We Walk the Line
Balancing the big hairy goal with small smooth steps
At the start of the Community Organising process we encourage blue sky thinking, ask the miracle questions, “if you had the power to change one thing…” and we wave our magic wands all over the place. We facilitate ambition and hope in hard times. We believe that big change can happen, but people need to be able to dream of it first. We believe in fighting towards something beautiful, not just away from something ugly.
Although people often share their reservations, creating a vision can be full of joy. We dream about what can be achieved. The people we bring together look around the room, often towards people they have just met, and wonder, will we be the ones to make this change?
This bit can feel so good that it’s easy to get stuck in it. I’ve been working with a group of people full of hope, passion and ideas, for months now. Every time we meet there are new ideas, however no ideas have yet been put into action. So much that even the ideas people are expressing that they feel frustrated at the lack of action! Whilst all feel overwhelmed by the big hairy goal.
I’m told this is a normal part of the grouping process, after forming comes norming storming, then performing. There is no way to skip the storming, a team member tells me, but sometimes it won’t last too long.
After a house meeting that feels very heavy, 1–1’s across the team bring out fear of stepping over the edge of action, a concern that not all will step over together, and having so many options that the secret option ‘maybe if we talk about it enough it will make itself happen’ seems to surface.
The goal of this team is big and relies heavily on a council decision, which in any part of the country does not come quickly. I can understand why they are frustrated.
So what?
How do we take our eye off the telescope?
Small steps. We start to look through binoculars… no, smaller than that. Get out your microscopes… then do something, anything, very soon, that will feel like a win. Do something fun, publicly, that puts your ideas and passion out there. We believe in the power of connection so get out there and connect. What can you do now, without permission, to shine a light on the issue — spread the word and move the conversations you have been having to the public realm — you never know who you might meet by putting yourself out there. Best case, you meet people who can get you closer to that big goal. Worst case, you learn that your team will get out there alongside you.
So the team is still storming, but there are glimmers of sun on the horizon. Planning, action, and reflection. These are the spaces we walk the line between as organisers — spend too much time in the planning stage and our work becomes all talk and no action, too much time in the action stage and we reduce our power through not being prepared enough or not learning and adapting, too much time in the reflection stage… well, we all know that can drive a girl around the bend.
So dream big! Shatter down the goal, and make a big shiny mosaic piece by piece, that looks something like what you set out to do. And lighten up folks, nobody said it was going to be easy.
— Gemma
Freely mixing metaphors since age 4
