experiential learning, into my teaching career and later into my work as a social justice advocate and Organization Development practitioner. The education I received in inquiry, activism, and the importance of personal voice were beginning to fuel my desire to understand the circumstances of power and privilege.
In the 1970s, as I taught in urban schools and prestigious independent schools across the United States, learned the practice of Organization Development consulting, and lived my life, I was aware of an ache, a void, and sadness in my relationships with colleagues. I thought I had friends and colleagues across race and gender that saw and understood what I was seeing in the world. Friends who saw the indignities and inequities that Black women and girls endured on a daily basis; who understood that their privilege credentials were not mine. This was not the case. What was missing? What I wanted were authentic friendships and peers who were willing and able to stand firm as we explored the hidden activities and assumptions in every exchange between individuals. I wanted to believe in the power of truth; and practice the skill of “telling the truth.” I wanted allies and colleagues on the path toward eliminating repetitive behaviors of power, intimidation, silence, and retribution.
Development of Quadrant Behavior Theory (QBT)
During the 1980s and 1990s while teaching and pursuing degrees at Fielding Institute, opportunities for inquiry into the climate and assumptions that are present in systems and communities about privilege, skin color, gender, and sexual orientation were plentiful. My responsibilities and experiences in these educational environments afforded me an opportunity to refine my Quadrant Behavior Theory (QBT). Lindy Sata, a wonderful colleague, psychiatrist, and a Japanese-American internment camp survivor, said to a group of NTL members during a lab that focused on clinical incidents in training sessions that “most psychiatrists go into the field seeking to explain a phenomenon that is troubling or affecting them” (1995). He continued by framing this need for answers by telling us that they are seeking to explain the issue for themselves and to help others with healing trauma or hurt. I was Lindy’s assistant for this lab and was forever changed by his brilliance and clarity about oppression and trauma. My desire to explain the heartbreak I repeatedly saw and felt personally in the Black community fueled my research. Lindy’s lecture energized my desire to explain the incidents I, my friends, and my students were experiencing daily. This spirit of inquiry was present as I used Lewin’s ideas to examine the intersection of race, gender, and oppression in systems.
There is nothing so practical as a good theory.
—Kurt Lewin
Thinking about Lewin’s quote and bell hooks’ belief about creating theory led me to ask the following questions.
• What would happen if behavior could be clearly/systematically tracked, categorized, and analyzed?
• How would this impact the work of social justice?
• What is the purpose of identifying the behaviors of power and privilege in day to day engagements?
• Recognizing the fact that race and gender are always present in relationships, how would this shift the conversation on partnering and other relationships when race and gender dynamics are present in the relationships?
• What were the small and simple things that create day to day trauma and slights which build up pressure in unbalanced power relationships?
An expanded and revised examination of repetitive behavior, racism, sexism, retribution, and silence would lead me to a new awareness about distinguishable personal behavior, actions, and choice.
Working with Lewin’s quote led to a desire to track, name, and study the impact of behavior repeated over consistent encounters with White people by People of Color. This research led to Quadrant Behavior Theory and the QBT sessions. The research was fueled by a passion in me to advance Applied Behavioral Science in the service of social justice and oppression free societies. Using the frame of critical theory, QBT provides an analysis of social dynamics present in relationships and cultural norms where identity characteristics impact an individual’s or group’s ability to access position or success because of the presence or absence of certain characteristics.
Quadrant Behavior Theory and Organization Development
Quadrant Behavior Theory has embedded in its structure that power, exclusion, and unearned privilege are wrong and impact all members of a society, community, or system. It assumes social change advocates and concerned citizens want skills that create open and equitable systems. QBT uses tracking and naming of repetitive and oppressive behavior to identify ways to change the behavior. The theory believes that power, a key component of oppressive systems, can be shared. QBT changes the landscape of the dialogue on power, privilege, and oppression. QBT identifies language that reshapes the world and behavior of the change agent, the OD practitioner, and QBT practitioner. Some of this new language will be highlighted in this article.
