Why we must unlearn learned helplessness

Can we talk for a minute about learned helplessness and hierarchically-designed institutions?

I'm talking about how people blame those with more positional power (often rightly) for a lack of progress or responsiveness to the issues they’ve raised, but in the process absolve themselves of any responsibility for change.

Soooo many things impact power dynamics in global development organizations beyond who’s in positions of authority: dominant ideologies and systems mapped to colonial constructs, privilege/marginalization, access to info, resources, trauma histories, boundaries, communication styles...

No doubt - it’s a lot to navigate. Whether you’re a young professional just getting a start in this industry or a director with decades of experience...it’s so much easier just to blame the boss.

Learned helplessness shows up when we have tried to enact change, but keep experiencing the same stressful situations over and over. People experience “helpless” feelings of negativity when they see something as unchangeable or inescapable.

In hierarchical organizations, every entity in the organization, except at the top, is subordinate to another entity. Hierarchies are built to create predictability, efficiency, and...the consolidation of power. Imagine how unfit for purpose hierarchical organizations are when it comes to societal transformation or addressing deeply entrenched global inequities. No wonder people learn and then begin to default to helplessness.

Trouble is, when we do this, we give away our power - power in the form of the energy we give to feeding cynicism or low morale, power to join up and align with others, or the power to dream or create new ideas.

Perhaps most importantly, in our scathing critiques of what so-and-so is doing wrong, we give up our power to see others as fallible, whole human beings. Even when we are incredibly frustrated or disappointed, if we are not aware of our shadows, we run the risk of dehumanizing people, including ourselves.

Right now (I hope) we are all reckoning with how we experience power and privilege in order to change how it is distributed within our institutions. And from my perspective, any change you want to see in your organization or in our sector has to go through you first.

I don’t believe that any one of us is capable of making these big changes alone, nor do I believe that change will come by everyone being patient with each others’ need for growth, especially those like myself who have been insulated by privilege.

As over-planned and over-ambitious do-gooders, I don’t want us to forget the quiet power of modeling, validating, and providing intimate feedback, alongside the vitally important disrupting and truth-telling. We also greatly need more storytelling, weaving, experimenting, healing, and caregiving in our sector.

When it comes to influencing colleagues or the big boss, we can allow for multiple realities and truths to exist, side by side, focusing on where you do have power and can stand strong.

To sustain anti-racist action in the international aid and philanthropy sector, where can we take bolder risks that might, in fact, break our hearts again?