From Outrage to Action: The "Giant Comma"

When people say, "None of our societal systems are working. We need to DO something!," there is often this huge PAUSE. I call this pause the "Giant Comma." This giant comma sits between the recognition or desire to do something different and the actual action. As in: "We have to do something. COMMA. Now what?"

The recognition of the need for action is relatively easy. It's the "Now What?" that gives us trouble.

Examples of the Giant Comma Syndrome range from the Katrina aftermath to gas prices, from war to the housing crisis, from unemployment to the environment, from poverty to corporate greed. Because these issues are all systemic--that is, the underlying contributors to each of these issues cut across all sectors of society--the "Now What?" requires the whole system to address them.

This is where the pause of the Giant Comma quickly becomes a period. Because the solutions require whole-system collaboration, the statement becomes simply, "We have to do something." Period. We might act by blaming, fighting, or punishing the perceived victims or the perpetrators, but in terms of creating lasting solutions, we just don't have that good a track record.

We have trouble with the "Now What?" because, frankly, we're not all that good at collaborating. How could we be? We don't have much practice at it as a society. We seem to have been good at it when we realized that we could better survive if there were some that hunted and some that gathered, but after that, our ability to collaborate pretty much went downhill, from what I can tell.

Since about the hunter-gatherer time, we've been conditioned to do things INDEPENDENTLY. There's nothing wrong with independent action, per se. The trouble we find ourselves in now is that we are trying to work independently in an interdependent world. We are trying to assemble a coherent world using a handful of pieces from different puzzle boxes, all with different pictures on them. Blindfolded. With one hand tied behind our back.

Because we run up against our own collaborative incompetence, we do what is comfortable. We do nothing. We blame. We fight. We punish. If we're lucky and inspired, we "fix" one part of the problem in one sector by relocating it elsewhere. Like the boy with his finger in the dike, one leak gets plugged and four others emerge.

It would be far easier, I think, just to acknowledge that none of us knows the answer. And, cheaper, too! Here's the thing: None of our elected officials, corporations, government agencies, churches, educators, hospitals, experts, wealthy or poor residents, average "Joe's"--know the answer. None of us can reasonably be expected to understand the whole ball of wax. None of us are exclusively responsible for figuring it out. None have the influence or authority of over all parts of the system.

If we acknowledge this, we can refocus our energy from blaming and fighting to uniting and figuring this thing out together. You know, collaborate. Even if we're not that good at it yet. What choice do we have? We're about to "independent" ourselves right into extinction.

HERE'S THE REALLY GOOD NEWS: There is a "Now What?" ready to roll that can get us started.

It's worked in the "old" world of independent action, so it can meet us where we are in our collaborative infancy. And, it has been producing whole-system collaborative action for over 2 decades, so it can serve as a bridge to deliver us from this world to a better one. It engages everyone. From every walk of life. It offers:

1. A systemic methodology and an integrated strategy that involves relevant stakeholders in taking responsibility for action across all sectors of society.

2. A mechanism for leveraging local action in communities toward national policy change.

3. A national Network of trained practitioners who are ready, willing, and able to execute the strategy at a moment’s notice.

4. A global track record of success in most of the world’s cultures—hundreds of examples, widely documented.

If you would like to learn more, please email me at nancy@futuresearch.net. I'm just like you. I can't do it alone, either.