Turning point
How have lessons from one of your problem’s watershed moments affected thinking today?
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…
Every good story has a beginning, a middle, and an end. This question is about the middle. Pick one moment in the story of your social problem when the dynamics of the problem shifted significantly. Why was that moment so important? Are there various interpretations of that moment and what it means? How do assumptions about that moment’s story affect your decisions today, as well as the decisions of others?
Every problem has a past. The stories that we tell about the past make up a problem’s history. Even when these stories have a basis in fact, they often differ in significant ways based on who is telling them. And sometimes myths or even outright lies become part of a problem’s history in ways we can’t easily undo.
In this exercise, you’ll confront the story — or stories — of one such moment. Ideally you’re looking for a moment “when everything changed.” Any big moment after the beginning of your problem will do. If your problem has a long history, you may be able to find a moment from the distant past. However, my experience is that when most people do this exercise, they either pick a moment that occurred within living memory or a moment that was critical to the life of their organization.
That’s a good thing — it means you’ll be invested in the exercise and what it has to teach you. But also be ready for some of your own myths to be challenged. Let’s get into it.
HOW TO DO IT
Pick your moment. Even if you already have a clear favorite in mind, try to think of a few contenders. If you’re stuck, one way to find watershed moments is by thinking about any time your problem got much better or much worse — that should give you at least two. For a third, concentrate on story. What’s a moment that gets frequently discussed, even if you aren’t sure whether it is good or bad? Any one of these moments will work for this exercise.
Now unpack your story of the moment. This could be your personal feelings or the way the moment is represented by your organization or industry. Start with the facts as you understand them. But then look at the emotions and subtext. What is so important about this moment you are describing? What does it really mean for you and the people you work with?
It is also essential to assess whether there are any alternate stories about the moment you are describing. In the vast majority of cases, there will be at least two sides to the story. They say that “History is written by the victors” and chances are that there is at least one entity that experienced the turning point in the exact opposite way you did. Figure out that story, how it works, and what it means for people today. Do this for as many different perspectives as you can.
This question comes with a trick. New perspectives are almost always unlocked by asking, “What if this moment had never happened?” Take the question seriously and imagine another world. What would be good and bad about that world? Would you or your organization be similar or different? What about the other groups whose perspectives you explored?
Finally, the payoff — connect the stories told about this moment with behaviors and assumptions today. What actions does it motivate or justify? Would people behave very differently if this story were no longer told? Questioning these assumptions doesn’t mean you are going to change every behavior connected to this story, but you’ll have a much better understanding of how they work.
CAN YOU GIVE ME AN EXAMPLE?
I’ll use two from health care, the field where I spend most of my time these days. For years, Bill Clinton’s efforts to pass a universal health care program served as a cautionary tale for those hoping to expand health care access in the United States. The lessons of that attempt (and other past failures) significantly influenced the design of the Affordable Care Act when it finally passed in 2010. Even then, many blamed the ACA for significant electoral losses by Democrats later that year, solidifying the idea that it would be the last great health care reform for a generation. This is part of the reason why even to many progressives, pushing for a more comprehensive plan like Medicare for All still sounds insane.
But as a colleague in this field observed to me a few years back, another lesson progressives in health care took away from both these defeats and victories is the idea that the number of people with access to insurance is an acceptable metric of success. This may be a faulty assumption, given the fact that despite expanding access to insurance, Americans’ life expectancy has remained the same or even declined in recent years. Questioning the story of insurance access opens up new ways of looking at the problem.
COOL, SO WHAT MAKES THIS WORK?
This question is an example of how to better understand assumptions about your problem using the history 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: Currier and Ives print of the Battle of Gettysburg
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