Everyone Is Dumb But Us
If you're leading change at work, you already know the most frustrating part.
Other people. (Hell is other people, as anyone who's led a change initiative knows.)
They don't understand the vision. They're content with the status quo, stuck in their ways. They procrastinate, protest, complain, or outright resist. They act helpless, refuse to take ownership, and wait to be told what to do…and then when they're told, they won't do it anyway.
It's exhausting.
What's even more exhausting is trying to keep going when everyone around you feels like an anchor tied to your feet.
I talk to a lot of leaders who feel utterly worn down by this. I always think of something a good friend says when she's frustrated by everyone and everything: "Everyone is dumb but us!" She delivers it with a huge grin and follows it with a peal of laughter. It's cathartic and silly and wonderful.
So go ahead. Declare it. Everyone is dumb but us! Get a good laugh in. And then try out the magic hidden in that phrase.
Of course everyone isn't actually dumb. But if we pretend for a moment that they are and we aren't, we're left with only two options: keep complaining about how dumb they are, or remember how clever we are and use that cleverness to find a solution.
And as clever people, we know that changing other people is a fool's errand—impossible unless they want to change, and a ridiculous waste of energy once you account for the tangled web of motivations, politics, and preferences involved. But we can do something different. We can focus on—you guessed it— changing ourselves. And before you roll your eyes at what sounds like a therapy retreat bumper sticker, this isn't some noble act of self-improvement. It's just pragmatic. Working on yourself is hard. Working on someone else—without their buy-in, against their will, through all their invisible motivations and history—is nearly impossible. It's not virtue that makes "change yourself" the right move. It's math.
The first question to ask when you're stuck: "What could I do to increase the likelihood that this person responds the way I hope?"
Take ownership, for example. If you want people to take ownership of the change, you have more levers than you might think. You could ask them how they would solve the problem and invite them to build the plan. You could have them design a pilot, run the experiment, and teach others what they learn. You could tell them specifically why you think they're the right person to own this piece. Or you could simply show up with more respect, more empathy, and more openness than the situation seems to require. None of these are guaranteed, but all of them shift the odds.
That's the move. Complaining is also an option, of course. But you're too clever for that. You said so yourself.
