How Change Happens

4Reckon with Adversarial Allies

“In all matters of opinion, our adversaries are insane.”

—Oscar Wilde

SQUABBLES OVER WHO gets credit for the march, which outstripped all expectations. Secret calls to major donors telling them to pull your grant. Accusations of arrogance and ignorance. Feuds over who “owns” the contact lists. Power struggles between big national groups with deep pockets and scrappy local groups with strong grassroots connections. Wrangling over who will testify before the Congressional committee; speak on stage at the protest event; appear on prime-time TV. Contretemps between board and staff. Fallouts over personal vendettas, romantic dalliances, and other superfluous issues. Rampant sexism, racial tokenism, ageism (both ways). Genuine disagreements over policy solutions and campaign strategies.

Sound like your movement? You’re not alone. Whether wildly successful or frustratingly stuck, every cause is plagued with struggles over power, credit, money, and personality. It takes a big ego to believe you can change the world, and every cause has its egomaniacs. But rarely is a cause blessed with one clearly defined, unarguably correct way to move forward. The stuff of social change is complex—messy, conflict-ridden, shape-shifting. All sides genuinely believe they are “right.” Often leaders within a field find themselves violently disagreeing over how to move forward, but in vehement agreement about who is the enemy. Other times, leaders disagree over who or ...