When you are leading the workshop, you need to feel ready. Right?  You need to have your head on straight and your gear in place.  I have talked about the head  part (HERE), but I think the gear part is important as well. There is nothing more heart-stopping than when you  walk into a room, ready to razzle dazzle ( and teach)  participants what you know only to find out that  something has gone awry.

It could be that :

• your laptop wont talk to the LCD projector
• there is no clicker to advance your slides
• they can’t afford a projector and you have only a flipchart to use
• they don’t want  you to use notes

What to do, what to do?

Now, you can start with doing some deep breathing and some hand wringing. Oh and let your “lizard brain” rage on.   Once that is over ( I give you 20 seconds–tops), you can just reach into your bag of tricks and say:

“No big deal, I think I have it covered.”

That bag of tricks is your gear.  And most of it can fit into  a gallon size bag.  It is those pieces that if you put them all together will save your butt.  And every workshop presenter should have them.

Interested  to know about what is in my Macgyver bag of tricks?  Well, watch the video to find out what I always keep close by.

What did ya think?  What did I miss?  Do you have a hankering to spiff up your workshop gear?  Here are links to the actual items.  I don’t get any monetary rewards if you buy them.  I only get karmic ones.

• LCD clicker
• Gum
• Scented Markers
• 5×8 index cards
• Analog clock
• Kingston Jump Drive

The next time you have to run that workshop,  you will have what you need to make it run smoothly.  And we like our workshops to run  like we like our yogurt, smoooothhhhhh!

Lead on,

I am a 42 y.o. black woman
raised in the Midwest
daughter of a single mother
no real relationship with my father
from a working class background.

If that is all you knew about me, what image would you have?

property of Gordon Parks

I have attended boarding school
college
law school
I was a scholarship kid throughout
I have worked in Washington DC for close to 20 years
Inside  big national organizations I was a knowledge worker/policy thinker/leadership practitioner.

Am I a role model in your mind?

I have had some privilege : education and economic
I have organized events that U.S. Presidents and First ladies attended
I am often told that I am smart and funny and kind.

Do I stand out as being special?

Here is what I am not:

I am not an anomaly for people of my race
I am not a fluke
I am not unusual
I am not one dimensional or even two dimensional
I am not a model minority
I am not a caricature
Here to prove that  I  am as smart/strong/clever ( or anything else) as you.

Does that make you respect me?

property of Gordon Parks

A few injustices  I have experienced in my life:
AT THE TABLE- Being voiceless in professional settings because I was either too young, a woman or the only person of color
IN MY PROFESSION- Being told it is nice that we have a woman of color on board and then being asked to represent them all
IN MY LIFE- Having people question my place as their friends or confidants  based upon their assumptions of who I was

Did that make me stronger?

Is sharing insights confrontational?
If I am sassy and I make you laugh does that make you feel better?
Does my diplomacy disarm you?
Does my insight unnerve you?

If you call me black vs. African American, I don’t care.
If you question my patriotism, I don’t care.
If you think of me as less than in anyway, then we have a problem.

I am not inclined to STOP talking about race until ( the royal )we START talking about it.  It matters.

Yours in social change,

Over the next few days, we will hear a great deal about Martin Luther King.  And we should hear all about him.   He was a pioneer and leader on most of the things that he worked on: social justice, civil rights, poverty and workers rights.

However, he was also introspective about his role and his approach as a leader.  He did not simply go out and lead without a direction or a plan.  He was known to be a tremendous strategist, a measured responder, an opportunist for exposure for his causes and  a calculating symbol of his work.   He was both responsive and proactive in his work.

6 Beliefs Martin Luther King had on Leadership

People who are led to causes often become committed to great ideas through the person who personify those ideas.  They have to find the embodiment of the idea in flesh and blood in order to commit themselves to it.  MLK, 1961

♥

Each of us expected that setbacks would be a part of the ongoing effort.  Human beings must make mistakes and learn from them.  Make more mistakes and learn anew.  They must taste defeat as well as success.  Time and action are teachers.  MLK, 1963

♥

A leader has to be concerned with semantics. MLK,1963

♥

The biggest job in getting any movement off the ground is to keep together the people who form it.  This task requires more than a common aim: it demands a philosophy that wins and hold the people’s allegiance  and it depends upon open channels of communication between the people and their leader.  MLK, 1959

♥

What is needed is a strategy for change, a tactical program that will bring the Negro into the mainstream of American life as quickly as possible. MLK, 1967

♥

“I want to think it over.” MLK’s standard response when asked to make a snap decision.

