Balancing Collective Vision with Individual Innovation

Communism often centralised decision-making, thus hindering individual creativity and innovation. Leaders believed they had the benign vision and hence, all the answers, leaving little room for experimentation or deviation from the party line. This rigidity meant that communist economies were ill-equipped to respond to changing circumstances or emerging challenges, ultimately leading to stagnation and decline.

In contrast, in our work, effective collective action must strike a balance between a shared vision for change, implemented with a robust long-term plan, and creating room for innovative solutions. However, the latter often gets compromised at the risk of being considered a distraction.

We must ask ourselves if we are embracing a culture of innovation, rapid prototyping, experimentation, and continuous learning. What we need to do is to encourage diverse perspectives, embrace new technologies, and create space for creativity and risk-taking. Only by remaining adaptable and open to new ideas, we can develop more effective and sustainable solutions to complex challenges.

Ensuring Transparent Governance, Accountability and Adaptability

Communist regimes often lack transparency and accountability, leading to corruption and abuse of power. Decisions were made behind closed doors without input from the people they purported to represent. Initially, this may have been with the intention of expediting certain decisions, but it soon turns into a habit, when unchecked.

Hence, in successful collective action initiatives, we must prioritise transparency and accountability at every level. We should establish mechanisms for clear reporting, monitoring, and evaluation, allowing stakeholders to track progress and hold each other accountable. By fostering a culture of openness and integrity, we can build deeper trust among partners, and ensure that resources are used effectively to achieve shared goals. Also, with built-in mechanisms for feedback, evaluation, and course correction, we can continuously refine strategies and approaches, and thus be more resilient to emerging challenges.

Restoring Agency among Local Communities

Centralisation was a common feature of communist systems, with decisions made at the top levels and imposed upon local communities without their input or consent. The individual agency was feared and discouraged. This top-down approach often led to a disconnect between decision-makers and the people they were meant to serve.

To avoid this, we must keep ‘Agency’ at the core of our design of collective action efforts. When we design for community empowerment and participation, involve local stakeholders in decision-making processes, respect their knowledge and expertise, and co-create and prioritise solutions that are tailored to their unique contexts, we enable communities to take ownership of initiatives. 

We must also invest in capacity-building initiatives to strengthen grassroots organisations. This ensures that interventions are relevant, sustainable from inside-out, and impactful.

Incentivising Pursuit of Excellence

Communism often led to bureaucratic red tape and inefficiencies. In the garb of collective performance, it is easy for a pervasive sense of complacency to set in. With no incentives to reward innovation or hard work, many people began to adopt a “good enough” mentality and were content to meet the minimum requirements rather than striving for excellence.

In our work with the system as a collective, we often speak about contribution to the impact versus attribution of impact. Now what do we need to keep in the center of our design efforts such that every actor/partner/institution puts their best efforts towards making the desired collective impact? While intent and trust exist, collective action initiatives should also prioritise streamlined processes, clear communication channels, and transparent performance reviews. Incentives have to be thoughtfully designed for the pursuit of excellence.

Embracing Diversity and Inclusivity

Communism often suppressed dissenting voices and marginalised groups, leading to social divisions and tensions. They may have feared that alternative perspectives could undermine the authority of the ruling party.

At several points, we often find ourselves in a similar echo chamber. To build truly inclusive collective action initiatives, we must embrace diversity, participatory approaches and ensure that all voices are heard and valued. We need to proactively create platforms for dialogue, collaboration, and consensus-building, where stakeholders from different backgrounds can come together to co-create solutions. This comes at an initial cost of time. Discussions become long and we often find ourselves thinking – ‘are we compromising on speed?’ My colleague and I have written about the dilemmas of collective action earlier. (Read here)

But since it is a marathon, we need to celebrate diversity and foster a sense of belonging. This enables us to build stronger, more resilient communities capable of addressing complex challenges like education equity, even in our absence in the future.