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…
Imagine that you and everyone else like you quit working on the problem you are trying to solve. What kind of people or organizations would be sufficiently motivated to take on the problem in your absence? How might they look at the problem differently?
I feel like everyone I know feels tried in June. Maybe it’s the long days or — depending on where you live — the heat. Maybe it’s the memory of the summer vacation we used to have as kids, or perhaps the burden of planning ten zillion summer activities for kids today. Anyway, if you feel like throwing in the towel on that big hairy problem you are trying to solve, here’s your chance.
In this exercise, we imagine what the social problem we are fighting might look like without us. Ideally, you aren’t just removing yourself or your organization from the scene, but every other organization like yours. Feel free to imagine whatever catastrophic outcomes might occur! Because what we are really trying to figure out is who might be drawn in to the world of the problem when those outcomes occur. This allows us to see different ways in which our problems are tied into the vast spider web of human society.
Here’s how to start tugging on the threads:
HOW TO DO IT
Define who is getting an (imaginary) break - If you and your organization are part of an established segment of the nonprofit or social services sector, this should be easy. If you run a homeless shelter, imagine there are no homeless shelters; if you work in a hospital, imagine there are no hospitals. If you think some specific trait of your organization is important, you can limit the scope. For example, if you are thinking about problems of higher education, it might be interesting to ask how for-profit universities would take on the problem if all the traditional ones disappeared.
If you work for an atypical organization, or if there are few established efforts to take on your problem, just ask, “What if nobody ever addresses this and it gets much worse?” and move on to the next step.
Without you I’m nothing - Now take a moment to indulge in thinking about how bad the world would be without you or your organization. The more dramatic the consequences, the better. Depending on your personality, this may make you feel good about the work you do or slightly terrified. But the point isn’t to boost your self-esteem. You have to remember that different groups would be incentivized to get involved in your problem for different reasons from you. In general, it’s easier to figure out those reasons if you imagine the most severe consequences of inaction.
Find your replacements - Once the world can no longer benefit from your efforts and your problem spirals out of control, who would intervene? Or more accurately, who might get involved, even if their reasons for doing so are less noble than yours? In my experience, the ideal entity to imagine “picking up the slack” is one that would have no choice but to take on your problem. Second best is one that would view your departure as a golden opportunity to advance their interests. But what you want to avoid is imagining that some other type of organization would adopt your worldview in your absence. Try to pick someone really different from you, even if it makes you uncomfortable.
Almost everyone is tempted to say “no one” in this step. But if your social problem is real, the answer is never “no one” — somebody would be drawn in by the resulting behavior. Go back to the previous step and consider how the consequences of inaction would force action by somebody.
See the problem as they see it - Now do your best to imagine how these newly interested groups would describe the problem. How do the ways they would describe the people harmed by the problem vary from yours? What might be their primary motivation for getting involved? What different resources or metrics would they bring to bear on the problem? In this step, pay particular attention to the way these organizations might link your worsening problem to other problems they care about.
Welcome back - Maybe you’re right about the organizations who would swoop in to replace you. Maybe you’re not. But any story you tell using this exercise reveals ways in which your problem is connected to other problems out there.XNow consider what that might mean for your own efforts to take on the problem. Are there opportunities to draw in new allies or resources due to your connections with other problems? Are there also ways in which the connections to other problems hold you back? Remember, you don’t need to adopt these alternate views of your problem as your authentic beliefs. Instead, just use them as jumping-off points to develop new insights and solutions.
CAN YOU GIVE ME AN EXAMPLE?
Gladly. There is one answer that works for almost any problem you try with this exercise: the police. (Or for some problems, perhaps “military” or “law enforcement.”) If you completely abandon any social problem, eventually it will spawn criminality and disorder that can’t be ignored. But as countless social welfare advocates will tell you, the police do not view social problems the same way we do. Generously speaking, I think one can say that they pay most attention to the aspects of the problem most tied up with violence. For example, someone with a great deal of experience with mental illness might not take a patient’s threats literally, but it’s hard for a police officer to react in the same way.
But here’s the thing — in my experience, the police almost never want to deal with these kinds of problems. They want to stop crime. When they’re roped into providing social services or analyzing the root causes of violence, it feels distracting and demoralizing. I have seen that understanding serve as the basis for several partnerships between social service agencies and police. Whether you’re interesting in partnership or not, it’s helpful to look at your problem from this alternate point of view.
SO WHAT MAKES THIS WORK?
This question is an example of how to transform your thinking about a 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.
Photo via Frida Toth
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