“Resonance over reach.”

Mallon Writers inspire again! For nine months we have Zoomed two Fridays a month to chat, write, and connect, and I always come away nourished. Joan attributed her writing prompt tonight to storyteller Jay Acunzo whose website states, “My premise is that we should all prioritize resonance over reach to grow our businesses, audiences, and causes.” It’s about synchronous vibration: The transmission of energy through particles in an elastic medium.

In my mind, resonance generated well facilitates reach.

The Law of Diffusion of Innovation describes how ideas gain momentum and spread through a population or social system. About 2.5% of the population innovates in any given domain. In that domain, another 10-15% of people are early adopters–those with whom the innovation resonates. From there, about 35% comprise the early majority, another 35% the late majority, and finally about 16% the laggards. The early majority vibrate in harmony with the innovators–their respective particle waves are resonant and consonant–music to one another’s ears.
Once an idea or message vibration is established and strong, it then amplifies outward, creating new harmonies–between early adopters and members of the early majority and so on. Synergy and amplitude of resonance with each degree of distal reach is less intense, but enough to maintain momentum of movement–of adoption.

As I consider my message of openness, curiosity, humility, and connection across difference, this reminder buoys me. I first learned about this ‘law’ from Simon Sinek’s TED talk, How Great Leaders Inspire Action. I was an early adopter of life coaching. I am definitely an early adopter of bridging political divisions through dialogue and personal connection. My job here is to help establish the stable frequency, the harmonic base, like the initial rhythm of a new music composition (think Ben Folds inventing a new song). Creating a memorable and meaningful orchestral masterpiece starts with grounding in a steady beat and key, then adding each instrument section for its own unique contribution for melodious and harmonious depth and texture of sound. This kind of resonance affects not just our ears and cognition, but our very souls, our humanity.

Attuning to resonance is how I sense, discern, and navigate my way through any interaction of political polarization. I seek that rhythm, that vibration in the person/people I’m with, listening for the frequency that I can track to connect. Connection across difference is not for everybody, at least not on the surface. Shouting my message to the masses through a bullhorn wastes energy and likely drives more people away than it attracts. But this quiet yet bold, cadenced pulse that emits from my depths can reverberate with the same, maybe small tone in someone despite and through the noise–the magnet that draws us closer rather than repels. [Funny how it’s electrical polar opposites that attract? It’s a paradox I addressed last year!]

My vibration resonates for connection on the wavelength of possibility.

It occurs to me that I can only sustain this resonance if my rhythm is true to myself–my own innate heartbeat of connection–that which is natural, organic, effortless, and cannot be faked. Because that is the only way I will find those who truly resonate, the only way I will really reach anyone, near and far. So at the same time I effuse, emit, and amplify, I must also insulate. I must resist those who say my message is futile, that the cause is lost, or that I must alter my message to fit some norm or mold. Nope. My fellow connectors and I find one another by sensing our shared deep, steady beat.

I Hold Resonance for Us, my friends. Let us vibe to the rhythms that connect us, the ones that help us trascend the toxic rage of identity politics and oversimplified, overgeneralized, us-them mentality. Let us hold our hearts open for shared humanity to resonate and amplify.