Breakthroughs For Change

I feel a contagious restlessness emerging. What will cause you to step forward with others to make things right in your community?

Pre COVID the community change sector was bold. We dreamt together of ending poverty, winning the war on climate change, deepening a sense of belonging and equity for all. There was a growing sense of optimism in the power of the collective.  And we were launching large scale collective initiatives that were resulting in huge changes. The optimism was contagious. 

Then COVID struck. The singular call to action was to stay home. People being together or acting together was deemed dangerous. Of course, we accepted this call to stay home as we were scared. We did not know what else to do. Many of us reacted by reaching out online. Highlighting forms of collective or individual altruism and celebrating community action as we could. Much of our world went virtual. Virtual meetings. Virtual learning. Virtual organizing. 

 Thousands of lives were saved. 

Things have since opened. Many are vaccinated and the pandemic has all but ended. We are still cautious. Optimism is returning. I feel a contagious restlessness emerging. 

How might we return to the bold state of collective action we were achieving pre COVID. In my new book Breakthrough Community Change I conclude the book with these thoughts. 

What will cause you to step forward with others to make things right in your community? What do you wish for? What is causing your hesitancy?

There is a famous YouTube video of a man listening to street musicians. Everyone is standing around, but he feels the need to dance. He gets up and starts dancing. Alone he looks like a fool swinging his arms and bopping his head while kicking up his feet. He dances alone for some time. Everyone is watching. Then another man stands to join him. They see each other and start to dance with each other. Soon there is a third and then a fourth and suddenly the whole audience begins to dance.

Was it the man who started to dance that caused this reaction? Or was it the man who stood up second and joined him, validating the dance? Or was it the third or the fourth person that started to dance or was it the crowd itself? They wanted to dance but they just needed someone to start.

I believe that many of the social issues, and the brokenness we see and feel in our communities are felt by most of us. We see many different people struggle: single parents, alienated families, young people, and many others dealing with mental health issues. We see the effects of climate change, poverty, and racism on our neighbors. We are though, somehow frozen. Frozen together like ice cubes that melted just enough to touch each other before they froze again. We want to dance but we are stuck. Or maybe we are just waiting for a sign or an opportunity to act. And yet, so often we wait, and nothing changes.

In this case, our need for a breakthrough is a need to break out. What is causing us not to act? How might we break out? Will you be the first to dance or the second to join in? Will you get up when the crowd joins in?

The world needs our discontent with the ways things are. If we were content, we would accept the brokenness we see daily in our communities. We would accept the fear our children have of their future and climate change. We would accept the misery of the homeless mother struggling to care for her children and the fractious and seemingly futile struggle of people faced with racism and the inequity it breeds. We would accept the hunger pains that are never satisfied with the workers that work for less than they need.

And then your discontent makes you tired. The endless struggle seems to always end the same. Does the brokenness you see make your discontent feel more like burnout? Your hope once ignited by your discontent flickers. There are days you feel like the light in you will disappear.

You may be a community leader with a title. Perhaps you are a CEO, Executive Director, or Manager. You may not get paid to do the work of caring. You may be a business owner, construction worker, or musician. You may be a community leader with no title. You may be retired, unemployed, or on sick leave. Your title or lack thereof might make you feel like doing more is not about you. That caring is something that you are, not something that you do.

The ideas and the practices shared in this book come from the thousands of people who have broken out and had a breakthrough. You have read their stories. They are known in my world as the Tamarack Community. The learners who have joined together, learn to act together. They have turned their discontent into collective action. They address the root causes of the problems their communities face.

You want more for your community because you care.

 I hope that this book will be your guide for many years to come. That you will use it to fuel and guide that which you wish for yourself and your community. That this book will help you and your community write your own book about how your discontent and the dance you undertook to turn that discontent into a common agenda that changed everything.

 I hope that you will break out and achieve your breakthrough. I hope that what you wish for, just might come true.

 This blog is a series in which I will be releasing select sections of my new book. 

 Learn more at www.paulborn.ca Pre order the book on Amazon or your favourite book seller. Available through Berrett Koehler and Penguin Random House books globally.