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What do you want, really?
It's a simple enough question,
isn't it? What do you want
when it comes to your work in public life? I
feel rather stupid asking this
question because its answer often seems so
damn obvious. All that's required is
a basic, straightforward response. And yet,
truth be told, I find so many of us
struggle with what we want, and even more with
whether we are really getting to
where we want to be. Something is in our way,
but what?
Most people I know
seeking to bring about change in public
life are working mighty hard, for relatively
modest pay, and over long hours.
Let's face it: there are easier ways to make a
living. But you and I and many
others do not consider this work simply to be
a "career." It is a calling; we
have an urge within us to do good, to right
wrongs, to repair breaches, to give
voice to the weakest among us.
But today I am not
writing about the reasons that get us out
of bed every morning, but rather what stands
in the way of our fulfillment. In
talking with people, I often find that at the
heart of this matter is some
combination of three different barriers that I
describe below, and which I ask
you to consider for yourself.
Option #1: I find that
many of us are running so fast simply
to get through our daily task list, that we
may not be pointed in the right
direction to create change. We focus too much
on the success of our own
organization, the implementation of a rigid
strategic plan, or meeting metrics
someone else has set to evaluate our
effectiveness. It's all more than enough
to lose sight of why you got into this work in
the first place. It's not that our
hearts aren't in the right place; instead, it
is that we are not properly oriented
to the very communities we seek to improve. We
don't truly understand and work
with people's concerns; we do not deeply know
how to create the conditions for
change; we are not in synch with the kind of
change people seek.
Of course, each of us
believes that we are oriented outward
toward our communities. But the reality is
that many of us operate apart from
the very communities we wish to improve and
strengthen. While we may talk about "community"
from time to time, we are focused like a laser
on our own programs
and goals. This isn't easy to admit, but for
many of us, it is true.
Option #2: I find that
many of us turn to a collection of processes
and approaches we have been told will offer us
insights and answers to the most
vexing challenges. Indeed, this second option
is rooted in the adoption of
strategic planning, branding, best practices,
competitive analyses,
evidence-based decision-making, customer
service, and other techniques that
promise us a good outcome. There is nothing
inherently wrong with any of these
or other similar approaches. The problem
arises when we become lost in them - naming and
renaming strategies, moving organizational
boxes around, cranking
through more and more data, and yet never
seeing the essence of the public
challenges we face and their effects on
people's lives; or seeing communities as
living, organic systems to be engaged not
controlled; or facing up to the fact
that the real dilemma may be the absence of
public will, not the adoption of
more jargon.
I know these techniques
can be useful; I use them myself.
But I also hear people tell me that instead of
their group or organization having
real conversations, or engaging deeply (and
even honestly) in their work, they go
through more exercises. My concern is that we
can get lost, even hide behind,
these methods, and lose our sense of mission
and what matters most.
Option #3: I find
that many of us are blocked by conditions
beyond us: negative and divisive
politics, economic changes, the physical
development of communities, other
people's lack of will and discipline. It is
true that these and other maladies
exist in our communities and organizations.
And they can be powerful forces. Go
to many communities and you will see how these
forces have disrupted people's
lives and undermined their
futures.
I do not debate the
validity of these points. But what I do
ask is this: must we remain victims of these
maladies; must we accept them as
they are; must we lie down before them and
give in? If the answer is no, then
what are we doing?
There may be other
barriers and other factors but take a
good hard look at what sits beneath each of
them. What makes it difficult to
move beyond them? Perhaps at the core is that
we that we can become stymied by
fear - the fear to engage with those who may
be different from ourselves; the
fear of being critiqued by others; the
fear of coming up short or being proven wrong;
the fear of being unsuccessful
and losing hope or faith; the fear of
rejection.
In my experience, people
typically do not mention "fear"
right off the bat; it often takes a bit of a
conversation for such feelings to
be uncovered, or at least articulated. But
fear is insidious. It has a way of
grabbing hold of us and distorting our best
dreams, of slowing us down, of
knocking us off course.
Download a free copy of Rich's latest essay: Make Hope Real