What if your impact is better than your intent?

“Impact is greater than intent” is one of those concepts that has been popularized over the past few years, especially within white liberal progressive culture.

The idea is that the impact that you have, meaning the impact of harm, outweighs whatever good intentions you might have.

It’s a concept, frankly, that I often see white women using to chastise each other in desperate attempts to virtue signal… which makes sense, given that white women are generally socialized to be pitted against one another by patriarchy and often are not able to see how accountability can be accompanied by support.

And yes, this phrase is a much needed push back especially towards those who are particularly socialized to fall back on the defense of “but that’s not what I meant” when called out for racist interactions with people of color, a response which often, intentionally or not, only serves to center back on themselves and erase the experiences of harm that they have caused.

So yes, it’s an important concept, but it’s often taken too literally without considering the nuances, and most especially, a power analysis. Whose intent and whose impact are we talking about? If a person of color means well but causes a white person to feel threatened, is that “impact” greater than their intention?

If a white person feels “harmed” for being held accountable or for receiving uncomfortable feedback from a person of color, is that “impact” greater than the intention of the person of color to advocate for themselves and provide support and the opportunity for growth?

A more helpful way to think about it might be that the impact of our actions are not always aligned with our intentions.

For starters, our intentions are often sub-conscious and based on the status quo and/or the assumed needs of ourselves and others.

These intentions get translated reactively into action (or inaction) and often we are not thinking about impact at all, not to mention that the impact of our actions are not entirely within our control but are also influenced by the identities, needs, values and socialization as well as the action of others.

We don’t have full control over our impact.

That doesn’t mean we shouldn’t pay attention to it.

But it doesn’t mean we should ignore intentions - our own or that of others - either, especially not those we are in relationship with.

It doesn’t have to be either/or - we can account for both intention and impact while bringing a power analysis to help us understand if and why those two things may not be aligned.

When we are contextually more aligned with systemic power and privilege, our good intentions are more likely to cause unintentional harm.

This is how systems of oppression that are deeply embedded into our society work - it doesn’t take a racist policy or a racist person to uphold racism, just as it doesn’t take a sexist policy or a sexist person to uphold sexism etc.

That’s why we always talk about it NOT being about being a good or bad person, or simply about loving one another and being respectful.

What this means, though, is that when we are contextually less aligned with systemic power and privilege, unintentional (or intentional) harm is often magnified and positive impact is often diminished.

Think about that for a minute.

Think about Emmett Till, abducted, tortured and lynched in 1955 because a white woman felt harmed by his presence.

Think about Vincent Chin, of Chinese descent but assumed to be Japanese, killed in 1982 by laid off white autoworkers who blamed the Japanese for the loss of their jobs.

Think about Trayvon Martin, killed in 2012 by a white man who deemed him “suspicious” for walking down the street wearing a hoodie and eating skittles.

Think about Eric Garner, killed by police in 2014 on suspicion of selling single cigarettes from packs illegally.

Think about Breonna Taylor, killed by police in 2020 during an unfounded raid based on falsified information.

Need I go on?

Who is doing the intending and who is doing the impacting matters.

And what if, especially for gender expansive and women of color, our impact actually transcends our intent?

What if our impact is far better than we could have imagined and therefore intended?

I’ve been thinking about this every since our CCI team “no work work retreat.”

As we sat in a room together and shared the impact our colleagues had each had on us, what I sensed was… well, I’ll speak just for myself, but I don’t think I was alone when I say that what I experienced was surprise.

The impact I had created had transcended my intentions.

Because, to be honest, my intentions were originally quite self-centered - to find a way to make a living that was more suited to my unique talents and passions that what I as doing previously.

I wanted to find work that was truly satisfying, as cliche as that sounds, and I had sense that didn’t have to mean making less money.

And for me, I am most satisfied when working in collaboration with others.

And I am most satisfied when I am doing what I feel like is my best to make the world a better place for myself, my husband and my kids… and if that is at the expense of others then that is the OPPOSITE of satisfying.

And of course I have been very focused on client impact. I don’t see that changing.

What I do see shifting is the realization that in seeking the kind of work and workplace I want for myself, what I’ve done is created it for others too - all of us at CCI have.

And what I do see shifting is the realization that if the most impact we make is on ourselves, if the most impact we make is in proving out the concept of co-creating inclusion even if only for ourselves, then that it itself will be more than I originally intended or imagined.

Way more.

As women and gender expansive people of color, we are socialized to not only have our value and positive impact diminished by others, but we do it to ourselves.

As a result of being bombarded and immersed in messages that we are not good enough, we can be our own harshest critics.

To hold space for our own miraculous amazingness as well as that of each other is itself an act of dismantling white supremacy and of dreaming new dreams that are not owned by others.

Dismantling white supremacy is not some far off goal that we will one day stagger to the finish line and complete.

It’s a living and breathing process that we can step into and embody every day… and this is also the best and perhaps only way to make change across systems and cultures.

Whatever your racial identity is, how does white supremacy culture have you either over-exaggerating or diminishing your positive or negative impact?

In what ways is your positive impact over-rated and your harm overlooked in your privileged identities?

In what ways is your positive impact diminished and your harm exaggerated in your disadvantaged identities?

How will you fact check your impact? How will you know?

Banner photo by Jakub Kriz on Unsplash

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