A conservative perspective on radical change
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I want to offer a conservative perspective today* — and a bit of the ‘superhero origin story’ of ‘antlerboy’ (that’s me) in a podcast.
There’s a famous parable from GK Chesterton:
‘There exists in such a case a certain institution or law; let us say, for the sake of simplicity, a fence or gate erected across a road. The more modern type of reformer goes gaily up to it and says, ‘I don’t see the use of this; let us clear it away.’ To which the more intelligent type of reformer will do well to answer: ‘If you don’t see the use of it, I certainly won’t let you clear it away. Go away and think. Then, when you can come back and tell me that you do see the use of it, I may allow you to destroy it.’’
I was recently told ‘the best advice you can give is to people who’re in the situation you were in 20 years ago’.
And for me — though it goes back more than twenty years — it’s this:
When a consultant or thinker or influencer or disrupter gives a speech which shows a new and better way to do things, which suddenly lights up your mind and explains why you are right and all your managers, politicians, bosses, possibly your parents, are all wrong… well, that’s great! By all means send an 18-page memo to the chief executive explaining how everything being done to run the organisation is wrong.
That’s what I did — I still have the memo — based on insights from Vanguard consulting.
For you, it might be Agile, Service Design, ‘Digital’, ‘Behavioural Insights’, ‘Beyond Budgeting’, ‘neuroscience’ — it might be a myriad of things. They all share important truths.
But… and it’s an important but… understand that many before you have been on this journey. There is a better way to do things (in my sphere, it’s ‘relational public services’) — and, if it was simple to achieve, it would have been done long ago. The people you’re polarising with your passion probably carry the scars and regrets of their own attempts to change things.
So if you want to *actually* achieve change, you have to understand their perspective as well as your own zeal. You have to allow that they might not all be idiots, incompetent, misguided, misinformed, or malicious.
I’ve fallen into the trap of insight, anger, criticism, zealotry, and polarisation time and time again, but/and… I do like to think I’m learning.
In this short podcast with Professor Martin Parr, I talk about the desire to make a difference, the ‘spark’ events, learning from the bottom up, and trying to actually find a way through to make change happen.
*nothing to do with party politics or the coming election, except in relatively complex ways
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Do you have a story that sparked passion in you, that you later had to moderate or adapt, in order to really have impact?
