Would you keep doing what you are doing if you knew that it wouldn’t make a difference?

A full table of people wanting to make a difference gathered on April 27 in the Make it Better Dining Room for the second Make it Better Table (MiBT) of 2023. This included five people who were new at a the MiBT format.  

The acknowledgement of Country was, in part, a lament for the way that the land of the Wurrundjeri people has been fundamentally altered. We wondered what it must be like to walk on land that you are deeply connected to that has been stripped of much of its natural beauty. 

We were then posed with the above question, which was possibly the most difficult to answer of any that have been posed to the MiBT cohorts in recent memory. Initially our conversation ranged from whether it was selfish to do so, or even productive, through to a discussion around the cognitive dissonance that would be experienced to keep at something that was not going to make a difference. We also touched on the fact that if we are the only ones changed by our action, isn’t that worth it? We were challenged when someone shared the moral imperative that drove them, rather than any measurable outcome. 

After talking at a high level and going down some fascinating rabbit holes, Col invited everyone to articulate an answer to this question:  What is the difference you aspire to contribute to? 

He then reposed the question. If you knew that difference wasn’t going to happen, would you still keep doing what you are doing? 

Suddenly, it became deeply personal. 

What was our motivation? How deeply did we believe in what we were doing? 

The conversation slowed and took hold for each person in a unique way. We pondered and discussed the nature of social change and the story we tell ourselves about our role in it. 

If you want to have conversations similar to this, be sure to RSVP to the next Make it Better Table as we have been fully subscribed each time so far in 2023. We would love to hear your voice.