I caught up with a friend the other day and we were talking about how her work was going. She described a series of different situations where she felt dis-empowered and demoralised.
There were things she saw that needed to change. She knew how to change them, but when she started investigating, talking to people, trying to make things better she received the equivalent of..
This manifested itself in several ways:
– Ego – why are you doing this?
– Territory – This is my thing
– Cultural – That’s not how we do things
– Process Obsession – That doesn’t fit our process
– Poor Management – i’m not going to support you
My friend was trying to change the Status Quo and when she tried, the Status Quo in both visible and invisible ways caused her to pause and think of stopping.
As we were talking i posed the question. ‘What if you were to act as if these things didn’t exist?’
As we explored answers to this question the idea and phrase of an ‘Invisible Coup’ came into my head.
The obstacles placed in front of my friend by the status quo are caused by the entrenched, incumbent networks of power. Why not create your own, new networks of power?
- Lets start from the assumption that you are an intelligent, empathic, creative individual (or we wouldn’t be having this conversation in the first place).
- Lets assume therefore that the things you want to do are right
- If both are these assumptions are true then we can also assume that there will be others who think the same as you.
Why not create an ‘Invisible Coup’? what would the features of it be?
- Start from the 3 assumptions listed above
- Create the new networks of power of like-minded individuals that can support the change you want to see
- Act as if the structures that try to constrain you don’t exist.
- Seek forgiveness not permission
I’d like to be able to write that after our conversation my colleague went on and achieved all the things she wanted to, that wouldn’t be true. Change isn’t really like that is it. She is however continuing to engage, continuing to push, continuing to gather support.
As for me, the Invisible Coup is a mental model i return to when i reflect on the dull thud of hitting an obstacle to the change i want to see.
Is the Invisible Coup a useful metaphor? what do you think?
