This is Andrew Benedict-Nelson, social change strategist and innovation educator. Each week, I share a question that you and your organization can use to find a new perspective on the toughest problems you face. Reply to the e-mail or comment on the site and we can talk about them together!
NOW FOR THIS WEEK’S QUESTION…
For almost any social problem, there are groups of people who are interested in the problem who don’t feel like they belong. Who sticks out in the world of your problem? Why do most or all of the other groups working on the problem think they don’t fit in? What might you learn if you temporarily adopted their perspective?
You may not want to admit it, but you already know who they are. Perhaps they come from a different professional background or a different part of the world. Maybe they do things that most of the people you know find distasteful. Or maybe they lack some sort of values or experiences that have always been considered essential to working on the problem you care about. Whoever they are, they are a group that doesn’t fit in, and everyone has probably had a conversation about it (even if they did it quietly).
In this exercise, you’ll turn the world of your problem inside out by looking at it through the eyes of these “interlopers.” It will require you to embrace two somewhat contradictory principles. First, for the time being, set aside any idea that you are going to solve for the exclusion of this group from the others. You can return to that question later if it’s useful.
Second, get ready to employ some radical empathy. As strange as this other group’s perspective may seem to you, it’s time to totally embrace it. Not just “they have a point from time to time” — imagine that you will have to play these folks in a dramatic production about your problem. It’s time for some method acting.
HOW TO DO IT
Identify the outsiders, then identify with one of them - Okay, not everyone immediately knows who they are. And sometimes they aren’t socially stigmatized, but instead just prompt questions of “Oh, what brought someone like you here?” Maybe it’s just one person you met at a conference one time who stuck in your mind. Whether it’s just one person or a whole class of people, picture an individual “interloper” in your mind so you can focus on that person’s story and motivations.
Think about where they’ve been and why they’re here - I often find it helpful to imagine the world of your problem as a country with its own customs. Now recall that this “interloper” has made a journey from their own country to yours. What do you know about where they came from and what it is like? What would have prompted them to leave the safety of their own land to visit yours? Focus in particular on motivations. Even if your “interloper” is a lone eccentric, there must have been something about your particular problem that attracted him or her — and it probably isn’t the same thing that motivates you.
Now consider the resistance - Feelings toward your “interloper” could be anything from mild bemusement to intense hatred. And of course different groups within the world of your problem may feel different things. But there are usually some common ideas about why this person or group does not belong. Study your own attitudes as well as those of other people or groups tied to your problem. What assumptions are they making about outsiders? How do those assumptions show up in behaviors not tied to the outsiders?
Imagine a secret - This part requires the biggest imaginative leap. Imagine that there is something about the “interlopers” that is the key to solving your problem. It doesn’t necessarily mean that they should be in charge or that they are right about everything. Just assume for the moment that there is something about who they are or where they come from that could change everything for the problem you are trying to solve. What might it be? Why would it matter so much? Try out a few different ideas, since it can be hard to get this one right the first time.
Come back home - Finally, take your insight about what the outsiders know and consider how the groups who “belong” to your problem might use it. Of course one straightforward approach is “develop better relationships with the outsiders,” but things are rarely so simple. At the very least, you’ll have to do some work to overcome whatever differences made these people so alien to begin with. But set that approach aside for a moment. Instead ask yourself, “Now that I’ve seen the world from this perspective, how might I modify my own?”
CAN YOU GIVE ME AN EXAMPLE?
Sure, I see the same one every couple of months so I might as well share it. In health care meetings mostly staffed by clinicians, one often hears a particular kind of apologetic introduction, “Well, I’m the finance guy…” This is usually followed by a little speech about how the person may not bring the compassion the rest of the group does to the problem, but some essential facts must be shared.
This bothers me to no end because whether we have an equitable system or not, all of our lives are shaped by the dynamics of who pays how much for what. There are good reasons for clinicians not to think about money when treating individual patients, but when they start designing systems, it only hurts patients when money is treated as a foreign language that the physicians and nurses need an interpreter to understand. And when I’ve seen clinicians genuinely immerse themselves in that language, they come up with ideas that the “finance guys” wouldn’t see on their own.
COOL, SO WHAT MAKES THIS WORK?
This question is an example of how to get more creative about your problem using the parthood dynamic. It’s one of six innovation dynamics I help people master to improve their critical thinking and build strategies for social change. Reply to this e-mail with your answer to the question and I’ll let you know what I think! Or learn more by visiting http://www.teachingsocialchange.com.
Image by Circe Denyer