When I read the above statements, I think about how acutely aware Rev. King was of his place in a movement and in a country.  His mindfulness about his work and his role are both inspiring and intimidating.  We should be inspired to to take on a responsibility for making the world a better place.  But we need to be aware that we do not need to be superheroes to do so.

We should craft our own leadership images.   Ones born from our mindfulness about how we want to be, what we want to do, and what opportunities and challenges are in front of us.  And be thankful of yet another legacy left to us by Dr. King.

Happy Birthday Sir.

Yours in social change,

I know that there is a big rush right now to wrap up everything you possibly can so that you can enjoy the holidays stress free. Time is at a premium and patience is at a minimum. So it is not the the best time to ask you to slow down and accept some praise.

Or maybe it is.

When you read this, I hope its over a cup of tea or a coffee. Something that signifies sitting down and soaking it in. Because I want to thank you for a job well done.

I don’t think we often think of our leadership unless it is broad sweeping change.  And rarely are you thanked for showing up and doing your job day in and day out.  For most of us, we lead daily. Person to Person. Project to Project.

As the year wraps up, I wanted to say thank you for what you have done, for who you are, for how you lead.

Thank you for

• inspiring someone
• coaching your work colleagues
• high fiving your team
• providing feedback to your peers
• making that big project happen
• for speaking up
• for listening openly
• for standing up when you had to and standing down too
• voting your heart and mind
• taking praise and acting humbly
• keeping your organizations in “the black”
• mentoring someone
• seeking advice

This year you have

• done enough
• been good enough
• said enough
• given enough
• cried enough
• worked enough

As we wind down, let plan to

• Laugh more
• Sleep more
• Read more
• Eat more (healthy stuff)
• Hug more
• Exercise more

I hope in the new year we have more chances to

• mind the gap
•  take on new positive growth
• breathe more deeply more often
• make change in your community, your state, your industry, your country
• see the world as it is and for how it can be
• do our part to change the world from where we sit right now
• enjoy more vacations
• consume more entertainment
• explore creative outlets
• gain healthy habits
• receive more kudos

• When you lead, do so
• from the front of the room
• with a dose of reality
• showing empathy
• with authority
• without hubris
• in service to the greater cause

Be well and take care yourself.  See you in 2013.

photo credit: quotable cards 

When Americans wake up on Wednesday, our presidential election will be over for another four years.  But right now, there is still one day left and I am worried about voter apathy, voter disdain and political anger and their impact on this election.

Frankly, I am afraid that people will not vote.  And that fear troubles me.

When I was 18 (I think that was my age–the memory is a bit fuzzy), my grandfather told me it was my right to vote and that I had to exercise it.  He told me, in very strong tones, that people had died for my right to vote and that I could not throw that away.

I have never forgotten those words and have made it a point to vote in every election. And that has meant standing in lines, walking in the dark and being one of the last ones at the polling place. It has meant reading very dense voter materials. It has meant helping others who didn’t understand how the new machines worked. Sometimes it has even meant going back home to get my ID so that I could vote.

Voting has been a minor annoyance at times but it is still something that I do because it’s important. I figure that if I can wait in line in Starbucks for my soy latte then I sure as hell can do what it takes to vote.

And I hope that you can too.

Another reason I vote is because it makes a difference in social change.  One of the first lessons that I learned when I moved to Washington DC was that social change requires both an “inside and outside strategy”.  That means that change occurs when we have social change proponents inside of the system pushing forward and we have social change agents outside of the systems pushing things forward. Ideally, it is a coordinated strategy. And it is one that we still use. It is how the political process works and I don’t think its going away. So, why not use it.

Finally, I vote because I want the right to raise my hand and question what is going on this world.  Now, I could do that and not vote. But I don’t want to be that girl.  The one who actually thinks that my vote doesn’t matter.  I am a woman, a black person , an American and voter and yes my vote does matter.  I don’t like to armchair quarterback without some skin in the game. It makes me a putz and I don’t do putz very well.