For example, as a critical theory on social injustice, QBT seeks to change the behavior of groups and individuals that is oppressive. The QBT formula [Db=f (d,c,a)] captures the core of the theory. Distinguishing behavior DB is a function of the desire to eliminate systemic oppression and exclusion plus contact with “the other”; engaging differences at the edge of one’s own identity, combined with awareness of the impact of oppressive actions on the lives of “the other.” This awareness comes from confronting power and the misuse of power credentials, as well as hearing the stories and struggles of people who are excluded—”the other.”
The new behavior is what distinguishes you and how you use your power credentials from other group members. Distinguishing behaviors are behaviors (actions, statements, and body language) that give the impacted or targeted group member information about an individual’s commitment to social change, equity, and the dismantling of oppression. It is what creates the authentic friend, ally, or colleague in systems and personal relationships. Distinguishing behavior is a core theme in QBT.
The formula and the theory emerged as a process for shifting behavior described as predictable. “Predictable behavior” refers to repeated actions and activities that can be tracked and named across various experiences and circumstances. This behavior is displayed by those with power and unearned identity privilege over people who do not possess the same power identities.
Predictable behaviors are present across the spectrum of socially constructed identities. Predictable behavior is often unconscious to the privileged group whether the group is White, male, heterosexual, physically able, or ranking in class. An illustration of predictable behavior is the statements that are repeatedly made by men, when discussing gender bias and sexism. Men will say, “I am a man, and I experience that; it is the same for men, what is the big deal?” Or, “my boss is a woman; I work in a woman dominated group and I am the oppressed person and I don’t complain.” These statements are heard so often they are predictable in discussions about sexism or gender privilege. Predictable behavior severely impacts the ability to trust across what is often referred to as the “big eight.”
The big eight are race (skin color), gender, sexual orientation, class, age, ability, nationalism/ethnicity, and religious beliefs and reflect the cultural norms of acceptance and value. The big eight are the areas which create significant privilege or oppression for members of identity groups. QBT uses these social identity characteristics in the long-term learning group or cohort sessions. The more characteristics of the big eight a person has as personal attributes the more privilege is afforded him or her by the culture or system. The fewer attributes a person has that fit the “norm” the higher the oppression factor in a person’s life.
This assignment of privilege and power or oppression and exclusion become group level privilege credentials. This transference of values and beliefs about human characteristic to all members of a group [Whites, men, heterosexuals, and Christians] becomes the point where group membership and privilege intersect with cultural assumptions and stereotypes. This creates the oppression/privilege factor of what is considered the “cultural membrane”1 that influences every person in the culture. This cultural membrane that pushes and influences us is the environment four day to day activities and contact between individual and groups. Every member of the culture participates in the activities, and they hold the norms and values that create the structures which are incubators for oppression and inequality.
Structural Inequality
In QBT structural inequality is defined as a combination of privilege, exclusion, power, and oppression that is present in all levels, facets, and functions of cultures, societies, systems, and organizations. These factors when exercised create preferred favor, privilege, or benefit for one group (dominant) over another or other groups. Structural inequality is supported through visible and hidden policies, programs, rules, norms, assumptions, and attitudes. It is the behavior that creates, supports, and contributes to the existence and continuation of bias, discrimination, and dominance in all areas of a society, culture, or system. Structural Inequality is the parent or umbrella structure for the presence of racism, sexism, heterosexism (homophobia), and other forms of exclusion and bias in our culture.2
These norms and assumptions about the other create the acceptance code. The acceptance code is embedded in every social group indicator of the QB quadrant matrix. The code lives and integrates at four levels of system. Culture and the dominant social contract is the membrane in which the entire behavior scheme is framed. The cultural membrane surrounds all areas of every system and attaches current and historical value. Systems and agencies are the second level where we begin to see the impact of the cultural construct. This level creates, implements, and enforces norms and policy. Group membership is the functional level of the cultural membrane. It is within the group that each access level or barrier is constructed and preserved. Group membership and acceptance of your identity group credentials is the strongest intersection of culture and systems. The group carries out the cultural contract. The organization is the stage for the action. The individual level is the arena of highest impact for behavior change because each of us has the power to influence and create new group behavior based on our individual and personal power. We can create a new acceptance code.
