How Does Social Change Happen?

David Roberts on the Gristmill blog shares what he learned from Malcolm Gladwell (author of The Tipping Point

and Blink

) when he gave a keynote address about social change at a luncheon in Seattle:

So, although social change can be somewhat unpredictable (see #1), we can set the stage for it and work to create the conditions in which it can happen (see #2 and 3).

Think about who your "connectors" are for your audiences and how you can hook into their networks. And see if you might be able to reframe the issue so that it connects with the core values of the people you are trying to reach. For example, the issue of school choice has been defined by its opponents (primarily teachers' unions) as an attack on public schools and teachers that subsidizes private and religious schools. But if you reframe the issue as one of social justice -- that poor children are being denied their right to a good education -- or one of government waste -- that taxpayer funds are being inefficiently used by the bloated and overbureaucratized school system -- then you might be able to mobilize new constituencies that had not previously thought about the issue in that way.

One of the commenters to the post, CyberBrook, shared some useful information on community organizing for social change. I especially liked the "M Factor" organizing template:

It's like our social marketing Ps but from a community organization angle. The rest of the comments are also worth checking out.

Technorati Tags: social change, marketing, gladwell