In my head, my vote is my voice and my voice is my vote.  And I want them both to be heard.  I hope that you do too.

Yours at the polling booth,

Voting resources:

Can I vote-http://www.866ourvote.org/

Where does my candidate stand- http://www.vote411.org/

Can I get time off from work- http://www.findlaw.com/voting-rights-law.html

Getting up in front of an audience doesn’t make me nervous. It never has.  My common refrain to myself is:  “You got this, so let’s do this effin shit!”

When I am up there,  I am usually in my zone. I am myopically focused on the time I have and the audience that I am with. I know my goals, my material and the path to getting there. I am loose and I am ready.

That feeling doesn’t come from cockiness. It doesn’t come from natural talent.  It comes from work. It comes from preparation. It comes from knowing.  While my battle cry has a couple of brassy expletives in it, it is my way of saying “for the next 60/90/240 minutes, you will lead this room. You have information that people want, need and can use.”

I am a trainer’s trainer. I not only design and lead my own workshops, but I teach others to do it too. Over the years, I have seen a good number of great presentations where I was impressed enough that I fawned over the presenter like they were Michelle Obama and I was determined to make them my new best friends.  Conversely, I have seen many bad trainings where daggers shot from my eyes and I stared them down like they were Rush Limbaugh.

I have a list of great practices that most really good teacher/speakers/trainers do consistently.  How do I know they are great?  Because I have seen the nodding heads and the aha moments in the room.

4 Practices that make a decent workshop really good

1. Know the material.
You don’t have to know everything under the moon about your subject matter. (NOW GO BACK AND  READ THAT AGAIN) But you do need to know about 10 minutes more information than your audience.

Most of time when you are  leading people to learn something, you are standing there either because you know something about the topic. And your knowledge is based on either experience or education.  When you lead from the front of the room, your workshop is going to draw upon either (or both) of these bases of knowledge.

As the leader of the room, you have to trust that you know enough to share what you think your audience needs to know to succeed. If you know your material, then you can either contract or expand your information based upon what you know.

Caveat: A leader will always have more information than you need to share. Be relentless in figuring out what you need to share and what you don’t.

2. Understand your audience.
For most of us, our biggest fear is that our audiences won’t like our material.  Translated, that means either your audience won’t care about it or they won’t know what to do with the information once you give it them. They walk into your workshop with that fear. And it is your job to rid them of it. The sooner you do that, the better.

When an audience member walks into the room or gets on the call, they are giving you permission to not only teach them but also convince them that their time with you is worth it. We have to make sure that our information is relevant, usable and understandable.

Always be answering your audience’s question: What’s in it for me?

Caveat: Leaders don’t assume what their audience needs to know. They ask. They ask the person who is inviting them. They ask the conference organizer.  And the bold ones? They ask the audience and adjust on a dime.

3. Have a good format
No one should have to ask you make sure your workshops or trainings are interactive, being interactive should already be a key part of how you teach.

We all learn best by hearing, seeing, understanding, trying, failing, and trying again. You should want people to go out and use the information that you are giving them with confidence.  And they need to be be able to ask questions, share their experiences, test out your practices to see how they can make them their own and come to you ask questions.

If you want to lead a room, your workshop format has to build in these opportunities into it not as as “extras” to make it fun; but as “essentials” to make it usable.

Caveat: Leaders answers these questions-What do they need to know? How do I reinforce what they now know? And how will they apply what they know?  No amount of lecturing is going to cover those three things.

4. Put yourself first
There is nothing worse than a presenter who is preoccupied . They rely too much on their notes, they go off on tangents and they don’t answer questions.

If you are running the workshop, you job is to be PRESENT.  You need to be singularly focused on the task. So before you start, “get your mind right.” ( H/T to Ms. Desiree Adaway)

That means push out whatever else you have in your head and focus on the task and people at hand.  Sometimes that requires a walk , a cup of coffee or a musical pit stop right before you start.

For me, its a clearing exercise.  I do some deep breathing. I write my 3 learning objectives down on a 3 x 5 cards. I shake out my hands and I roll my shoulders. I close my eyes once more, breath in out and repeat my mantra. “YOU.GOT.THIS.”

