This is what makes you extraordinary.
The usual suspects alone are well equipped to achieve the usual results…The usual results are woefully inadequate …Comfort zones keep us stuck in the same old grooves. The tired old ‘stories of separation’ that artificially box people in or out…are crumbling…the illusory walls are dissolving. Real life is messier…more permeable.
When people are invited to participate in (change) initiatives of all kinds, there is (often) a tendency to include the usual suspects — whoever they are — those who are in familiar circles, roles, disciplines and strata of society.
That can be a start…a way to begin surfacing and exploring…
…but we gotta break out of our comfort zones if we seriously expect to break through. Making meaningful progress toward unusual outcomes that can gain traction and resilience is a humbling learning journey for all!
Where are the Unusual Suspects, the Extraordinary Ordinary People?
Too often the unusual suspects are overlooked, unseen or even purposely excluded…often struggling to be heard, understood, valued and taken seriously.
Without a real sense of agency…many (eventually) give up. Many more don’t even try.
People with divergent lived experience…those who hold differing or opposing perspectives and roles, are directly affected and experience things differently — need to be actively engaged and invested.
In reality, it is in our mutual best interests to bridge divides — for the good of humanity and the living planet we call home, whoever we are and wherever we reside.
So many ordinary citizens who haven’t (and won’t likely) read the books, don’t use the big conceptual words and are unimpressed by shiny buzzwords and hollow promises — can and must be actively engaged in a variety of ways, small and large. With enabling conditions and contexts, people everywhere and anywhere can potentially help to shape and live into a better world.
They may also be people who don’t seem to care at all about many of the subjects that passionately consume us. Unless we find ways to engage meaningfully…we don’t really know. Too often we fill in the gaps with assumptions. When conversations and initiatives remain in the abstract and hypothetical realms, they’re too far removed from the living pulse of what is really happening in real contexts and places…what might become possible and realizable.
Much to learn and understand from the unusual suspects who can potentially, creatively activate and fulfill vitally important roles addressing differentiated and overlapping needs and interests.
Coalition readiness, collaborative initiatives and coalition work consciously help us cast a wider net — much sooner than later.
By being more inclusive, we can understand and address deeper underlying issues, incorporate healthy divergence and needed data, overcome dysfunctional polarization, find the common[s] ground, move toward mission critical purpose and collaborate and co-create in ways that might initially seem unlikely.
So, let’s open our minds and hearts for those unusual suspects. Let’s welcome them to co-discover and co-create possibilities. Let’s widen our lens and humbly learn — for real.
There are so many leaders in the shadows who have much to contribute and even greater potential to help lead in the light, in some alternative ways.
Many of us are also unusual suspects…traversing the fringes and margins of society:
🌏 Those who don’t quite fit in anywhere…
🌍 Those who can’t be slotted into tidy demographics…
🌎 The outliers, creatives or visionaries who don’t belong among the mainstream…
🌏 The many, who don’t accept the norms of a dysfunctional society that has increasingly marginalized the many…
🌍 The vast swaths of society colonized through history and still colonized in the present…
🌎 The forgotten, victimized struggling to survive in an increasingly unkind, divided world…
Maybe some of these describe you and your journey?
“It is no measure of health to be well adjusted to a profoundly sick society.” ~Jiddu Krishnamurti
As we build bridges across divides, bringing all of us — extraordinary ordinary people together and working to overcome barriers — we are sometimes described as levellers…more often as facilitators, cross pollinators or weavers — helping to level the playing field, connect, relate and integrate. Any of us can and do level, facilitate, cross-pollinate and weave. These are natural functions…ways of engaging…that have always existed throughout history, described in a variety of ways with deep Indigenous roots across many cultures and wisdom traditions. There are also some among us who are especially gifted…called to carry out these functions.
As we collectively learn how to deeply embrace diversity, equity and inclusion in ways that are experienced as truly authentic and meaningful, together we can reframe a sense of belonging that enriches us all.
The big conceptual terms often widen barriers and create distance.
To be accessible and understandable to all citizens, regardless of societal strata or level of education, complex concepts need to be communicated in everyday language that anyone can grasp and adapted in ways that anyone can value and use.
Gosh, sometimes it’s hard to let go of some of those beautiful conceptually elegant terms, models and methodologies that we — some of us — have spent years and hard-earned careers honing. Humbling, in fact, as we sometimes struggle to level ourselves, walking-the-talk-listening-while-we-walk!
As we widen access, become more accessible, and emerge from some of those shadows, fringes and margins we are sharing, inviting and living more stories and engaging more directly within and across contexts. As we bridge more divides in a variety of ways, there’s a much higher probability that the great work of academics and thought leaders will actually be more widely applied and adapted with potential to right scale, meeting differentiated needs.
If we seriously hope to yield tangible progress and outcomes — we gotta seriously activate a much wider sense of We…
Working in ways that are more equitable — levelling the playing field — also creates more psychological safety, whereby people can feel freer to participate, speak up, share gifts differing and genuinely influence the shape and trajectory of initiatives.
Hiding in plain sight we discover…
As we widen those spaces working and learning together…it becomes increasingly evident that none of us are truly suspect(s.) We discover the common humanness that we share, while also honouring our gifts differing.
“There is wisdom and simplicity on both sides of complexity.”~ Unstitution
*This article was updated April 2024, reflecting additional perspectives and ongoing action research, as we continue to observe, listen and adapt — a humbling learning journey for us all.
Unstitution was birthed as a collective creative commons and nested ecosystem. We (co-)catalyze and support collaborative communities, initiatives and coalitions where people from across sectors, disciplines, cultures, generations and walks-of-life work together on mission critical issues. From readiness through to regenerative progress — moving beyond polarization — is how we roll. The links embedded throughout this article are a warm invitation to go a bit deeper, at any time. For more insights reflecting our ongoing journey, our suite of Unstitution articles are published on Medium. They portray a small sample of the ways we are adapting and contributing among ever-expanding commons-based communities and initiatives inspired and fuelled by citizens — perhaps better described as denizens — anywhere in the world — living into the principles and spirit that govern our collaborative work.
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