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Rachel Finley
574 TNRB
Brigham Young University
Provo, UT 84602
(801) 422-3598
prspecialist@byu.edu

Victory Seeker Finds Success

Jane* (name has been changed for privacy) wanted to quit smoking, but each day when 4 p.m. rolled around, she craved a cigarette just as much. Those late afternoon hours were the hardest and she was often tempted to just give in. But then her cell phone would ring and the voice on the line would ask her a series of questions, the most important being, “Have you abstained from smoking since the last call?” After answering, the voice of her mother, father, or older brother would sound on the line with a message of encouragement or congratulations.

Jane was a participant in Victory Seeker, a program that utilizes cell phone technology and innovative software to help people break addictions, meet goals, and keep them on the right side of the law.

“This program has the capacity to produce positive changes in the lives of people,” says David Cherrington, a professor of organizational behavior at the Marriott School. Since 2005, Cherrington has served as faculty advisor to BYU’s Real Victory project, a program that works with Victory Seeker to mentor and help change lives.

Real Victory, the university counterpart of Victory Seeker, uses a cognitive behavior course and personal mentoring to positively influence and change a parolee’s attitude and conduct.

The idea comes from Senator Robert Bennett’s book Gaining Control. He claims that all behavior comes from four basic needs: the need to live, the need to love and be loved, the need for variety, and the need to feel important. A person’s desire for happiness motivates them to satisfy these needs, Cherrington says. A person’s belief window, or the principles and beliefs a person uses to interpret the world, influences the way a person seeks to satisfy those needs. If a person’s belief window includes the idea that drugs or alcohol are a way to live, drugs and alcohol will be pursued.

“The results of pursuing those things aren’t really going to satisfy their needs in the long run,” Cherrington says. “Instead of making them happy, they ruin relationships.” Real Victory helps people understand the consequences of their behaviors. Participants work with counselors or mentors, and then make goals for themselves to change their belief window, and change the habits, Cherrington explains.

But when “mind over matter” doesn’t prevail, Victory Seeker’s cell phone program kicks in with some reinforcement. Participants schedule phone calls for critical times during the day, times when they are most susceptible. Jane, for example, chose to have four phone calls a day, at the times she craved cigarettes the most.

“The mission of our center is to study the impact of technology on people,” says Stephen Liddle, director of the Rollins Center for eBusiness. “With Real Victory, we see how a cell-phone based technology can bless lives. It is a great example of using technology we take for granted and using them for good, to bless lives. There are so many people who use technology for bad and this is just the opposite.”

Another participant, who made a goal to stay sober, chose to have two phone calls a day: one in the morning to remind him of his goals, and another in the evening to evaluate his progress during the day. And that evening phone call saved him on more than one occasion. “Sometimes work gets stressful, and I just want to go have a beer,” he says. “That phone call comes just in time.”

He’s been participating in the program about five months and is already seeing changes. “I feel good when I wake up in the morning,” he says. “I feel like going to work. I’m not wasting my time like I used to.”

Bruce Bennett, a Marriott School MBA graduate and inventor of the cell phone technology, came to BYU with a proposal the school participate in the research.

“We have created a great research partnership between BYU, the Department of Corrections and the private sector,” he says. “We are statistically validating the success of these programs but the real satisfaction comes from the meeting the parolees and seeing the change in their lives. This is a tough crowd and it’s rewarding to see them move from despair or cynicism to hope and change.”

One participant, a young woman who has been with the program seven months, chose her phone calls to reminder her of her goal to stay clean and sober.

“It’s like a constant reminder to keep myself in check,” she says. “If I’m not making my goals, the phone calls remind me to analyze the situation and do better.” Once, after an argument with her fiancé, she was so upset she wanted to get high out of revenge. But she received a phone call from her Victory Seeker program that walked her through her goals and helped her analyze why she was upset. “By the time I got through the questions, I didn’t want to use anymore because it wasn’t worth it,” she says. “It’s helped me change my life. I’ve been clean and sober since February.”