How Change Happens

This post is also available in: Spanish

Anna Vogt is the regional context analyst and advocacy support. 

When I started working with MCC, I was excited about the possibilities of social justice. Together, as local communities and international organizations, we would plan and advocate for justice! I still remain excited about MCC´s work with local communities, but am less sure about the linear nature of transformation. Yet, I have seen multiple places where change is taking place. In 2015, Guatemalans unexpectedly joined together and forced their president to resign after a corruption scandal. After twenty-five years, the Colombian organization Justapaz is seeing an increase in young men recognized as conscientious objectors by the state.

Change is more than possible, but how does it actually take place?  A careful examination of the above examples illustrates the non-linear, often meandering, path to change.  In Guatemala, social media and a UN sponsored anti-corruption body, the CICIG, brought people together from across the country in response to presidential corruption. In Colombia, the Mennonite organization Justapaz, used the arrest of a conscientious objector to rally national and international support around the issue. Within a week, Jhonathan was free and, within that same year, the Colombian Constitutional Court issued an order demanding that the army recognize the right to conscientious objection. But even this was just one of many twists and turns in the 25 year struggle for conscientious objection. Each action required a complex interplay of history, institutions, power, perceptions and people.

Duncan Green’s new book, How Change Happens explores these dynamics, and it provides important clues for how to think about change, using a power and systems approach. As Green says, “‘A Power and Systems Approach (PSA) encourages multiple strategies, rather than a single linear approach, and views failure, iteration and adaptation as expected and necessary, rather than a regrettable lapse.” Instead of a linear path, Green encourages activists to “dance with the system.” This dancing can be applied on any level: local, national and international.

The first section of the book examines the PSA approach. Green reminds us that systems are complex and in constant change, with the ever present possibility of emergent change. We need to be aware of this state of constant evolution and ready to take advantage of watershed moments or crises within our contexts, understanding these spaces as critical junctures for change, as Justapaz did with Jhonatan’s arrest. Crisis was transformed into real change. Understanding systems also requires an examination of power, which Green defines using a four-step approach. All are important in any attempt for change:

Power within: personal self-confidence and a sense of rights and entitlement.

• Power with: collective power, through organization, solidarity and joint action.
• Power to: meaning effective choice, the capability to decide actions and carry them out.
• Power over: the power of hierarchy and domination, as described above

Part two discusses the institutions that are a part of change, whether through opposition or support, such as governments, political parties, and transnational corporations. In Guatemala, the CICIG played an important role as an impartial body, providing support for the Guatemalan Attorney General’s office to denounce state corruption.

Part three looks at some of the main players in activism: citizens, leaders and organizations: without the mobilization of a base of people willing to email the Colombian battalion where Jhonatan was held, he would not have been released in a week. In Guatemala, local churches gathered for prayer in the plaza, encouraging the faith community to also join in.

Jhonatan Vargas. Photo credit: Christian Peacemaker Teams Colombia.

I believe introspection is both warranted and necessary. Advocacy can backfire when campaigners become stuck in a hubristic bubble of tactics and media hits, and lose touch with the views and needs of the supposed ‘beneficiaries’ of their frenetic activities. Advocates need to be acutely conscious of their own power and position in the system, and the biases and behaviours those induce. We need deep connections with local communities. Getting advocacy right requires political maturity, the right combination of tactics and allies, and making the most of windows of opportunity as they come along. More subtly, good advocacy requires a mindset that finds each different context fascinating, that embraces ambiguity and complexity, empathizes with how different people see the world, and learns from mistakes and responds to changing events.

There were a number of moments, such as when Green offhandedly mentioned his growing appreciation for transnational corporations, that I wished for a deeper explanation of his thought process. However, with only three hundred pages, Green includes more cases studies than theoretical examinations of his own mental processes. One of the strengths of How Change Happens is the plethora of examples throughout the text.

Prayer gathering in the plaza in Guatemala City.

How we think/feel/work:

4 steps to help us dance with the system

• Curiosity—study the history; ‘learn to dance with the system’.
• Humility—embrace uncertainty/ambiguity.
• Reflexivity—be conscious of your own role, prejudices, and power.
• Include multiple perspectives, unusual suspects; be open to different ways of seeing the world.

The questions we ask (and keep asking)

• What kind of change is involved (individual attitudes, social norms, laws and policies, access to resources)?
• What precedents are there that we can learn from (positive deviance, history, current political and social tides)?
• Power analysis: who are the stakeholders and what kind of power is involved (look again—who have we forgotten?)
• What kind of approach makes sense for this change (traditional project, advocacy, multiple parallel experiments, fast feedback and rapid response)?
• What strategies are we going to try (delivering services, building the broader enabling environment, demonstration projects, convening and brokering, supporting local grassroots organizations, advocacy)?
• Learning and course correction: how will we learn about the impact of our actions or changes in context (e.g. critical junctures)? Schedule regular time outs to take stock and adapt accordingly.

Perhaps best of all, How Change Happens is free to download from the How Change Happens website.

Colombia. Anna Vogt.