By Fr Jim Cogley
In any group of a 100 people it is estimated that there will be 15 who could be described as initiators. These are the leaders and visionaries who are essential for any community to develop and move forward. Another fifteen or so in the group will be resistors. These are the negative voices who protest and work against any proposals that involve change, even where the need for improvement is obvious. In between there are the 70 who can swing in either direction. This depends entirely upon the initiators and whether they can be true to, and keep moving forward, with their vision. If they allow themselves to get distracted by the negative voices, that usually shout the loudest, progress gets slowed, and the in between group will begin to slide in the direction of the resistors. By listening to what the resistors have to say some valuable changes can be made without the vision losing momentum. What happens then is that as progress is being made those who were sceptical and resisting,
start to like what is happening and the project begins to make sense even to them.