Doctors want meaningful action on climate change. A foundation for foster children wants meaningful change in the lives of children and young people in out-of-home care. A business group wants meaningful change for the regions. Earlier in the year,the women marching under the #EnoughIsEnough banner also wanted meaningful change. A mental heath group wants real,meaningful,SYSTEMIC change (full marks for evading the plagiarism detector).
And if you’re inspired by so much meaningful changeyness and want to give it a go for yourself,World Vision is advertising for a Change Intrapreneur – honestly,that’s the title – who will “drive change and innovation for the Australian First Nations and the world’s most vulnerable children impacted by Climate Change”. It is amazing,given the fervent advocacy for meaningful change,that the problems these groups highlight remain so stubbornly intractable.
It is almost always the case that when calls for meaningful change are especially strident,specifics are scant. So for the sake of our poor battered eardrums – and for the sake of the extremely worthy intentions of organisations like those above that have genuine and important agendas – let me share a few lessons from a decade (ahem) in communications.
Meaningful change is not a policy suggestion and only policy suggestions can become policy. Imagine you went to the doctor and the doctor told you that you need to make “meaningful change” to become healthier. What would you do? Go on a diet,eat faddy superfoods,embark on a laugh-therapy course? To make meaningful change towards becoming healthier,you need to first know what the health challenge is – a strep throat or a sprained ankle –and then how specifically to treat the malady. Antibiotics aren’t going to do much for a twisted joint.
The same is true in the advocacy space. Let’s apply it to the Great Exhaustion. It’s undeniable – women are exhausted. Certainly,this woman. The last couple of years have been tough. I – like many other middle-class desk-jockeys – have tried to remember to call home schooling “remote schooling” out of respect for teachers,while designing and delivering a tailored curriculum,keeping up with clients,managing staff,and trying not to disappear under my own mess. Just initial caps? If you ask me,the Great Exhaustion should be all capital letters. But what is the policy suggestion that could help us ladies feel less exhausted? Well,advocates aren’t proposing free energy drinks. To make us less tired,they are proposing more childcare,so we can work more,and the implementation of all 55 recommendations from the federal Sex Discrimination Commissioner’sRespect@Work report.
This is classic antibiotics for a sprained ankle stuff. If the problem is that women are tired because they’re taking on too much at home while trying to work,the solution is more help from their partners and children. What is the government going to do? Send Scott Morrison in with a mop? Much as many of us would appreciate the PM giving our floors a good scrub,a policy problem this ain’t.