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The Tyranny of Techniques and Process
The messages of hope and change
that dominate our political discussions these
days have made many people giddy about the
possibilities for public life and politics.
But, if we do not wish to slip back into
business as usual, we must beware of our own
inclinations and proclivities to rely on
techniques and process as a substitute for
making hope real. Instead, our task now is to
reorient ourselves outward, toward the people
and communities we serve, or risk squandering
the opportunity before us.
In our rush to re-engage people
and marshal civic resources, we can fall prey
to our own good intentions. Good intentions
aren't enough, and alone won't get us where we
want to go. In our use of techniques and
process, we can crowd out the very judgments we
must make to create conditions for hope and
change. We can assume a false sense of progress
and security, and sidestep the very battles we
must fight to produce change.
There's so much to say here, but let
me offer a handful of examples of where we turn
to technique and process and how they can take
us down the wrong path:
* We can actively engage people in the community and still never change how our own organization takes in the new knowledge, learns from it, and applies it to daily work.
* We can create elaborate processes
that still overlook the poor, those who haven't
had a voice, or those in neighborhoods we do
not know. Our own unexamined assumptions and
fears can prevent us from changing how we
fundamentally do things.
* We can efficiently pull down best
practices from web sites and reports, pursuing
a "plug and play" strategy, but never fully
examine if those practices really fit our
context.
* We can go through yet another
branding process in our organization and still
not answer the fundamental question: What is
our role in the community and what impact do we
seek?
My own sense is that many people make a beeline to techniques and processes simply as a way to be "doing something." Others use techniques and process to combat their own internal fears about ambiguity and the unknown, thus providing a tidy step-by-step recipe for action. Still others may be looking for the silver bullet, the quick way to solve the problem at-hand and move on.
Many of us operate with the implicit
assumption that so long as we are moving
forward, so long as we can say something is
happening, so long as we are moving down our
task list, we can claim that progress is being
made. But is it? The danger is that we become
"activity happy, and yet action deprived."
Tools, techniques and to-do lists may
assuage our own doubts, may give us a sense of
progress, but a completed check list or some
such other step won't necessarily lead to
change. I worry that our impulse to grab a new
technique or process is a way to insulate
ourselves from facing difficult truths. We can
forget that not every child has access to a
good education; that many people are without
healthcare; that even as we become a more
diverse society, we are turning inward - away
from one another. Each of our communities faces
its own difficult truths, and we all struggle
with how to adequately and honestly address
them.
The problem with the tyranny of
techniques and process is that it can be a
stand-in for our own need to step up and make
judgments on how best to make a difference. It
robs us of the possibilities for reshaping
public life and politics and discarding
business as usual. For sure, I believe there is
a role for techniques and process, as tools to
help us implement our larger ideas and
aspirations in public life. But this requires
that we have clarity about our intentions and
purpose, that our actions create genuine
opportunities to make hope real.
So while new techniques, processes and
tools have a place, we need something more. We
need to reorient ourselves. We need to turn
outward to the very people and communities we
serve. It's time: please, join me in the fight
against the tyranny of techniques and
process.
To learn more about how you can avoid becoming "activity happy, yet action deprived" get your free copy of Make Hope Real. (Chapter 4)