Assess your autonomy

The below sheet helps you assess your current autonomy level if you would like to do so. Usually, someone who would like to increase their autonomy would usually be curious about assessing it to know where s/he stands.

Why would i assess my autonomy?

Before you start growing your autonomy, you should get a 360-degree view of what that autonomy includes. On this page, we don’t talk about solutions. Solutions are covered in other pages. We only focus on identifying with you where you stand and where you want to grow your autonomy.

Please find some quiet time to study the below sheet yourself or as a group. You would do this exercise as a group because if you identify areas where improvements are needed and the folks with whom you need to contribute and work on these improvements with you, you would instead involve them right from the start, at the assessment step. The earlier your folks are involved, the easier it is for them to contribute, participate, and own the improvement. It will also be way more fun and less tiring than doing all the work yourself.

All you need to do on the autonomy assessment sheet below is circle where you stand on each topic: thought, food, water, energy, and healing. Is your autonomy low, medium, or high? If a topic does not apply to you, then cross it out. If a topic is unclear, please tell us by using the contact tab. The more relevant this autonomy assessment sheet is, the more autonomous we, People, will be.

You can download the assessment sheet as a PDF file by clicking here. If you can print it to keep it visible, that is even better. If you can’t access a color printer, black and white is all good.

Autonomy assessment sheet

What’s next?

Okay, so you are done with the assessment of your autonomy. Congrats! Only some folks will dare to assess it because the result may make them uncomfortable. It’s normal.

Let me ask you. Does the assessment reveal topics where you and your folks (family, friends, network, community, village if you did the exercise as a group) want or need to improve your autonomy?

If not, either your autonomy level is high, or you are okay with your current level of autonomy, the risks don’t apply where you are / live, or you don’t perceive any risk. All this is fine. Maybe you want to redo the assessment in a few months to check if anything has changed as your needs and the context around you may be evolving.

If yes, there are one or multiple topics where you want to improve, then let’s do the following:

  • First, circle these topics where you want to improve so they are evident on the autonomy assessment sheet.

  • Second, if there is only one topic that you want to improve (for example, you only want to increase your water autonomy), please move to the next point below (“Third”).

  • If there is more than one topic you want to improve, please stay here; we will talk about prioritization.

    Alright, you guys came up with several topics to improve. We will prioritize them, meaning define what you should start with first. How to do so? Well, we are going to look at them from a risk perspective. Imagine doing strictly nothing for all these autonomy topics you would like to work on. Which one is most likely to impact you negatively? Is it water, is it food, is it healing? If you are doing the assessment with your folks, you will ask them this question to know what matters to them. If most of you select the same topic as the most likely to impact you negatively, then great, it’s likely the area of improvement you should start with. Now, if you pick different topics, understand why. Example: why does Mike think that food autonomy should be the first topic to deal with? Why does Leila think that healing autonomy should be the priority? It’s important to discuss this as a group. You guys need to be aligned. The more aligned you are, the easier it will be to move in the right direction.

  • Third, ask yourself / your folks where you want to be. Imagine you guys identified thought autonomy as the topic to address because you all believe your current level of thought autonomy is relatively low. Where do you guys want to be? Do you want to reach an average level or a high level of autonomy on this topic? It is for you guys to decide, but you need to set an objective to reach. Setting a goal will increase the alignment of your teammates. Folks know where they are going. Once you have reached the objective you have selected, you are done.

  • Fourth, action! What actions can you take to move towards the objective you have set? Lucky you, a great deal of content is already available on Peoplelyzer.org. Please go to Peoplelyzer’s content navigator and select the relevant section for your needs. There is a complete section dedicated to autonomy.