Becoming A Courageous System
'Nobody really knows who we are until we're courageous enough to tell everyone' Stephen Spielberg - Golden Globe Acceptance Speech January 2023
I listen to a lot of podcasts. If it is true that you are the average of the five people you spend the most time with, then at least one of my five people must be a podcast host. One of the best podcast episodes I listened to last year was a Revisionist History* episode from Malcolm Gladwell. It tells the story of Howard Temin, a scientist who completed ground-breaking work on viruses. Given his work disrupted conventional thought and existing research at the time, it will be of little surprise to hear his peers in his field shunned him. As Gladwell notes in the episode description: ‘His colleagues dismissed him as a heretic. He turned out to be right — and you're alive today as a result’. In the face of criticism and taking great professional risk, Temin and his colleagues continued their research. His discoveries regarding viruses were revolutionary and, of course, correct. This work laid the ground for how we understand certain cancers and HIV/AIDs today. In 1975, Temin was awarded the Nobel Prize in Medicine.
*Revisionist History Episode link:
His story may be specific, but the lesson is universal; anyone who has ever done anything extraordinary in life or work, took risks and traded belonging and acceptance in the ‘system’ to forward their work or vision. It is not an easy choice to stand out, to compromise your belonging in a group but it is the courageous one. Every inspirational story we hear whether it be about Howard Temin, Martin Luther King, Malala Yousafzai or your favourite sports star all share one core tenet; courage.
I love stories about outsiders perhaps because I often feel like an outsider myself. Stories like that of Howard Temin resource me, remind me that having the feeling of being an outsider can sometimes be for a good reason. You don’t always feel you fit in because you have chosen not to. You have a vision for something different whether that be in your life, your work, or the world in general. What I have come to realise is that for me, ‘fitting in’ comes at a cost. It means I have agreed to something. Endorsed it through my presence. I always know when I have been in a situation that I am not fully happy about, one perhaps in which I didn’t voice an objection to something that happened or something that was said. Perhaps in the moment I didn’t fully absorb what was happening but later I know because I can still feel it. It is like it has left a residue on me, an inner knowing that something was not right, and I was present for it. So uncomfortable as it may be, when it comes to groups, organisations and societies which don’t share my values, grant me the courage to stand out over belonging any day.
When I am speaking on the topic of purpose, I always refer to courage because purpose cannot exist without courage. Often when we struggle regarding purpose in life or work, it is not because we don’t know how to be more ‘on purpose’. The reality is we often do know how. We just don’t always like the consequences of how. When it comes to many of the changes we need to see in the world today our problem is not an absence of ideas or intellect but an absence of courage.
Photo: Donald Giannatti via Unsplash
We Blame ‘The System’ For All Our Problems But What System?
It is easy to hide from courage when the problems of the world are so big, so systemic in nature. Devastating climate problems, mass inequality are problems of the whole system not simply any one part. It is understandably easy to feel defeated as one person, to underestimate what we can influence. I have days myself when I want to lie down with exhaustion just thinking about it. But what will change any system and its systemic issues if it is not us? Companies, societies, or cultures are simply organised groups of people. They exist, evolve or change based on what the people that belong to them do. Any change in the behaviour of people changes these systems.
One of my closest friends is a sociologist; literally an expert in human systems. She is one of my ‘believing mirrors’; a term Julia Cameron coined to describe people who are your cheerleaders and support you during the tough moments taking the road less travelled in life brings. (If you don’t have people like this in your life, hunt them down. Better to have 1 or 2 of these than 100 people you don’t feel aligned with). When I have moments of defeat, when I feel my personal actions may not be enough, she points out to me a society, a corporate organisation, a culture is simply a system of people. We hold our systems together either consciously or unconsciously, through our action or inaction. This idea is always a balm to my soul. It reminds me even if I can’t always see it, when I turn up in integrity or when I draw on my courage to stand apart, there is always a systemic impact.
Systemic change happens because we, as individuals, find our courage and decide we will risk our belonging in that system. It is a powerful choice to feel responsibility for our world. We stop hiding from the hard conversations, the uncomfortable choices. We become more disruptive in our voice and life about what matters to us. We decide we have power and agency over what we agree to belong to, what behaviour and norms we will endorse simply through our presence.
Power & Time Are Systemic Tools
People often tell me they feel dis-empowered. How can one person impact systemic change? Feeling dis-empowered is a function of hierarchy. Systems always find a hierarchy. The nature of hierarchy is that power is unevenly distributed. We hope our talents, working hard and a pinch of luck will help us find and keep our place in that hierarchy so we can succeed. But succeed at what? What is the cost, individually and collectively, to accepting our place in the hierarchy? Is success a bigger title and more money on a dying planet with dysfunctional systems and societies?
I am a huge believer in the power of each individual. It is easy to feel if we do not sit near the top of any organisation or society, we don’t have power. But for any hierarchy to survive, it means each player (that is you and me) accept their position and play their part within the structure of the hierarchy. No politician is elected without a large team of people, no CEO can deliver results without access to the intellectual property of each individual employee, no product becomes a success without willing consumers. We are the powerful resource which holds the current systems; groups, societies, organisations and cultures together. Therefore, we are the powerful force which can enable and make any necessary change.
We are distracted from the reality of our potential impact because we are too busy. Being time-poor is a systemic tactic. We are encouraged to be busy, to succeed by hustling and working long hours, to be the best CEO, best employee, best parent, best friend. To work long hours in worship of success within the system. A version of success in which we have more but become less. When we accept and commit to that way of being, there is no time to think, no time to take a breath, no time to challenge, no time to question the status quo. How very convenient for our existing systems, to keep you busy, maintaining your place in the system but very far away from instigating change.
Disrupting Our Systems Means Disrupting Ourselves
Innovation and disruption are sexy words in our society. They hold the promise of new innovations, better technology, speed, and status. Yet, we are not really disruptive or innovative about the things that matter. We retain power structures that damage society as a whole, gross levels of inequality that deny people their right to basic resources and industrial systems that destroy our habitat. The stubbornness of these problems is not due to lack of solutions but a lack of courage.
The thing that needs most disruption is ourselves. We say we want more purpose, more authenticity, greater equality in the world, solutions to the climate crisis. What we really want is all of these things without sacrifice. We want more purpose without taking any risks, more authenticity without compromising our sense of belonging, greater equality without disrupting the status quo. These are equations that don’t add up. To be more purposeful is a choice which in itself contains a cost. To have any of these things, to really create change personally or collectively asks us to draw on our courage. To find the courage to disrupt the comfort of life as it currently is. Moments of courage reveal to us who we really are. They help us understand what means enough to us that we will risk ourselves. What that risk will be is personal to you. But, at some point in our lives, we all have to decide to stand up for what we believe in.
Systemic change is never instigated by the mainstream. Systemic change always begins with the courage of one person. Courageous individuals tend to find each other and become a new group. Slowly, this new group of people becomes larger. When enough of us do this, we grow to a size that we are then considered the norm. Ultimately, systemic change happens because each individual decides they will take a risk and be courageous enough to stand out rather than fit in.