Seven Thoughts on Being a Better Activism

Here are a few (very) broad principles that people should consider before they set out to improve the world/their neighborhood.the country:

1. Targeted Innovation– focus on social and technological innovations that attack the root of a problem, not just one or more symptoms.

2. Empirical approach – Use data, systematic observations, and formal analytical tools to understand the current situation and the impacts of your own efforts. Don’t let terms like “empirical” and “formal” disturb you; the concepts aren’t hard to apply.

3. Leverage – Look for ways to attack a social problem that will give the best results for your resources.

4. Formalism – Use a system to structure and explore challenges, create evaluation criteria for ideas, generate ideas, evaluate ideas, decide what to do, and monitor results. Again, this is not as complicated as it might seem.

5. Marketing Mindset – Think of yourself as being in sales or advertising, with your ideas being “sold” to benefit people. How can you reach your audience and convince them to "buy"?

6. Design Thinking – Consider how your idea fits with the culture, economic situation, physical infrastructure, available technology, and the political climate. Is the idea realistic, practical likely to solve the problem, unlikely to cause undesirable consequences? Is the idea fair?

7. Values Thinking – Your idea must fit with prevailing values, lifestyles, beliefs, and attitudes; the closer the fit, the greater the odds of success. What values are involved, from the audience's point of view?

Can New Thinking Save the World? (Shameless plug)

Maybe, as long as we think about the right things and then do something :-)

I've written a book that describes some techniques for getting and implemtning ideas for social innovations that the world badly needs.

The Creative Activism Guide shows readers how to use formal innovation techniques for social betterment. The Creative Activism Guide covers problem definition, idea generation, structuredproblem solving, idea evaluation, decision analysis, and the selling of ideas. Social entrepreneurs, activists, nonprofit management people, and anyone interested in socially responsible business will find helpful advice and information. You will discover:

1. Proven idea generation techniques
2. Tools for making better decisions
3. Ways to find, steal, and adapt valuable ideas
4. Tools for gaining a better understanding of your challenge
5. Tools for designing and selling social innovations
6. An eight-part creative activism strategy
7. The four principles of powerful and effective social innovation

With the right thinking tools you can (potentially) change the world.

The Creative Activism Guide is coming out in September from Booklocker.com.