Tell me if this sounds familiar. You’re facing down a big, complicated problem and after a lot of thinking, strategizing and consulting you’ve got a plan that you’re ready to set in motion. Yay!
You go over your checklist: vocal supporters (check!), talking points (check!), project management tool (check!) and shareable content (check!).
On your mark! Get set! Engage! You start strong and everything is rolling along as planned and then – BLAM! – you run face-first into a wall of opposition that seems to have come out of nowhere to stop you dead in your tracks.
You thought you were the Roadrunner, but it turns out you were the Coyote.
Congratulations! You’ve smacked right into the Wicked Wall of Resistance. Thankfully you’re not alone. I’ve been there and after 30+ years of writing about, researching and working through complex, complicated and oftentimes contentious issues, I’ve learned a few things along the way.
So before you waste any more time or effort on Acme dynamite sticks to blast through that wall (it NEVER works), let me share three characteristics of Wicked Walls of Resistance, and how to counteract these effects so you can get moving.
- Wicked Walls of Resistance are built brick by brick every time groups of people are ignored, disrespected or shamed for not agreeing or understanding a perspective that differs or challenges their values and beliefs.
- Wicked Walls of Resistance can arise at any time because, in our highly networked and digitally connected world, the forces aligned with us and the forces aligned against us are usually evenly matched thanks to their ability to easily find each other, connect and organize online.
- Odds are if you are actively working to bring about significant change, you, your team or your organization will end up on the wrong side of an issue at some point. When that happens, those who oppose you won’t just fight you on your current actions. Nope. In today’s networked world, we judge and are being judged by our past and current actions and the past and current actions of other players in our space.
There is evidence of this type of ‘systems judgment’ everywhere. If a citizen has a bad experience with one level of government, they aren’t likely to differentiate between government departments or levels; they’ll just have a negative opinion of ‘government’. Disagree with one resource company’s practises or doubt the truthfulness of their sustainability claims? Those sins will be ascribed to all resource companies and blanket mistrust regarding climate change and sustainability will harden opinions. Think Facebook, Amazon, Uber and other large tech companies are behaving badly? You’re more likely to believe the entire industry needs more regulation. Throw in stories of sexism and ‘tech bro’ culture, and it’s unlikely all the social media campaigns targeting young women will convince more of them to see technology companies as viable career options.
To combat that, you, your team and your organization need to lead with purpose via the Wicked Equation: Purpose + Place = Power.
- Purpose: Your values put to work.
- Place: Where you feel you belong because you are with other people who share your values. Your place is your community, which could be a community on a map, in a workplace, or forged around shared interests.
- Power: The ability to influence and move resources to drive change.
Live your purpose, know your place, share your power: that’s how you avoid Wicked Walls of Resistance and get moving towards sustainable systemic change. Beep! Beep!