QBT uses a four square matrix to divide the two primary social indicators race and gender along a grid providing a container for the analysis of the significance of race and gender on systems, groups, and individuals (see Figure 24.1). In the matrix, eight social identity dynamics are given a value indicator attaching a positive or negative indicator to the identity. The positive indicators are given to identities that carry cultural and systemic power and privilege and the opposite or power down identity variable is given a negative value. The value valence is assigned to all members of the four quadrants and each identity variable that represents access or denial of success and opportunity is used to underscore the impact of privilege or oppression on individuals and groups.
FIGURE 24.1 Quadrant Behavior Theory—The Big Eight
The Quadrant Matrix
The quadrant matrix incorporates other social identities into every quadrant. The QBT frame expands and becomes a kaleidoscope of identities. A kaleidoscope of identities in QBT is present when any exchange is viewed through the multiple lenses of QBT frameworks. The presence of eight identity indicators forms an integrated model, a kaleidoscope, for working multiple areas of impact (see Figure 24.2). QBT works this kaleidoscope and measures impact of each indicator. When the frame incorporates sexual identity, class, and ability you have the presence of an intricate set of access or barrier indicators. QBT calls this construct the “abacus of oppression and privilege.” The abacus, the ancient Asian counting apparatus, gives a compelling picture of how many benefit or barrier indices QBT cohort members hold, carry, and internalize. Viewing social dynamics and interactions based on these indicators illustrates the many cases where race carries the strongest impact of impenetrable barriers to success and acceptance. In our society in 2010 race (skin color preference) is the dominant barrier to access, opportunity, goods, and services.
QBT and Experiential Process
In QBT workshops the actions of the group are discussed as well as theory. Hologram imagery is a QBT method of seeing systems and the impact of one’s behavior in real time activity. Using the metaphor of the hologram we track, name, examine the actions and language present in the cohort. The tracking of actions across the cohort is defined as the “hologram of the play board.”3 The hologram metaphor is a powerful tool of QBT and every member of the cohort is encouraged to become skilled at activating the hologram and examining the activity on the board. Everyone comes to understand that “the board is always in play.”
FIGURE 24.2 The Kaleidoscope of Identity and the Big 8
Every social interaction spins the kaleidoscope for analysis and QBT behavior change.
QBT uses contact, dialogue. and theory to increase capacity for behavior change at the individual and group level. In experiencing the QBT dynamics a cohort is created and works together over a defined period of time. In the cohort People of Color and White people self-sort into four quadrants based on race and gender to engage in dialogue and activities that illustrate the impact of personal behavior on systems and individuals. QBT provides current and historical information that illustrates the often hidden and obscure impact of identity group influence on systems, policies, attitudes, and assumptions about social identity differences such as race, gender, sexual orientation, age and other areas of difference. The community always engages race and gender as power dynamics. Each cohort is different and engages the social identity power indicators from multiple views using the information that is in the community, as well as in the culture to deepen awareness about self and other.
The sustained contact of QBT cohorts generates opportunity for engagement, dialogue, conflict, tension, and intimacy. The power of QBT groups is the face to face intimacy that develops through truth telling awareness], presence of self [desire] and an exploration [contact] of group dynamics over a defined period of time. A QBT cohort is the optimum exposure to QBT with life changing result as a deliverable from the sustained contact with the other. Behavior change requires contact, texture, witness, and support. QBT confronts the cultural membrane, the acceptance code and the assumptions of competency and value that build huge barriers to success and access.
The sessions are designed to stimulate dialogue. Members of the cohort are first asked to design their identity kaleidoscope using graphics and the big eight to bring the power grid into the community. Sitting in four quadrants divided by race and gender, each person lives the intersection of race and gender for cohort dialogue sessions. Holding the intersection of race (skin color preference) and gender (male dominance) as the framework for other attendant expressions of power and privilege the dialogue uses data in the room, from each participant, current information and historical background data to create reference points for the cohorts experiences with each other. Sharing the data and the kaleidoscope is a powerful exercise awareness of social identity impact. Kaleidoscopes are saved and used throughout the cohort experience.
