The Problem of Ego

When organizing, it is not always easy to tame the opposing sides of one’s ego. Every organizer has a strong ego: it is important not to deny this. To believe oneself capable of bringing people together, to see oneself capable of helping communities rearrange the status quo’s turgid power structures, to embrace and encourage change, these things require a certain amount of belief in oneself and one’s abilities. These are properties which come along with a solid ego. This is not necessarily a bad thing.

What is a bad thing is when the organizer allows his or her ego to blind them to their own duties. An organizer’s job begins with listening: it begins with accepting the full humility of a newcomer. An organizer must accept that they are a stranger in a strange land – that what they see as problems may not be problems at all, that the issues they are working to repair may not be priorities of the community in which they live.

It is all to easy to step into an organizing position and assume that one is aware of the solutions to the problems which are present. This is a product of their ego: to believe that one can act as an agent of change means that one believes in change, believes in the catalyzing power of groups of people, these beliefs come with a certain idea of self-efficacy. It is easy to assume that that which appears to be an obvious problem is a problem: but a good organizer must take a step back from that view, as seemingly ego-free as it seems.

To organize well, one must keep a mind so open, so Zen, that the only things one sees as problems are things which one’s community members see as problems. You, the organizer, are problem free. Your only problems are those problems which you have detected by listening, by listening in a way which circumvents your ego, which does not take your worries into account.

Why would a community band together to solve a problem they do not accept as a problem?

They won’t. They will organize to solve the problems they all see. You must ask, you must be curious and you must be open to really, honestly, listen, or you will never know what those problems are. It is not always the easiest thing to set aside your own ego: but your success depends on it.

Taking the Step Back

The Iron Rule of Organizing, attributed to Mr. Alinsky, is this: "Do not do for anyone what they can do themselves."

When one is organizing a community, in close conjunction with local government, it seems almost too easy to do seemingly simple actions which would push your organization forward: brainstorming with other organizers, calling local authorities, making phone calls to locals, etc. The Midwest Academy suggests that every time an organizer stuffs an envelope or knocks on a door, they need to recognize that they are doing a job which could be done by a volunteer.

The recruiting of volunteers and the delegation of tasks to them is incredibly important. I know that it took me a pretty serious change of perspective to see that asking local residents to hand out fliers or make phone calls was not a negative thing. It is not a hassle, it is not the passing on of unpleasant jobs: the purpose of delegating these things is to empower the volunteers, to allow them to invest their time and labor into the organization. With this comes a certain sense of ownership, a more solid belief that the organization is truly a People's Organization, as opposed to another professional non-profit.

This type of delegation is also key in building sustainability in an organization. If you're lucky, your People's Organization will outlive you. The assumption here is that your organization is not a single-issue solution-driven organization, but rather an ongoing pro-democracy power-sharing type deal. If this is the case, the ongoing life of the organization depends upon the constant influx of volunteers, and the constant assignment of tasks. It is only by asking people to perform that the organizer is able to filter the reliable from the unreliable.

With this type of empowerment driven delegation comes a caveat: the organizer must be willing to step back, to avoid micromanaging, to truly place his or her trust and good will in the hands of the people. For an organization to truly be a People's Organization, it must reflect the people within it, for what else is there? Remember that, as organizers, our ego must be set aside: we exist only as tools to be used by the People, and the People's Organization. It may seem a small thing to let go the responsibility of stuffing envelopes - and for some, this warning may be useless! But know that the step back is important, is key in building a sustainable People's Organization. The training wheels cannot stay on forever.