In this week’s issue, I want to break down the failure of many change initiatives. 

While my newsletter is intended to be about problem solving, it’s hard to influence complex problems without a formal structure for working with others. 

Teamwork matters because it gives you insight and leverage on the many different aspects of any given problem. If you want to work on affordable housing, for example, you’re going to need involvement from residents, landlords, developers, lenders, builders, and regulators. 

But effectiveness hinges entirely on who’s involved, what you agree about the problem, and how you choose to collectively take action. 

So today, I’m going to break down:

• The 3 most common mistakes I see people making
• 3 examples of me making those same mistakes earlier in my career
• What I’d recommend people do instead when they are starting out

Mistake #1: Create a leadership committee composed of top leaders

Everyone wants the power of a foundation president, a state agency commissioner, and a nonprofit board chair. So it’s natural to want them involved.

But hoping for success with a formal group of high-level leaders is a recipe for failure.

Even if they say they care about the issue, it’s hard to work with people who run big organizations. They already serve on many committees and delegate most details to their staff. 

I learned this the hard way back in 2017. We created a regional leadership group that included six county commissioners, the mayor of Minneapolis, several state agency leaders, and many nonprofit presidents.

Were they powerful leaders? Yes. 

Did they care about our issue of unemployment? Absolutely.  

But they were busy, overcommitted, and less informed than their staff. 

I thought their power would translate to big changes, but it didn’t.

Many were too busy to attend. And it became obvious that most wanted to avoid discussion of important but contentious ideas of reform because their own success depended on friendly relationships with the other top leaders.

Don’t go to the top when you start. It just gives more power to the status quo.

Mistake #2: Oversimplify the problem

I’ve seen quite a few initiatives trying to make progress by labeling one root cause of their problem.

Take any pressing social issue and its cause has been distilled down to one all-encompassing “ism” such as racism, sexism, or capitalism. 

But for those working on or experiencing the problem, it isn’t quite so simple.

Here’s what happened when I wrestled with this back in 2013. 

I led a board that was trying to improve training program results (e.g. job placements and wages) for low-income adults. When we disaggregated outcomes results by race, average results varied significantly.

Was the cause of the difference racism?

Some wanted our organization to label racism as the singular root cause. Others wanted to call out discrimination by race as one among many factors.

I tend toward the latter description because complex problems are webs of interrelated phenomena. I think they’re much too complicated to reduce down to one causative factor.

But regardless, the whole debate became a costly diversion. 

We spent more time talking about who would like or hate our messaging than talking to actual participants about their actual experience and actual challenges.

It was about oversimplifying in theory rather than getting closer in touch with reality.

Focus on people experiencing the problem and you won’t be distracted by theoretical debates among problemsolvers.

Mistake #3: Believe transformation is required

The last type of change that never really works is total systems transformation.

Since people want big impact, they assume that it requires equally big changes.

Here’s a perfect example of me calling for a total overhaul of Minnesota’s workforce system in a 2013 report to the legislature:

[We advocate for] “redefining, reinventing and redeploying the current [system].”

This whole sentiment is worthless.

Everyone knows you can’t wave a magic wand to change everything about the status quo.

What people want and need are details about what specifically could be changed, how much each change costs, and how the changes would affect the system’s outcomes.

How often do you tend toward revolutionary hyperbole when a tangible and pragmatic suggestion could be more effective?

Instead, here’s what I found works:

Back in January 2019, I became the director of systems change for a national network. Instead of working on problems in my own region, I would be overseeing large systems change projects in many cities around the country. 

Rather than tell changemakers what I thought they should do, I decided to take a very different approach.

Here’s what I (and leaders on the ground) found worked really well:

Convene small, informal stakeholder groups and one-on-one meetings

Don’t form a stakeholder group or hold meetings except as a last resort to reach a very specific end. Most objectives can be reached in more effective and efficient ways.

For example, brainstorming can be done by survey or in small groups without formal membership or recurring meetings. 

Buy-in can be sought on specific proposals in one-on-one meetings with mid-level managers well-versed in the issue. 

Disagreement between two parties can be brokered in private, not publicly. 

In general, informal beats formal. Small beats large. Mid-level beats high-level.

Get in close contact with the problem

Study interrelated causes of the problem. Determine the 3-5 immediate causes that have the most effect on the problem. 

This can and should be done by reading peer-reviewed research and by talking to people experiencing the problem.

See how many small ways you can improve the system and add them up for greater impact

Add up the impact of three small changes, say a combined 10% improvement. See how it cascades through the system. Then do it again next year. You’re on your way to making serious progress.

As you can see, there is a drastic difference in how I sought change in the 2010s versus 2020s. But don’t just take my advice. Try it out and see what’s most effective over the long-run.

TLDR

• Don’t go to the top when you start
• Don’t try to overly simplify the cause
• Don’t transform the system
• Do work in small groups and one-on-one
• Do get into close contact with the problem
• Do find incremental gains and add them up

See you again next week.

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Whenever you’re ready, there are two ways I can help you:

→ I’m a strategic advisor for the toughest societal problems like poverty, crime and homelessness. People come to me when they want to stop spinning their wheels and get transformative, systems-level change.

→ I’m a coach for emerging and executive leaders in the social and public sectors who want to make progress on their biggest goals and challenges.

Let’s find out how I can help you become transformational.