Difference

“Information is the difference that makes a difference.”

The more tenaciously we embody a position of difference, the closer we move towards the edge.

I’ve long believed that change or transformation doesn’t begin at the centre or top of our organisations. Instead, it’s a response to information arriving at the edges, and those of us who choose to bring ‘news of difference’ negotiate a narrow path as we constantly test the boundaries of our influence and credibility.

My image is from the #1000Steps collection. It feels an appropriate choice as I’ve spent recent days doubting my own sense of direction during a tricky ‘transformation’ assignment.

The reality that difference pushes us into the margins is a constant fact of life for many. And those of us who have the privilege to make choices about representing difference can find ourselves searching for the confidence and resolve we need to resist the idea that we might have taken a wrong turn.

As I worked with the group, gently unsettling the patterns and assumptions in their thinking, I became only too aware of the far reaching delicacy of this work. Our identity is social, malleable and, as they joined me in my thoughts, so I joined them in theirs.

Except that’s not why I was there; my role was to embody difference.

Holding to difference can make us feel like we are making a mistake and that perhaps there are easier ways to make a living. As the group started to meet my ideas and perspectives, my doubts grew and I started to worry for them. Organisational systems expect compliance and, if they were to adopt my outsider enthusiasm in their change efforts, they might place themselves at risk. Too much difference typically results in exclusion - so where could they find pathways that would keep them safe?

Part of my exploration with groups is how carefully built connections can develop a sustaining community and, with beautiful synchronicity, a few ‘random acts of kindness’ from my network arrived as I reviewed my emails and social media over early morning coffee. In just a few moments, my sense of loneliness and doubt shifted as I began to feel grounded and that my efforts were ‘seen’ by colleagues; their words helped me find a way back into a secure base of community from which to continue my work.

Our own fundamental uniqueness is supported by mutual humanity, intimacy and connection; I need to remember that and find ways to offer it generously as we transform together.

We might find ourselves standing at the edges. But no-one needs to stand alone.

Notes:

‘News of difference’ and ‘the difference that makes a difference’ are phrases coined by Gregory Bateson in Steps to an Ecology of Mind where he examines the nature of ‘mind’ claiming that, rather than a feature of individuals, mind resides in a network of wider social interactions.

Part of my #1000Steps learning is how, as I try to show the visual moments that punctuate my days, my ‘inner critic’ runs riot and a relatively simple project starts to taunt me: What’s the point? This really isn’t very interesting, you are a qualified photographer - take some proper pictures….

You might enjoy Laura Sewall’s words in Sight and Sensibility: “Artists, we presume, live on some faulty edge of reality, poets are essentially unrealistic, sensualists are not to be taken seriously, and, by the way, can’t you make a little money?”

As I ponder difference in light-hearted moments, I’m always delighted by the mathematical perspective that, even if we are each ‘one in a million,’ there are 8,000 people in the world just like us..! I hope Tim Minchin’s brilliantly satirical (explicit) love song lyrics in ‘If I didn't have you’ will make you smile:

“If I didn't have you, someone else would do
Your love is one in a million
You couldn't buy it at any price
But of the 9.999 hundred thousand other loves
Statistically, some of them would be equally nice”