How do you unintentionally create a movement?

I've been spending time looking at what it would take to create a new category of company that reframes risk as to the inability to respond to constant change and sees chaos for what it is; the ability to make a positive transformational change at speed.

As I continue to undertake an enquiry to explain how this will work I was explaining my aim for the meeting to an acquaintance of mine in the people and culture space, he said he aimed to find out how to gain momentum for a movement.

As we spoke, he said he wasn't aware that his team had booked him into some sessions and asked to reschedule. In the next few minutes, I explained the characteristics of a movement and that the question he was asking was coming from a place of ego, which is not how a campaign starts.

As he left the call, he told me had to go and read CV’s. I laughed and said, you know you don't need to read CV's, they don't tell you anything, and you only look at them during the interview to frame your questions.

Plus can you imagine if I put on my CV, “creates movements”? I can't even explain my CV to you, but I can tell you that you can't start a movement quickly and people who call themselves catalysts for change usually aren't doing the hard work to cause the change.

Part of the true story is one I’ve never shared publicly previously was we were going shut it down because we had no options.

If you want to make a difference, don't let me stop you, just recognise there are some characteristics to a movement and it helps to be aware of what they are. We never set out to create a movement but have experienced being at the epicentre of one, some might say the work we did was the catalyst for change; I say right time, right place, right mindset and a dash of naivete taught me the lesson of a lifetime. 

I know it was a movement because I can still remember having an 'out of body' experience when 20+ telecommunication company executives, all competitors, convened in a room at the ISP Slingshot and on a conference call.

Nobody knew this, but my business partner and I had written a letter to the customers of Global Mode™ saying we don't have the funds to fight the lawsuit.

The letter was folded and hidden under my laptop, as I was preparing to present it I'll never forget Taryn Hamilton taking over and telling everyone we won't stand for this bullying behavior. Suddenly, the project was no longer ours, the letter was never presented and by the end of the meeting we had agreed to put a combined $100,000 into marketing and communications to change the narrative.

I later learnt that leadership shows up in groups and I was glad Taryn knew what to do. The story doesn't end there, the money was never spent but this was the first time I understood what it meant to stand for something much bigger than yourself and have somebody else take on a fight you started.

1. Stand for something much bigger than yourself.

You can't start a movement, if you're trying to do this it comes from the ego. Your intent is to tell people what to do differently. With Global Mode™ we simply unblocked Netflix because there were no decent streaming options in New Zealand, once Hollywood sued us, by proxy through the local media companies this is when the movement started. The media companies threatened the right for consumers to choose and suddenly the television media industry was at war with the telecommunication industry. This issue was much bigger than us, it was a social justice issue dealing with a principle of law and the rights of every day New Zealanders. You can see more ecognisabke examples of this with #MeToo and Black Lives Matter movements or and through Greta Thunberg who inspires youth at a global level.

2. Play the game by your own rules

Your critics will tell you what you are doing is breaking the law. When we launched Dr2Go the Medical Council said what we're doing breached the guaiances and tried to make out we were recruiting GP's from overseas who could not practice in NZ. This wasn't the case and even with Global Mode™, often the law hasn't been written to keep up to modern times The incumbents are bound to operate with governance and risk principles which make them risk aderance, in parallel you'll be setting a new precedent. Think about how important Telehealth is now, the difference is this, when we launched Doctor2Go the traditional practitioners saw us taking the easy cases. In both scenarios what they are really saying is hey, that's not fair, we can't do that as we're playing by the rules as our lawyers interpret them or our government funding allows. Expect the incumbency to cry foul, just make sure you have social good on your side and have a thick skin. It will seem like a personal attack to start with and make sure you get media training before you launch. A big thanks to Paul Brislen who gave this to me on the job pro bono.

3. Changing mindsets by showing not telling.

Firstly, you can't promote a product or company; you are promoting a new way of doing and holding the space for a new mindset. There are exceptions, The Period Place and Ollie Body or the team at Squawk Squad; they have social impact products. I'm talking about when you have a commercial offer. I got involved with primary healthcare because a person close to me had a missed cancer diagnosis at the primary care provider. We tried to launch a b2c telehealth app and then went b2b before I realised nobody knew what Telehealth was or asked for it. My main focus moved away from promoting the company into speaking about the future of healthcare in market verticals like HR, Education, H&S & pharmacy. The idea was simple. I'd ask the room who had experienced a telehealth consultation before, invariability no one had unless it had been from overseas. My goal became to dispel the myths of remote care for patients and doctors. When I would poll the room at the end of my Telehealth talk, usually having demonstrated how easy it was on the big screen I would have 80% of the room engage and say they would consider Telehealth the first option. It was the only covid that brought the industry up to speed, and the primary care physician had to social distance themselves and the waiting room. This work is hard; we need to change minds one at a time, so you need to be patient or ask for help.

4. Don’t try to fight the war alone.

As you can imagine, when the media companies that are in litigation with you are covering the story, there might be some bias. The reality was the company office phone number routed directly to my mobile, it still does, in its in so many marketing company databases around the world, if the database spammers can reach me the media sure as hell could of if they tried. They even blocked our customers advertising. It didn't matter, if they had fact-checked they wouldn't have told Kiwi's you could get game of thrones direct from HBO. You couldn't, but this drove awareness and uptake. Mike Hoskimgs rants fanned the flames; traditional media played a massive role in accelerating awareness and therefore uptake.

One of the industry bodies I've been a member of for a decade didn't support us for a year, the other did. The first came around after we demystified the legal grey areas. Still couldn't have gotten anywhere near as far as we did with the political parties without the support of TUANZ, Consumer NZ and Internet NZ. When we launched Doctor2Go, I saw Dr Lance O'Sullivan as my ally, not my adversary. Good news and bad news work in your favour, but don't fight the battle alone. We should have been better prepared. I had strangers offer me money for the legal campaign; we weren't ready for this so often they'd shout me a free beer. Dreams come true in teams, don't go it alone, especially when you're taking on a social change issue.

5. Be prepared to lose everything, but gain the unexpected.

Changing the status quo is not easy; the work is hard, especially when you're changing minds one at a time. The reality is after the case we lost all of the company revenue, had to make the team redundant, borrow money from family, sell houses and cars to put a roof over our heads.

Even now, as I fact check this writing, I need to be sure I have not breached any agreement that means I would be in contempt of court to have an opinion about copyright in New Zealand. The mention of Global Mode™ online creates an alert in some lawyers inbox somewhere because I've had a letter from lawyers arrive when I did a talk at Gather Unconference.

I wouldn't change what happened, I learnt more through this experience, created an identity and was flown around the world to talk about it, joined the EHF, developed media and political relationships and now I see the world differently. Taking on social change isn't easy, but it's meaningful and rewarding work. I now choose only to work on projects that have a positive impact or create social change. Even with the ups and downs, I'm grateful for the journey and now help companies avoid the same disruption I helped create.

The type of chaos I create helps move industries forward. As we face up to the new normal, I'm helping companies reinvent to thrive from a constant state of change. If you're in a CEO or board state of disorder when managing risk you can't understand, please reach out to me and set up a time to speak. I will show you what the future might look like if you're willing to look at risk from a different perspective.