Who Changes in Systems Change?

 

Toward the end of Adam Kahane’s book Collaborating with the Enemy he makes an eye-opening observation.  Truly collaborating for transformational change – what Kahane calls Stretch Collaboration – starts with moving beyond us/them conceptualizations and learning to see oneself as deeply embedded in the problem that requires changing.  

As consultants we are not outside of the problem. We are not mere observers of the problem. Our presence, our sensemaking, and our behavior are part of the problem, influenced by and influencing the problem.  

As a somewhat humorous and powerful point of clarification Kahane uses a traffic metaphor to drive home his message.  He notes that the phrase “stuck in traffic” is a misnomer.  When I call home to notify my family that I will be late because I am stuck in traffic, I have failed to notice that from another driver’s perspective I am the traffic.  It would be more accurate to call home and let folks know that I will be late because at the moment “I am traffic.”  Imagine that!  I am traffic.

Kahane advises that to engage in Stretch Collaboration in groups where there is strong disagreement and mistrust requires putting aside focus on others in the form of naming and blaming and instead attending to ourselves.
• What am I doing that holds the problem in place? 
• What can I do differently?
• What should I do next?

This advice from Kahane is especially personal and timely.  Perhaps, like me, you are working in settings that are highly charged with political divisions.  Amidst the controversy and chaos it can feel reassuring to believe that people who think like us and agree with us are clearly better informed, better motivated, and better disposed to lead important changes. Those who disagree with us must be persuaded to change their positions or overpowered and marginalized.  The problem with this type of thinking, according to Kahane, is that it relies on control to solve complex problems.  In complex problems, especially those with long histories of conflict, true control is not possible.  Instead of control we need practices (attending, listening, being present) that subtly shift the conditions that hold problems in place, allowing new possibilities to rise into collective understanding.  

This week as I move in spaces where mistrust is high, differences in beliefs are strong and entangled in varied definitions of fairness and goodness, and social connections are limited I will be asking: what am I doing that holds the problem in place, what can I do differently, what should I do next?  


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