People Love That Story!
About twenty years ago I had the opportunity to hear the author Kurt Vonnegut present a lecture on the shape of stories at the University of Wisconsin. He wheeled a large blackboard onto the auditorium stage and took a piece of chalk.
First, he drew a vertical line and labeled the top with a G and the bottom with an I. “This is the GI axis,” he said. “Good fortune and ill fortune.” Then he drew a horizontal line across the middle, and labeled the ends with “B” and “E.” “This is the BE axis. B stands for Beginning. E stands for Electricity.” Ha!
Then he graphed a story he called “Man in a Hole.”
“We’ll start a little above average,” he said, starting the line slightly above the horizontal axis. Then he traced a dip down and back up. “Somebody gets into trouble and gets out of it again. People love that story! They never get sick of it!”
He’s not wrong, of course. People do love that story.
It recently occurred to me that the shape of this story is the same as Virginia Satir’s change curve. “Man in a Hole” could also be titled “Somebody Makes a Change.”
The plot line is the same. Our hero “Somebody” is doing fine. Then, all of a sudden, a Foreign Element arrives! Somebody tries to resist, but resistance is futile! Somebody falls into a Hole of Chaos and stays there until a Transforming Idea helps Somebody climb out of the hole and do even better than before.
Isn’t it funny that we can love a story like “Man in a Hole” and fight with all we’ve got when we find ourselves in the starring role in “Somebody Makes a Change”?
There are two reasons for this. First, when you’re the hero, you have no idea how the story will end. You don’t know if there will be a happy ending or a sad one. And second, the view from the hole isn’t that great. It can be pretty bleak and dark down there.
Things look different when you reach the end of the story. You get to stand on the ledge of the New Status Quo and take in the gorgeous vista of the Transforming Idea. The view is so great you forget how it feels to be in the Hole of Chaos.
For change agents, this is an easy trap to slip into. If we’ve already been through the change journey, we enjoy a different perspective because we know how things turn out. Our change journey may have been so long ago that we’ve forgotten what it was like to be uncomfortable or uncertain. We lose patience. We lack empathy. We wonder why it’s taking so long. Just climb out of the hole already!
The key is remembering the part we’re playing. If we’re introducing the change, we’re not the heroes of the story. We’re not the Man in the Hole or Somebody Making a Change. We’re simply guides. Useful guides understand the hero’s struggle and help her develop confidence in her ability to overcome the challenge. They let the hero struggle, learn, and eventually succeed.
When I’m supporting change as a coach, sometimes I notice myself feeling responsible for my client’s journey and whether or not they’ll succeed. I might feel a need to “manage” resistance, “control” the chaos, or “transform” them into something they aren’t today. But none of those things are my job as a guide. My job is to support, challenge, and inspire my clients to believe in themselves and the transformative power they hold within.
People love the story of “Man in a Hole” because it reminds us we all have the power to overcome adversity and grow into better versions of ourselves. We don’t always love “Somebody Makes a Change” because overcoming adversity is tough, uncomfortable work. It’s not guaranteed we’ll emerge from the process better than when we started. That’s why it’s so wonderful to have someone to support us in the journey and challenge us to keep going.
