Question 69 of 365: Why is action such a surprise?

I have had a number of conversations recently that have resulted in someone saying that they were surprised that things were getting done. They were surprised at action. While I was somewhat baffled by the reaction, it made me think about what the root of this surprise might be.

Getting things done has traditionally been hard. It has required labor, huge amounts of time, or many people who were highly skilled in the areas that needed attention. Action has required a level of organization and planning that almost insurmountable considering everything else that needs to go on. It also has necessitated permission to actually “do” something. Meetings must be had, protocols must be followed, the chain of command had to remain intact.

In fact, we had so much protocol, there is even an entire mystique and formula for who you should cc or bcc on an e-mail. We have created a space that requires little action in any given day. We have set up systems to look like getting things done: Things like conference calls with the vast majority of participants muted, like conferences without the time to implement what you learn, like tracking systems for time/milage/payment that are removed from the ideas and the tasks that generated them.

Action has become foreign to many. Because we don’t produce any products, we don’t have things to show for our work at the end of the day. We have become inbox cleaners and document hounds. We wait, in a bad way, for people to finish their part of the problem for us to start on ours. Action is a surprise when we find it.

I am a firm believer in creating at least one thing every single day of my life, and I believe that this is my humble (or not so humble if I keep talking about it, I suppose) way to make action unsurprising in my life. The things that I create (Blog posts, trackable conversations, online courses, companies, learning objects, and collaborative spaces) may not look like much in the face of people who create real objects, but I believe that in my own way, I am trying to stave off the starvation of ideas. I am trying to figure out how to solve the problems, and then actually solve them. I am trying to answer my e-mail, not pass it around to someone else. I am trying to engage those who are unengaged in the process. I am trying to solicit others as directly as I can to act on their own behalf.

Because action should not be a surprise. It should be a regular part of our day, something that we celebrate and see in everything that we do. We should see the change we create. We should see the products, even if they take some time. We should see the spaces that we inhabit as malleable, because getting things done isn’t hard anymore.

It stopped being hard when we could create virtual goods and services. It stopped being hard when we could create things on our own and solicit help from people outside of our organization. It stopped being hard when organization became as easy as a hashtag.

So, start a school. Start a business. Start a project that requires something important of you. Be deliberate in engaging others in conversation. Intentionally break protocols in your organization so that you can get things done. Not haphazardly. Not unreasonably. Purposefully and with a huge amount of hope: Act. Do things. Now.

Question 34 of 365: Is hope the great pacifier?

We have all kind of bought into the idea that hope can lift a people up and can make us yearn for something better, but I’m not entirely sure that it isn’t just one big tease. Hope, as a concept, is just one giant letdown, flawed and unworkable. It seems to me that hope is really trying to get us to believe that something better is possible. No matter our current situation, hope keeps us thinking that an ideal is out there, and it isn’t. At least, not without us being placated by Hope.

Hope is idealistic because it can be. It can wait around for years in the bellies of everyone who has filled up on it as their exclusive diet. It clouds judgement and makes individuals forget just how hard everything really is, and why it has to be hard. Hope props up really terrible ideas and allows truly brilliant people to sit on their hands and wait for things to happen.

Clearly, this isn’t the type of hope that Obama has made a part of his platform, but I don’t think that I can really talk about hope without bringing his brand into the discussion. He advocates for responsible hope and working toward your goals, but I’m not sure that it is getting across. Most of the people I interact with on a daily basis believe in a very generic type of hope that really isn’t hopeful about anything in particular. It is just a vague notion that things will get better, eventually. There isn’t any responsibility that the small things going on in the short term will get them to that hopeful place. There definitely isn’t a sense that they can design their hope so that it fits into the world in a real way. Hope that can’t resonate or ricochet off and blast through the boundaries of the way things are, is hope that is set up for only pacifying those who believe in it. It wraps them like a warm blanket and keeps them quiet within those boundaries.

That is why hope pacifies. It is the belief that weakness can be made into strength without working out. Hope is throwing technology or money at a problem. Hope is waiting for people to “get it.” Hope is having conversations without looking people in the eyes. Hope is eschewing online schools so that the issue will just go away. Hope is prayer for the economy to turn around. Hope listens to itself. Hope speaks without specifics. Hope feels everything without truly connecting to anyone.

So, why do I care that hope is the great pacifier? I care because I want to work for things. I want things to be hard. I want to hear all sides of an issue and then decide the best way forward. I want there to be conflict and friction. I want there to be lots and lots of writing and thinking and drawing and redesign. I want hope to take a back seat to DO.

Now just so you don’t get the wrong idea about this question, I actually think that Obama’s version of Hope could be relabeled as DO, but I just don’t think it would poll as well. I don’t think that people can get behind DO as much because DO requires details and thinking through each one of them. I don’t think that DO would allow people to stay disengaged in the process. As long as they can hope, they won’t have to get involved in creating change. When DO is what we all believe in, staying on the sidelines loses value. We are getting closer with blogs and collaborative tools, but I still think that the end goal for many is using them in order to shortcut their way back to hope. They will work with one another and write out what has been required so that at some point in the future, they can stop (retire, rest, etc.). Hope is still the default value. And it will continue to be for millions.

It isn’t always a bad thing to have a pacifier, but it is hard to compete while you are being lulled to sleep.

Question 12 of 365: Which words cause us to act?

Action is a relative term.

Is action the clicking of a button on a webpage? Is action the filling out of a form? Is action telling a friend or coworker about an idea? Is action standing outside holding up a sign, or waiting in a line? Or is action simply taking an interest where apathy and doing nothing is the alternative.

There is a science to persuasion, to getting others to do what it is that you would like. We see this every day in the decisions we make to advertise for ourselves, for our ideas, and for our products. Whether we like to admit it or not, each blogger or YouTuber or teacher or entrepreneur is trying to convince anyone who will listen to pay attention for one minute more. We are trying to convince someone to care about what it is that we are saying. We are trying to get someone else to act engaged or act like they want what we have to offer, whether they really do or not.

So, if that is what I am doing, which words are the ones that cause that action as much of the time as possible? People are turned off by simple commands. Look here or Click this have their place, but it isn’t a substitute for actual engagement. At the end of the day, I want actions that are authentic. I want people to want to build something with me.

I guess the words must be authentic too.

If I am asking for others to respond with genuine interest, I had better be genuinely interested in the problems that they are having. I had better find a way to express the feelings that they would express themselves if they had only typed the blog post with their own fingers. And, I guess I better have a solution too. The solution is what will cause someone really to turn from a passive viewer to an active participant. I must solve the thing that has been eating away at someone for too long. I must resolve the issue that has plagued someone, create peace within a tortured experience.

So, I will. I will put the solution into words. I will make the pitch that allows someone else to take part. And, I hope to do this without telling lies or trying to be something that I am not. I hope to do this without selling out or selling air. I hope to solve problems by starting with my own.

I guess other people might have the same problems too.