Collective action is a solution, not a problem
Abby L. Watson
Co-Founder and President - systems thinking strategies for climate and sustainability
How many times have you heard someone say, "Oh, that's a collective action problem?" Often accompanied by a hand wave, this phrase dismisses a discussion about a problem that the speaker has deemed unsolvable - the archetypical prisoner's dilemma.
The thing is, people don't always behave in their rational self-interest, and we can lean into that to direct our beautiful, chaotic, irrational humanity into solving problems collectively. I have never believed that more strongly than I do today, especially after spending last week at a strategy workshop retreat with fellow advocates. I left the retreat having transformed my own anxiety about where I fit into the solution set into a clear sense of purpose and direction. It was invigorating and enormously productive.
Beyond buzzwords: collaboration, convening, and dialogue
These ideas might sound like the punchline to a joke about corporate-speak, but collaboration, convening, and dialogue are the most powerful strategies available to any organization trying to affect change. Forget about AI, forget about models and data, the solutions to your problems lie within people, not tools. A convening that supports collaboration and dialogue builds energy, sparks new ideas, and opens up a set of solutions you may not have been able to imagine on your own. Past editions of this newsletter have touched on each of these topics individually
Srini Rao's guest, Anne Jacoby, captures the essence of this argument best in her book Born to Create: How Creativity Sparks Connection, Innovation, and Belonging in our New World of Work: “The big missing realization is that creativity is accessible to each of us […] creativity is what moves us from the stale, worn-out status quo to novel, useful, and unexpected solutions.” Her appearance on a recent episode of The Unmistakable Creative Podcast is essential listening for those who are seeking tangible advice on creating space for creativity within their work and life. Another podcast episode in my recent queue brings these concepts one step further outside your comfort zone, by focusing on the role of play in the workplace. Toy designer Michelle Lee puts forward her rationale for why play is an essential ingredient in effective problem solving in this episode of Creative Confidence, with suggestions for warming up a group to tackle problems more playfully. Ask each other: what are the most outrageous uses for a glass of water?
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Collective action solutions for the energy transition
This is a personal obsession of mine. Why wouldn't we apply all that we have collectively learned about neuroscience and psychology to building more successful organizational strategies? Play can light up different areas of your brain that help you overcome the fear of experimentation and failure. Evolution made us this way and we can leverage that to our advantage while remaining mindful of the ways that evolution has programmed us to avoid uncertainty.
The Hidden Brain podcast always has great insights about how to "hack our brains" through applied neuroscience. Fear of risk is what often holds back creativity, and Shankar Vedantam's latest episode brings in neuroscientist Arash Javanbakht to help us fear less. The memory function of the brain registers experiences of fear more clearly so that we can learn to avoid those situations in the future. When we see no immediate escape from a dangerous situation our brain forces us to freeze to either minimize the threat or to give us time to consider our options. Our brains and nervous systems are then exquisitely tuned to identify and avoid these threats in the future, even when the context has changed. Courage and bravery are not about a lack of fear, but are a means of controlling fear through knowledge and perspective. The scientific term for this process is cognitive reappraisal.
Climate change, a fundamentally and viscerally terrifying reality, can only be addressed using collective action solutions that facilitate our cognitive reappraisal. The support of others, solidarity, and community are crucial elements to support psychological resilience in the face of existential threats. A provocative episode of Wicked Problems: Climate Tech Conversations with Richard Delevan & Claire Brady makes this point in an unexpected way. The theme is not particularly hopeful, namely guest Dr. Tadzio Mueller's assertion that we should prepare for a Just Collapse rather than a Just Transition. What inspired me at the conclusion of this grim assessment of our future society in the face of rising fascism was Dr. Mueller's surprisingly hopeful view of the role social movements can play in our survival. A strategic movement, with clarity of vision, that invests its resources wisely is capable of affecting real change in how outcomes unfold. He believes this sort of popular front has the power of choosing a different framing of the future through collectively-identified social values and norms that are supported without government mediation. However, achieving this vision requires some emotional work to overcome verdr?ngen, the German concept of internalized guilt and denial or repression related to our own limited desire to sacrifice all for the greater good. Despite his pessimism about what the climate movement can achieve, the decades-long veteran of gritty climate activism still identifies himself as a "movement romantic" in the closing minutes of the episode, where we are left with his heartfelt account of his first experiences with movements that can change the path of the future.
Groundwire is preparing for a strategy retreat of its own this week
This week, The Groundwire Group will be practicing what we preach by taking some time to step back and examine the big picture. A year into our journey we are at major inflection point, with multiple avenues and growth opportunities ahead of us. How will we grow strategically, coalesce around a vision, and make intentional choices instead of chasing shiny objects or overcommitting our resources? There's a little homework before we meet, including this excellent podcast episode from IdeaCast to help us reframe how we think about growth. We will consider how the world is changing and what that means for our business and the broader climate action movement. Another podcast episode from Why is This Happening? is great food for thought, with a discussion about how 2020 was the year everything changed. Hard to argue with that logic.
Strategy becomes successful through storytelling. That's the main goal of our work together this week: how will we tell the story of who we are, where we're going, and why that matters? It's a task best accomplished with the creative spark of collective ideation, and these types of workshops are one of our core service offerings. Yes, we're our own test subjects. Stay tuned as the results of this work flow through the stories we tell here throughout the upcoming year!