interactions & relationships over individuals & responsibility
What enables the status quo to be so persistent? What avenues of action are available to you at this time? Setting a direction of travel and taking a step is more important than a detailed plan for the next few years.
It is of the essence to know where you are and what is possible or plausible in terms of next steps. Statements about how things should be will not bring about change, and telling people to 'just change' or 'grow' or 'develop themselves' is just as unhelpful as telling others they 'didn't have the right mindset'.
Still we can use aspiration as a guide to set a new direction.
Still individuals and their responsibility are important, and in many ways they are one of the sources of change. And yet it is even more important to take the social system into view that the individual is part of: we need to enable groups, organizations or networks to be effective through collaboration.
Who has what power to do something or over something in a social system?
Who or what is within your sphere of influence? In our culture we often hear talk of individual growth for individual success. We're asked to just do the right thing - individually. Yet so many important social and environmental goals are made difficult to contribute to by the individual due to the way the systems are set up.
If cities are built for cars, it is a hard ask that people move by foot. If upstream processes produce lots of errors even the most conscientious people in downstream processes are not going to be able to control for good quality. A soccer team might be composed of individual super heroes, if they don't play together, they'll still lose.
The distribution of agency, of power, within a system, as well as the way the system engages participants in collaboration is more important than appeals to individual responsibility and agency.
You might think that cutting down the Amazon forest is unethical and irresponsible - but if there is no alternative to feed your family, you might still do it. You have no real choice.
Mindset is not a helpful term, because it pretends that all action or inaction depends and is grounded in the individual. Basically you fail because well, you don't have a growth mindset. Poor you.
Utopia doesn't come about because everyone becomes a saint in an impossible environment.
What options of behavior, what choices or ways of action are available to you - alone or with others in your environment at this moment? As the heroine sings in Frozen II: All you can do is the next right thing.
What are all the small stories, beliefs and anecdotes that pattern the way you - or members of your organizsation - see the world? What stories do you tell yourself about your influence? Whom or what do your stories typically center around?
Could we start consciously to try to live and tell new stories? How could you gather courage for action where you feel you lack it?
History matters and path dependency is a key aspect of any human system. That's why attending to what is might be more important than planning the next few years. Because even if a system provides individuals with the affordances for change, the assemblages of stories may prevent action, or even prevent individuals to see the opportunity.