Movements Don't Need Grand Plans. They Need One Step.

Everyone keeps saying movements need big moments. Grand launches. Perfect plans.

But Monday night at The Conduit in London, the room was packed to hear something different.

Caroline Lucas on the left. Ellie Meredith in the middle, orange jumper bright against dark windows. Jon Alexander is on the right in navy blue.

They screened the trailer for ACTionism first. Then the conversation began.

And 20-year-old Ellie explained how her journey began with two questions, an email, and the realisation that porridge doesn’t solve existential collapse.

Ellie was neurodivergent and climate-anxious throughout school. She’d felt tangled in a loop of not-enoughness—not good enough for exams, not good enough for revision, struggling to concentrate in class.

When she went to her teachers, worried about her exams, they told her to have some porridge and get an early night.

When she went to her teacher, she was worried about the existential collapse of humanity and nature; they had nothing to offer.

Porridge doesn’t fix existential collapse.

The only options presented: go to uni or hold a placard at a protest.

Neither felt right. Protests were overwhelming.

So she emailed Jon Alexander.

He asked two disarming questions:

What brings you joy?

Where could you orient yourself towards work that matters?

She said: The outdoors.

He connected her to the Re-Action Collective in the French Alps.

Two years later, she’s touring the world with a film called Actionism.

Not Greta Thunberg. Not Jane Goodall. Just one step.

Everyone at The Conduit Said the Same Thing

Last Monday night, Ellie Meredith shared a seat with Jon Alexander and Caroline Lucas, former leader of the Green Party of England and Wales.

They all said the same thing:

You can’t out-argue the old story. You have to tell a better one, again and again, with message discipline.

• Ellie: “What brings me joy is taking collective action and finding trust in that... we work at the speed of trust and emergence.”
• Caroline: “Hope is an axe to break down doors in an emergency. Not a lottery ticket you hold on your sofa.”
• Jon “People can deal with the truth of these things with the conditions that provide agency.”

These ideas are what I was applying to our community when I wrote “When Comfort Becomes Complicity“ here on LinkedIn back in August:

The Consumer Story is collapsing. We either retreat into the Subject Story—authoritarianism—or step forward into the Citizen Story. Active participation.

There’s no middle ground.

Can You Build Agency When People Are Just Trying to Survive?

Kofi Oppong asked something on Monday night, The Conduit that’s been wanting to develop all week:

“Can you tackle agency if so many people are in poverty? How can you have that headspace and clarity to then look at sustainability?”

I had Robin Chase on our Ouishare podcast years ago, and she said the same kind of thing: when you have to decide between pasta and nappies, all your brain cells are used on that decision.

Gary Stevenson has been talking about all the levels of wealth inequality for years: even people earning £70-80,000—two to three times the average income—can’t buy property without family help. Young people face two job types: one where you can’t pay the bills, and one where you have no time to sleep.

The middle class—people who own some assets, who should be stable—are being squeezed out.

And that middle class? That’s the primary market for coworking spaces.

Freelancers. Small business owners. Creatives. People who did everything right and still can’t get ahead.

Not a failure to work. A failure to inherit.

So when Kofi asks how you build agency in poverty, he’s asking about your members. Your community. The people are trying to run businesses while being systematically outcompeted for everything they need.

Running any project or business in the middle of a cost-of-living crisis and widespread political and social division is a headfuck.

It’s exhausting.

So how do you build your story when you’re just trying to survive?

You Build It One Email at a Time

Not because it’s inspiring. Because it’s the only thing that actually works. Monday night, they all talked about the story.

• Caroline said you can’t out-argue the old story—you have to tell a better one.
• Jon said people need agency.
• Ellie showed what happens when you find the others.

But here’s what they didn’t say: the way you tell your story is by writing it.

One email a week to your members. One email a week to your community.

That’s how you build the narrative. That’s how people see what you’re doing and decide they want to be part of it.

Want a reason to email them this week?

Invite them to an ACTionism screening!!

Then note five talking points and five actions that came up.

That’s your next five weeks of emails right there.

Just like the Coworking Values Podcast got to 300+ episodes—one conversation at a time.

Just like the London Coworking Assembly has been showing up since 2015—one small, informal, connected event at a time.

Not the United Nations. Not some grand organisation. Not an award winner.

Just people showing up.

One email. One conversation. One screening.

Life Support Systems, Not Productivity Hacks

Something else that happened last Monday was that my ADHD diagnosis arrived, and I’ve been flipping between despair and relief all week.

It’s been like watching myself in a film. I am so skilled at masking, coping, and living by the seat of my pants—which is nowhere near as glamorous as it sounds.

All I’ve read this week is stuff about my ADHD scores.

My T-Scores: 83, 72, 63, 81, 87, 85, 87 are described as the “extreme upper range of symptom severity within the entire adult population.”