An impactful illustration of QBT and growth and change is an example from our work with same gender loving cohort members. An entire cohort had to face their surprise and discomfort when Nailah (naa-ee-lah), a feminine Black, lesbian woman, quietly commented that she spent most of her life in the company of women, and did not see a need to engage with men except at work, and most of the men she worked with and supervised were same gender loving just as she was. There was a series of diverse reactions most of them inquiries directed at the lesbian of Color.
This could have easily turned into a three tiered power over interrogation. The cohort “froze the board,” used the theory to engage the hologram of the quadrants and worked the dynamics real time. The result was a very different conversation for the heterosexual members of the cohort; it was also an opportunity to shift the focus of the dialogue from Nailah to what the quadrant identity group was doing, thinking, and create new behavior. It was also an opportunity to deepen the trust factors between Nailah and her allies. This example illustrates the power of the “board in play” process at the individual level.
Other illustrations demonstrate the significance of QBT dynamics at the group level. Even when individuals profess their understanding of structural inequality, racism, sexism, and other forms of oppression, it is quite possible to be oblivious to how their group memberships impact their understanding of structural inequality. In one circumstance the group energy around a woman of Color who challenged men and male behavior was creating tension in the men’s quadrants. Several men wanted her to manage herself. Alicia was certain that she had allies within the men’s quadrant, and felt secure in her support with the men of Color. When she continued to challenge men on their sexism and their inappropriate behavior the reaction of the group was quite surprising.
Much of the conversation in the cohort was directed toward Alicia. She should think about what she was saying before she speaks. Men interrupted her when she tried to explain her position; dismissed her data and tracking in the system. Women were silent, and only nodded when she held her ground. When she reminded them that she was feeling the push of the quadrants and watching the focus of the conversation move to the women of Color quadrant only one man backed her story. When the group moved to a simulation on sexism, the men began to instruct the women on sexism and proper dress. Alicia stopped the dialogue; engaged the hologram and began to use the definitions and QBT frame to identify the collusion and privilege in the exercise. What became clear in the dialogue was how silence and predictable group thinking were present in the cohort; even as we claimed knowledge of sexism and power. Women began to identify fear and silence in their behavior; men talked openly about anger and frustration for being challenged on their behavior.
An important action of QBT sessions is the transparent analysis of all members of the cohort, including the facilitators. Everyone receives feedback about actions, inaction, language, silence, and identity membership during the training. This close examination of individual behavior through the eyes of the group is also a time to examine how blame and punishment, even violence can be present in a quadrant identity groups’ reaction to challenges to its assumed authority or position. This use of the board in play illustrates the presence of predictable behavior at the group level; provides opportunities for creating distinguishing behavior when group dynamics are pressing on the cohort and quadrant members.
When working in the Diversity Practitioner’s Certificate Program where QBT is a theoretical cornerstone both faculty and participants struggle with what comes up in the dialogue and experiences. It is only through sustained contact and a desire to shift the systems at every opportunity do cohort members come to truly see each other and themselves. As cohort members develop a stronger skill at using QBT activities the expectation that they will use this skill to freeze the board becomes a norm of the community. Facing into feedback and real time dialogue about simple statements which hurt or dismiss, confronting the emergence of predictable quadrant behaviors by any member of community, and working the edges in community allow intimacy and strength of voice emerge. The cohort creates change [distinguishing behavior] that can, and should, be transferred to other relationships thereby impacting communities and systems through a network of interventions.
