Re: Stuck in the middle

Art Kleiner (art@well.sf.ca.us)
Fri, 6 Jan 1995 04:55:03 -0800

To CAC6: It sounds like what Don Berwick describes in the
medical article in the Fieldbook is pretty much what happened to you....

What do you do when you're the only one who sees it? Probably
keep talking, but there's a caution: avoid being evangelical.
We're hearing a lot of stories from people who assumed that the
new way was so obviously clear that, once people saw a piece of
it, they'd jump in to embrace all of it. Instead, the enthusiast
becomes known as a "cultist."

I think this is not an insurmountable problem but it can't be done
by formula. It depends on building a group of allies and moving
slowly and patiently. Some pieces in the Fieldbook that may help a
bit include the stuff on community-building, on page 525
particularly; Leadership fields, page 65; and FInding a Partner,
p. 74. But there's a lot more about this that needs to be
written. There's a balance between being diffident and being
evangelistic, and finding that balance isn't easy. I'm
hoping that over the next several years, people will find
better ways to articulate how to handle it.

Art Kleiner <art@well.sf.ca.us>