Today, America, I Will Settle for Tweaks

(Transformation Can Start Tomorrow)

Normally, you find me on the transformation pulpit.

“Tweaks aren’t enough; transformation is the key to the golden kingdom of market making.”

“Think big, start small. Scale Fast.”

“Disruption will happen; transform or become irrelevant.”

I’m stepping down from the pulpit for a minute because here is one tweak that America needs now:

Gun. Reform.

Prevent access to assault weapons.

Will it solve the problem?

No.

Will it buy us time to solve the problem?

Abso-freaking-lutely.

Am I willing to tolerate the alternative?

No.

Not as a parent who sends their kids to school every day.

Not as a citizen who thinks twice about being in movie theatre.

Not as a innovator who can see a better way and is so damn sick of the lack of political will to do anything.

I could spout off the size and scope of the problem — gun deaths in the US are the equivalent of a fully 737 crashing every 5 days. That’s my new favorite. It won’t change your mind, increase your resolve, or suddenly wake up the NRA lobby. But I’ll throw it out there for good measure. We have a big freaking problem and in any other industry it would have been fixed.

There is not a risk of more gun violence. That’s the most awful thing. There is no risk.

IT IS A KNOWN EVENT.

WE KNOW IT IS GOING TO HAPPEN AGAIN.

We don’t act because we get wound up in the hugeness of the issue, and its many nuanced and complex feeders. It’s like the zombie apocalypse, wherein we went from random outbreaks to whole cities being overrun by swarms overnight. It’s overwhelming and we use that as the reason not to do anything. We take cover, hide in our holes, wait for the swarm to pass. If that’s the case, let’s take our cues from the zombie apocalypse (or World War Z to be more precise), because, well, it seems saner than doing nothing.

Two lessons:

1. Movement is life. Standing still on gun violence is going to guarantee that more people die. It will only continue to get worse and no amount of lock down training is going to fix that.
2. Buy time. Gun reform in the end isn’t a systemic fix. It’s a tweak to buy time, to reduce the carnage so that we can experiment with systemic approaches that might actually fix the problem.

With that, the triage begins, and we can begin to work towards more systemic solutions.

Here’s how:

1. Think big. America has been called and heralded as the Great Experiment. Except that we haven’t really experimented. We protect our Amendments as sacrosanct — regardless of whether they remained relevant in today’s day and age. And that is the same mindset that gets institutions disrupted. Blockbuster saw Netflix coming, but suspended disbelief that the dominant model would or could change. It is time we start being the nation of innovators and disruptors that we pretend to be. Turning the mirror on ourselves and questioning the truths we believe to be so self-evident. In today’s day and age, what is the job that citizens need done? How can we create adaptable and flexible government systems that can be responsive to that job and truly innovate?
2. Start Small. A culture of violence is an epidemic in the United States. Mental illness is an epidemic. Loneliness is an epidemic. White privilege is epidemic. These are all connected factors that contribute to the hugeness of the problem. But the reason I go on rants is because we seem so surprised the morning after — that the suspect was a lonely, disturbed white man. That the suspect posted wildly about his need to do violence in the world on social media. That he had a troubled past, difficulty in school. We could see it a mile away and we DID NOTHING. But here’s the thing. If we can see it, if the test cases are that visible and that small in number, we have the beginning of the right conditions to start experimenting with real systemic approaches. How might we create more dynamic responses to people in need? How might we organize social services differently to catch the people falling through the cracks? How might communities engage in new and different conversations about power and vulnerability?
3. Create the right conditions. The only conditions that are missing is time and leadership. 95% of Americans are for gun reform. We need that 95%, however, to show up and be citizen leaders. We are far too dependent on top down leadership for this to change. Let’s remember that the United States has a decentralized political system for just these times — to deal with the really big issues. This decentralized system has given women the right to vote, made marriage a right for all, created safe havens for immigrants and dreamers. It can also create the leadership conditions for transforming how we address gun violence.
4. Connect your purposeful networks. We are living in a moment of unprecedented organization for important transformations, aided by unprecedented connectivity. #blacklivesmatter #metoo #gunreform — let’s make sure that these movements augment and amplify each other. The alternative is that our zero sum brains will cause us to worry that new issues will detract from our cause. These causes are all connected, so let’s connect how we address them.

And with that. I have returned to our regularly scheduled transformation programming. All of us at BIF care deeply about our people and our communities. We are impatient for change, both because we need it and because we know it’s possible. We work daily towards transformation in our most important social systems — even when it feels hard, messy, and difficult.

We invite you to join us.