Twenty years ago, at university, I got diagnosed with dyslexia, and I was off the charts. I quickly got support and slogged through my degree.

I loved every moment and even started a master’s, but my brain quickly tanked out at the reading, and not many books on my master’s reading list were on Audible in 2005.

Mary, my dyslexia coach, got me very interested in mind mapping and productivity. Until that point, I’d never used a calendar, let alone a digital one. That was where my quest for tech and gadgets to function started—even before Google Docs and Trello.

Even before the dyslexia revelation, I’d always operated at extremes, doing what I now recognise as chasing euphoria mixed with lethal cocktails of self-loathing and validation.

I remember being addicted to running—training for the London Marathon, drinking green juice nonstop in spring, and by summer, I was snorting drugs off the stone floor in Café de Paris after dropping them.

I remember sitting alone on the bathroom floor smoking a Marlboro Light and thinking life was not meant to be like this. It felt like a slightly more hygienic scene from Trainspotting.

These days, I love life, but I am exhausted with some parts inexplicably working.

Being on time and keeping time has always been so hard for me; everything in my life here in Vigo in Galicia happens in a one-mile radius of our home - from the bus to the airport, to the train to Portugal - it has been life-changing for me.

I am very good at connecting the dots and making connections—that is my superpower. I have put so much effort into connecting these last few dots, and I am exhausted and broken trying to work it out.

For years, I thought I’d built productivity hacks.

• The 12 Week Year.
• Hero On A Mission.
• One newsletter a week.
• One podcast episode at a time.
• One email to the London Coworking Assembly.

I can’t do 18 things at once. So I do one thing.

I thought these were systems to optimise my work.

This week, I realised they’re not productivity hacks.

They’re life support systems.

I’d spent years trying to figure out why some things simply didn’t work.

It turns out that, like the film ‘When a Stranger Calls,’ the phone call is coming from inside the house.

You Can’t Leap from Where You Are to Jane Goodall

In the LinkedIn Coworking Group last week, Thilo Utke commented, “Great moment to remember that we overestimate what we can do in 10 weeks and underestimate what we can do in 10 years.’

He was commenting on Suzanne Murdock‘s post about “What 10 Years of Growing Together Taught Me About Sustainable Business“ -

I know what you’re thinking.

Suzanne has been doing that for ten years. I have not even opened my place yet!

The podcast hit 300 episodes? I haven’t even started mine.

London Coworking Assembly since 2015? I wasn’t there.

Ellie couldn’t leap from school to Greta Thunberg.

You can’t leap from where you are to Jane Goodall.

There are too many steps in between.

And in the middle of a cost-of-living crisis, running any project or business is already exhausting.

But do what you can right where you are with what you have:

You don’t need to build nine spaces.

You don’t need to record 300 episodes.

You don’t need to have been at every assembly since 2015.

You just need to host one ACTionism screening.

Five people. Twenty-five people. Fifty people.

It doesn’t matter.

It’s the actual getting together and talking that matters.

Your Monday Domino

Call a mate and talk about hosting an Actionism screening. Urban MBA is first in our community to do this—Kofi and his team are bringing the film to Old Street.

• If you own a coworking space, host it.
• If you know a coworking space, ask them to host it.

It’s a really good way to start conversations that matter with people who care in your local area.

Not because it’ll solve climate change. Not because it’ll fix everything.

Because it’s one step.

And one step is how movements actually happen.

Not by doing everything at once. By doing one thing. Together. Again and again.

We are all paragraphs on a page in a chapter in a book.

When we all show up one small piece at a time, we build a story together.

Bernie’s Picks

📅 ‘Bad Daughter’: A Talk with Author Sangeeta Pillai (Soul Sutras) on Wednesday, October 29th 6:30 pm, Canada Water Library. (One of the best books you’ll ever read in your life - I promise!) Get tickets here

🎥 Watch Last Monday Night’s Event: Ellie Meredith, Caroline Lucas and Jon Alexander Discuss Citizens, Stories and ACTionism at The Conduit watch on this YouTube link.

🎬 Host an ACTionism Screening Request yours on this link here. (Follow Urban MBA on LinkedIn for their London screening date!)

🤝 Unreasonable Connection Monthly online call for coworking community builders. No panels, no pitches—just operators talking to operators. RSVP here.

🎙️ Coworking Values Podcast Don’t miss our latest podcasts with Michael, Jeannine, Tilley and Sara on the 2nd best coworking podcast in the world - here.

Thank you for your time and attention today!

Bernie 💚🍉

Community is the key 🔑

p.s. Sign up for our free London Coworking Assembly email course: “5 Biggest Mistakes Coworking Community Builders Make (And How to Avoid Them)” Get it here.