[PART 1] HOW TO CREATE MOMENTUM FOR GOOD
As socialpreneurs, we want to create momentum for good so we can keep flying forward.
Buuuuut…
“I just don’t have…the [time, the money, the staff, or the energy] to do things right.”
Sound familiar?
You’re not alone. Despite our best efforts to do something so good we make a difference in the world, at one point or another almost every socialpreneur enters at least one of three doom cycles.
...worse, some of us enter all three...often at the same time…
Doom cycles compound our well-intentioned but doomed attempts to create momentum for good through promotion, problem solving, and reaction.
One of the most common symptoms that you’re currently in a doom cycle is feeling like you lack what you need to “do things right.”
You know it shouldn’t be this way. You know things could be different and better. But, right now it seems like there’s no other option...no way out of this overwhelming mess.
At this point, self-preservation kicks in. There’s a tendency to cope by confronting fear with wishful thinking, “As soon as _________ changes, I’ll finally be able to…,” and anger with blame, “It’s not like I don’t want to. _________ just hasn’t…”
When wishful thinking and blame become our go-to tools, we haven’t found a way to change the situation - we’ve just found a way to cope with it.
So, our doomed attempts to create momentum for good continue. After a while, we end up losing the confidence we once had in ourselves, struggling to trust those around us, and eventually ceasing to believe things can ever change.
It’s the kind of doom that makes socialpreneurs give up on all the goodness we know is possible.
THAT’S THE PROBLEM WITH DOOM CYCLES
They’re self-reinforcing loops that go around and around, pushing us farther away from our bold vision for good and deeper and deeper into...well, doom.
Let’s face it…
When we say, “I don’t have…,” what we’re actually saying is that we have exactly the right amount of time, money, staff, or energy to continue wasting our limited resources to drive results we don’t want.
The good news is that every doom cycle has an antidote. In fact, they all have the same antidote that can get you out and also prevent you from getting into all three doomed attempts to create momentum in the first place.
HOW THE DOOM CYCLES START
As socialpreneurs committed to being a force for good in the world, we tend to be so invested in the purpose of our efforts. It leads us to mistakenly think that, to be a successful socialpreneur, all we have to do is share what we’re doing and others will be passionate about it, too.
And, you know what? Some people are...but then we start to wonder why more folks aren’t.
So, we focus on figuring out what we can tell them and offer them instead of figuring out what identity and agenda we share with them.
We might be thinking of ourselves as a brand pilot, but we’ve mistakenly started thinking about the people we’d like to engage as the passengers on the plane - rather than as the co-pilot they really are.
Without realizing it, we’ve embraced thinking - and action - that subordinates the people we’d like to engage. Instead of sharing an agenda, it’s “us” (the people who work for the organization) reaching out to “them” (the people we’d like to engage).
That well-intentioned but faulty thinking becomes the basis for our organizational strategy, which is why the organizational strategy we’re implementing is failing to spark belonging and create momentum for good.
WE’RE MISSING THE CONTEXT
Before we can successfully activate the kind of belonging that gets people to say, “This is SO me! Why the heck haven’t I done this yet?” we need to ensure we’ve figured out the bigger picture - the “why” - that makes people choose to act now, join in, and help out.
Because, it’s not our cause.
Remember, the “secret” to be a successful socialpreneur is uncovering a sense of “we-ness” (where care naturally exists for everyone involved) and then consistently activating that shared agenda.
Unfortunately, most of us socialpreneurs attempt to activate belonging without awareness of that bigger picture context. When that’s the case, it’s natural for us to default to focusing on what’s immediately in front of us...be it more promotion, more problem-solving, or more reaction.
This default mode leads to doom cycles, downward spirals that make us lose more and more access to the bigger picture. When we lose sight of - or never uncover - the context of “we-ness,” we get blinded and distracted by what’s immediately in front of us and prioritize it.
...even if it’s not actually a priority.
There’s actually a term for this phenomenon: cognitive tunneling.
Cognitive tunneling is when our brain gets fixated on a small bit of information and has limited or no ability to consider other options or process other information that might be important.
For example, cognitive tunneling occurs when a pilot focuses on the individual displays or instruments inside the flight deck without also considering the collective data they’re reporting, scanning out the windows, or looking at the runway or airspace ahead. Losing awareness of the bigger picture has caused more than a few emergency landings and devastating crashes.
So, we need to ensure we’ve first uncovered the context of “we-ness,” the shared agenda (or brand heading). It’s the goal, the “why,” the underlying value proposition. Without it, we can’t intentionally activate a place where care naturally exists for all involved.
SCARCITY FURTHER NARROWS OUR FOCUS
Most of us socialpreneurs are operating in a state of some kind of scarcity. We’re trying to advance more of what matters in the world while also being short on time, money, staff, energy, support, or other resources.
Our brains naturally deal with stressful situations - like scarcity - by narrowing our focus.
So, we start with some kind of resource scarcity, focus on what we see happening, and invest more resources to address it. That causes more scarcity. Either the initial scarcity increases because we invested more of those limited resources, another kind of scarcity emerges, or both.
To deal with the additional stress and scarcity, our brains narrow our focus even more...and on and on it goes.
So, even in the best case scenario, when we’ve already uncovered the context of “we-ness,” we still have to overcome our brain’s natural tendency for cognitive tunneling.
It’s worth mentioning that cognitive tunneling isn’t always bad. In fact, most of the time, cognitive tunneling serves us well in life. It allows us to dial in, focus on a particular task, and ignore distractions so we can accomplish something.
However, in hectic and stressful situations - like scarcity and doom cycles - cognitive tunneling can have seriously negative consequences. It limits our perception and common sense. Over time, all we can see is what’s in front of us, not what we need to see.
It becomes a trap - and once we get stuck, it’s hard to get free because we become more concentrated on the most immediate tasks in front of us - moving from one promotion, problem, or reaction to the next. We’re more and more likely to miss clues and cues about the big picture.
SO WHAT IGNITES THE PASSION TO ACT NOW, JOIN IN, AND HELP OUT?
That sense of belonging...of togetherness... comes from a chain reaction or sequence of activities that link together to continuously create and accelerate momentum in the direction of more togetherness.
Think of it like the propellor of a plane.
Once airborne, a plane’s propellor spins to keep the airplane moving forward. Pushing on any one blade causes all the blades to advance in the same direction.
To be a successful socialpreneur who keeps creating more and more momentum around a bold vision for good requires a “propellor” of 3-6 compounding activities.
Together, these activities form a “propellor” organizational strategy.
When we know which core activities build off and grow from one another we can invest wisely in only the activities that will help us compound our efforts in service of the shared agenda (or brand heading).
Just as pushing on one blade of a propellor advances all the blades, investing in any one of these activities will help advance the shared agenda, igniting belonging and building increasing momentum.
BUT, MOST SOCIALPRENEURS DO THE OPPOSITE
Unfortunately, instead of figuring out the chain reaction or sequence of core activities that supports the shared agenda and relentlessly building momentum in only that direction, most of us unintentionally prime the organization to enter at least one of three doom cycles (if not all three).
We mistake promotion, problem-solving, or reaction for momentum and enter:
THE GOOD NEWS IS THERE’S AN ANTIDOTE
A propellor organizational strategy built around a shared agenda is how to get out of the 3 doom cycles that plague socialpreneurs - and how to avoid getting into them in the first place.
Share this goodness…