Quadrant Behavior Theory Is a Platform Theory
Platform theories are frameworks and models capable of being integrated into other OD theories to enhance and support their effectiveness in system interventions. QBT creates a formula and prescriptive for discovering the hidden assumptions and actions present in human relationships where exclusion and power permit unearned privilege and opportunity to exist. QBT is a platform theory and it is applicable at any or all levels of a system. In seeing QBT as a platform that other OD theories and social justice actions can build upon allows the impact of unearned privilege and power to be integrated into organizational climate review, executive decisions, and management actions. Integrating QBT language and technology into personal change processes reveals what each individual can consider as they work across race, gender, and other social identity lines. The practitioner can support the system in creating interventions that speak to the presence of historical inequities and current exclusions.
QBT practitioners are able to integrate QBT into OD activities at any level of system. For example in an Appreciative Inquiry model QBT activities become part of the AI summit, reviewing who is in the room when decisions are made. Often in oppressive systems women are absent, the poor are excluded, and people with disabilities rarely are engaged in the process of defining the topic; QBT activities are a core part of the dream, and design phases of AI. It is transferable and scalable; it works in family systems as well as for the global community.
Benefits/Contributions
QBT is part of the core curriculum in NTL’s Diversity Leadership Certificate Program (DLCP) and formerly in AU/NTL’s Use of Self course. I have shared the framework in several academic and organizational programs over the past 25 years. QBT is a value based social change model which believes that people can and do change and grow (Moore, 1988).
The benefit at the individual level has generated, or strengthened, true, strong, authentic friendships with White women, White men, men of Color, and women of Color. At the systems level the impact has been the integration of QBT learning into other systems and communities. Colleagues in Salvador da Bahia, Brazil collaborate with me on social justice dynamics, eco-racism, north-south nation states relations, and gender bias using QBT theory. QBT practitioners are raising their voices in systems and programs in the United States demonstrating that the learning is transferable, and that distinguishing behavior is possible across communities. Alumni of the program are networks of support for each other as they embark on large systems change interventions across the globe.
So how does working in QBT and creating theory that challenges individual behavior throughout social systems impact me and strengthen my voice? The benefit for me, as a Black woman exists on several levels. I see and live the impact of six (of the eight social identity characteristics) that are power down indicators in my life daily and constantly. QBT is my balm in Gilead; it keeps the fringes from unraveling on a daily basis. Seeing systems, global impact, and the integration of quadrant identity power into policy, behavior, and regular occurrences is an inoculation against many of the day to day indignities that I often experience as I manage personal relationships and systems.
It is comforting to know that QBT has touched the lives of hundreds of people who have benefited from this work. The importance of creating a community of practitioner scholars who understand QBT dynamics and have experienced the QBT workshops will lead to significant changes in the way we approach social justice and inclusion. People will raise their voice in everyday situations where power over is present and targeted groups are invisible in systems and communities.
As I use the theory, its language and the formula to analyze change I am more easily able to identify where and with whom to place my trust and confidence. I can make choices about raising my voice and my safety based on what behaviors I see present in the relationship. I also use my voice to identify myself as someone who is trustworthy as an ally. It has changed my life in powerful ways.
We who believe in freedom must not rest.
—Ella’s song, from Sweet Honey in the Rock
References
Citron, A. (1963). The rightness of whiteness. Detroit, MI: Wayne State University Press.
hooks, b. (July-Aug, 1992). Out of the academy and into the streets. MS Magazine, 3(1), 80.
Kerner, O. (1968). Report of the National Advisory Commission on Civil Disorders. Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office.
Moore, R. (1988). Anti-Racism workshops. Andover, MA: Phillips Academy.
Royal, C., & Taira, S. (1994). Diversity facilitation skills, Training manual and handbook, module 3. Arlington, VA: NTL Institute.
Sata, L. (1995). Lecture given during the Professional Work Conference, NTL member session, San Francisco, CA.
1Cultural membrane is the QBT definition that describes the norms, values, policies and rules; written and unwritten that informs members about acceptable behavior and groups.
2Structural Inequality definition based on work created by Cathy Royal and Susan Y. Taira at the Fielding Institute.
3Play board refers to gaming language; first made famous by Eric Berne with Games People Play. The board is where all moves of the game take place, like a monopoly or chess board.