The Status Quo

As part of my work, I talk to a lot of people about the challenges they, their families, and communities are facing. Affordable housing is a major issue here in Oregon, both in urban and rural areas. There’s also a lack of behavioral health resources. On top of this, inflation has increased the cost of living, and the rising price of gas has exacerbated other issues like limited transportation options in certain communities. Very simply, there are a lot of people out there who aren’t getting what they and their families need to support their whole well-being.

Often, these issues disproportionately impact specific communities and people. During the COVID-19 pandemic, for example, the “data shows that Black/African American, Hispanic/Latino, American Indian and Alaska Native persons in the United States experience higher rates of COVID-19-related hospitalization and death compared with non-Hispanic White populations” due to systemic inequities, including discrimination and barriers to accessing services and supports.

Addressing systemic inequities is so incredibly hard. You’re essentially fighting the status quo, and the status quo will reassert itself at every turn. Whenever you’re pushing for change to such ingrained problems, you can of course expect a certain amount of overt resistance, but for me, the more challenging part has been the passive resistance. When people have the status quo on their side, doing nothing is actually a very effective method of killing the change. In some of my roles where I’ve been advocating for change within organizations, I’ve been told in confidence that people are simply waiting me out, betting on the change effort dying. They figure I’ll just eventually go away.  

How do you address that? I’ve heard expert consultants suggest various approaches, like calling out the behavior, providing training, coaching, and mentoring, and setting clear expectations. Some lessons learned from my own experience include:

• Being adaptable and iterative in approach, ready to shift tactics at any time, always looking for any opportunity to move the work forward. 

• Recognizing the limits of traditional tools for change like project management. These process heavy tools sometimes just help reinforce the status quo. In some cases, you can adapt them to the circumstance. In others, you might need to toss them out and try something completely different.

• Finding and building relationships with a network of champions is critical. Many may not feel comfortable publicly supporting the change but will be critical in advancing it quietly in their own spheres.

• Trying an array of smaller change efforts at all levels rather than relying on large, top down initiatives. Sometimes, it’s hard to tell where and when ground conditions will be ripe for change. Smaller efforts allow for some trial and error to test the possibilities.

• Applying constant pressure. The second you let up, the status quo will cause the work to stall out.

• When the existing bench of folks willing to lead change is short, do what you can to bring new folks in. 

In terms of that last point, I think it’s important to know where people are on their equity journey as part of your hiring process. One of the interview questions I like to ask people is to tell me about a time they’ve experienced resistance when trying to advance equity in their work or in their personal life and how they handled it. It’s a bit surprising how often people have answered that question by saying they’ve never encountered resistance before. Some can come up with instances where someone said something out loud that showed resistance. 

They don’t always think of the times where a lack of action spoke much louder, like when materials were only provided in English, no one thought to include accessible options for people with disabilities to participate, or no one worked very hard to reach out to the communities most impacted.

These may seem like small things, but when you add them up, over and over, in every different area of people’s lives, you start to see how these become systemic barriers that keep people from getting what they need and why it’s so important to push for change at all levels.

In a spirit of change, Keep up your important work! / - Joel

Columnist and Senior Associate Joel Metlen is based in Oregon. Joel is a pioneer of the state facilitated retirement savings space, woven into a career of public service and innovation. At OregonSaves, Joel’s responsibilities ranged from marketing and employer engagement to operations and data analysis. You’ll see his insights from that experience, and more, here.

This piece was featured in the June 9, 2022, edition of Retirement Security Matters. For more fresh thinking on retirement savings innovation, check out the newsletter here.