Change that comes quickly, or easily, doesn’t last. Authentic change takes time and a process, but it runs deep and follows through.
Seth Godin writes about three ways to motivate people to achieve: by pushing them relentlessly, by creating competition, and by giving them freedom and opportunity. The first two produce results, but only temporarily. As soon as you stop pushing, or when the competition ends, the motivation fades. The advantages of push and competition are speed and control; the disadvantages are felt down the road. Athletes who won championships don’t know how to motivate themselves apart from competition. I was a pretty good runner in my day, but I was never able to run consistently without a coach pushing me, and I ran for the thrill of racing and beating people. I’d love to be running today, but I still haven’t found it within me.
How will I work for change in society, or a better world? Whatever I want to change, it means people must change. But how?
Here in Cambodia, hundreds, perhaps thousands, of non-government organizations are working for change. There are hundreds of orphanages “saving”children, and many say they intend to raise up a new generation of leaders. How? By pushing kids relentlessly to learn more and faster? By emphasizing grades, scholarships, and and education so that the kids will be better equipped to succeed (i.e., compete) in society? We have been thinking about kids coming out of orphanages and the problems most face, because they so often flounder. They have been institutionalized.
Maybe what they need is not a better formula, but freedom to see opportunities and take chances. The people we want to work with need to change in a way that comes from within.
Give people a platform, not a ceiling. Set expectations, not to manipulate but to encourage. And then get out of the way, helping when asked but not yelling from the back of the bus…
No, most people can’t manage themselves well enough to excel in the way you need them to, certainly not immediately. But those that can (or those that can learn to) are able to produce amazing results, far better than we ever could have bullied them into.
I think Seth has it right. I love his positive spin on both the freedom to succeed and the necessity of allowing some to fail. Not everyone manages themselves well, but if we create systems for those who can’t and force everyone to participate in them, then everyone ends up wings clipped, living small stories, and in boxes.
I think this also epitomizes a key difference between the way God raises up people spiritually versus the way religion raises up people religiously. The message in the Bible, taught by Jesus and his followers, is that we are set free as we come into relationship with God, and we have God’s Spirit of Love and Truth within us. What could provide better guidance or motivation? But religion, seeing the potential for some to falter, or fly too high, has a way of asking everyone to fly low and succeed in smaller ways. It talks of the Spirit but constantly pushes and pits people against each other through comparisons and outright competitions.
Real change comes from freedom, not the push and competition of development or religion.
To become a person who walks in and dispenses freedom, I must give up my habits of pushing relentlessly and creating competitions. First, I must give up my habits of relying on such things myself.
