Is This A Moment Or A Movement?

Things always change. Nothing is static. And most importantly, shit happens every day.

On a given day, any of the following could happen:

• Someone acts out of character and makes you question your relationship and trust with them.

• Someone takes an action that’s misaligned with the established culture and strategy of your organization.

• Someone makes a decision that you observe as being rash and reckless.

We have agency about how we react to changing conditions and challenges when hard and confusing things go down. We also have agency to not react when tough or confounding things go down. 

We can tell ourselves a story that says one incident is literally just a blip and isolated experience. We also can tell ourselves a story that the incident is the harbinger of more to come and we need to buckle up for more challenges and change.

In these times, it can be helpful to ask ourselves, “Is this a moment, or is this a movement?”

A recent client session brought this thought to life.

This client is super engaged and committed to their leaders and the entire leadership team at their organization. Fundamental elements such as communication, vulnerability, and shared success have been ever-present for some time. It’s been all good vibes!

But then one day, something suddenly shifted. The organization's leaders were swaying around like one of those inflatable tube men at a used car lot. Something happened where the spirit of transparency and trust seemed to quickly become opaque. My client felt like a lot of the hard work they’d done to build relationships and intimacy with her leadership got sidelined and disregarded. The emotional toll was obvious and meaningful.

That’s the bad news. The good news is this was a moment. Some courageous conversations, the passage of time, and some clearer thinking on everyone’s part got them to the other side and back to the good vibes of connection and communication.

We’ve all likely been there. I can think of a few times in my career at EA when the big fat WTF reaction came over me in reaction to a leadership action that impacted me, emotionally triggered me, and left me frozen out. In those times, I felt stuck wondering if this was something to address and jump on, or whether I should listen to one of the awesome leaders I worked with at EA who would often say (with a super-smooth French accent), “Colin, this too shall pass.” 

So what’s the difference between a moment and a movement?

A moment is a loud bang or snap. It’s arresting in that it creates a triggered emotion, such as anger or confusion or sadness, which becomes a real blocker or barrier to move past. A moment is powerful because it screams for immediate attention. It provides instant visibility, yet it almost always lacks a logical next step. Often, it’s created by forces and functions extraneous to the organization, which then leads people to take action that doesn’t make sense. It’s often accidental and can be categorized in the “human error” department. 

By contrast, a movement usually starts with a moment (the catalyst or unique event), but it survives if it builds an "infrastructure of persistence." More precisely, if a leader creates a moment, they convert it to a movement by persisting in the behaviour, changing systems or processes in the business, or making decisions that have lasting impact beyond the individual moment. That individual moment starts to gain traction as a series of events and show themselves as a trend…thus forming the movement.

How do you know the difference between a moment and a movement? What actions can you take to navigate these confusing times? Here’s four places to start:

Don’t Over Invest

The moment can be the emotional contagion. It’s the contact point to dive right in with reaction, emotion and self-protection. The choice is yours to take the bait or not. More often than not, the pause is more powerful than the punch…let the moment pass and then come back to it when you feel more regulated and reframed. 

Access Your Empathy

It’s too easy to judge when a moment happens. But judgement is not always a good first step, as it locks you into a fixed mindset and stance that’s hard to escape. Instead, dive into some radical empathy and dig a little…start from a place that starts with “I wonder what might be going for the other person that I don’t know about or can’t see?” and go from there. Curious, not furious, usually leads you to more understanding, and that’s really the goal.

Get Feedback From Others

You can’t hear yourself by yourself. If you are stuck in WTFland and can’t seem to get clarity about what’s happening, then make the smart move to talk to a trusted colleague. You can speak about your experience, and have them ask you some questions to see the situation with the right amount of clear thinking and rationale you need. They might also be experiencing a similar moment in their world, in which case you have something to explore about where there is a trend and movement forming.

Check The Data

Recognize that the event has triggered an emotion in you, and work though that in a measured and self-led way. Then, take that big breath to see what’s actually happening. Beyond the emotions triggered by the individual moment, what evidence, data or facts are behind the moment you’ve just experienced? Is this a single data point (moment) or is there a trendline that could form (movement)? 

Leadership, especially in today’s turbulent times, relies on self-regulation. Reacting to every moment is a fastrack way to lose the grip on your leadership. Being able to differentiate between moments and movements, and being the self-led leader you choose to be when those moments strike, is the practice that keeps us grounded.