Change and the Past

End times are tricky things to deal with, Bear said. – Charles Frazier, Thirteen Moons

If end times are tricky, the past is even more so. When we are working with change, it can take varying roles but one constraint applies to all: our pasts must be respected.

Sometimes the past has to be confronted so that we can be released to move forward. Poignant examples can be found in Adam Kahane’s Solving Tough Problems, where leaders and change advocates had to face painful memories and their individual responsibilities in them before all could focus together on new futures. Situations far less resolved can be found quickly if you live in the South, where some of us have yet to get over the Civil War. “Southerners are funny about that war” said the late Shelby Foote.

Sometimes the past is restated by those who profess to lead change but are fearful that they need an edge in the process. Past leaders are denigrated and their efforts are condemned, the good with the bad. Decisions from a very few years before are proclaimed as poorly thought through and inconsiderate of stakeholders. Whatever the initiative now at hand, it’s might be called “Our first ever…..” Maybe the accusations are true, or maybe they are designed to eliminate any risk that the achievements of the past might cast current projects in an unfavorable light.

In this latter case, harm is done in several ways. In the mystery Mister White’s Confession, by Robert Clark, Mister White has a lifelong defect in which he cannot accumulate memories of any duration. Clark observes that we cannot possess the future as it is not here yet, and the present is even more resistant. The only thing we truly own is our past.

If we succumb to the temptation to tarnish the memories of others to brighten our versions of the future, several kinds of harm can occur. Past relationships and accomplishments are suddenly a dangerous topic of conversation. Stories that hold people together with their “tribes” can no longer be told.

You don't have anything / if you don't have the stories. / Their evil is mighty / but it can't stand up to our stories / so they try to destroy the stories - from Ceremony, by Leslie Marmon Silko

Far from honoring while also departing from the past as described by William Bridges in Managing Transitions, the foundations of our present are good for nothing but the dustbin. Grieving, a natural part of change, cannot take place, and healing and renewal are impeded. Changing ourselves in the interest of a different future is hard enough without also having to make needless changes in our memories.

Not only might we do harm to others, we can also shoot our own selves in the foot. Kahane quotes Bill Torbert: “If you’re not part of the problem, you can’t be part of the solution.” That theme is expanded upon in Presence by Peter Senge, C. Otto Scharmer, Joseph Jaworski and Betty Sue Flowers, where the point is made that by disassociating ourselves from ownership of the present by blaming it on those who came before us, we externalize the situation and resultantly those who are truly a part of it. By taking this low road we do not empower ourselves as change agents, but become powerless instead. In addition, those who have had success with methods of Appreciative Inquiry know that the past typically holds successes that can fuel momentum toward the future.

As stated at the beginning of this piece, sometimes the past and our relationships to it have to be confronted, but it has to be done with respect. For those of us who hope to lead change:

1. Don’t castigate the meaning that individuals attach to the past only as an effort to lure or prod them to your vision of the future;
2. Don’t diminish your ability to lead change by separating yourself from those who need your help by failing to respect the past and its place in our present and future;
3. Where a group’s view of the past merits hard and painful reconsideration, they have to do that for themselves. As leaders of change we can help them, but we can neither force it nor do it for them.