Caveat: Leaders have peak performances.  If you study any athlete, any artist, any entertainer, any speaker, you will see that they have a prep routine. They rehearse their tasks in their mind, they anticipate obstacles and how they will overcome them, they focus.  Their goal: to get their heads in the game.

I used to think it was weird that I would run towards the chance to get up in front of people and teach.  But I have seen the benefits of it time and again.  The chance to get up in front of a group of people and show them what you know is is a chance to have people think of you in a different light, to gain their respect, to impress.  If you have the opportunity, you need to seize it.

Ready to carpe diem and lead?

Yours in social change,

On Friday, August 10th, my business celebrated two full years of existence.

Getting up everyday and going to this desk in my home is unlike anything I have ever done.  It is harder than any “job” I have every had. On any given day, it’s like intentionally jumping off a cliff  and making your own parachute as you glide or fall toward the ground. It’s exhilarating and scary and brave and crazy and compelling to be your own boss.

In just the 2 years of doing this work, I have been asked lots of questions about having my own business including:

What made you start a business?

On a personal level, it was a combination of not finding the right next job for me and wanting to expand the work that I really loved doing: teaching leadership styles and skills to emerging leaders. When I was looking for jobs, most of them only had about 40 to 50 percent of what I wanted to do and the idea of only getting to do the work that I liked only half the time annoyed me. I did not want to have a blase’ attitude about my work anymore.

On a societal level, I have spent my entire career working as and with nonprofiteers. I know whats it is like to work at a place where the mission trumps all else and any type of professional development is a bad word.  It’s a rewarding and frustrating place to be.

I knew I wanted to create a business that would provide a sprinkle of inspiration, a sprinkle of wisdom and a whole helping of teaching to create more social change leaders.

Sooooo, you are a consultant?

Consulting is one service that I offer, along with coaching and speaking. I am business owner. I am an entrepreneur.  This is not a gig between 9 – 5 jobs. This is my job every day and for more hours than I will admit.

What has been the hardest part?

For me,getting customers has been the hardest part of having a business. Talking to people about what you do and getting opportunities is time consuming, purpose clarifying and personality defining work.

That being said, I was/have/continue to have clients.  I worked connections and right out of the gate had clients and for the most part, have had some form of client base since then.  But there have been some lean months where I was asking myself, “how will we handle this?” And a solution always presents itself.

Second to clients, marketing has been the hardest. This is the scariest part for most new business owners. So many times I have heard, “I hate selling myself”. In the beginning that is all you have to sell: You.  And you have to sell her/him with all of your might.  I am still learning how to do it. And selling is not just about the tactics.  It is  about what is most natural to you.  To find out what works for you think about this:

• Where do people seem drawn to you? Is it your writing? Is it your speaking? Is it your product? Is it your art?

That is your medium. Sell the hell out of it.

Whats it like to be your own boss?

Pardon my french, but this boss is a hardass.  Almost everything that I produce for myself and my clients has my name on it. And I want my results to be good which means I can tinker, adjust, change to the “nth” degree. Deadlines are my saving grace so that I have to let the product go.

At times my aspect of good enough has been different than my clients. I have sometimes given them much more than they wanted.  That adage ” over produce” has come to bite me in the butt. Now I am learning to be clear about expectations and meet them.  Then try exceeding them.   But I am working on not “overthinking” them.

What do you enjoy most about owning your own business? Least?

The most: The moments when I see an “aha” flash across someones face when I am helping them. I live for that recognition that the work that I do has made sense and more importantly, made a difference.  I enjoy doing the work. The money is the financial payoff. The aha moments are the karmic payoff.

The least: Hands down, tax time.  Money in means money out.

Whats next?

Entering into my third year of business, I am ready to start running. I know more of what my clients need, I know more what my field needs, I know more of what I am capable of doing. I know and trust my own voice more.  I  plan to add/beef up new lines of business. More speaking, more one on one coaching, more teaching.

Any final words?

Find other business owner friends asap, like yesterday.

Everything in the beginning will take longer than you expect. Breathe, exercise, and stay calm.

Think about the future and try to predict it ( just for fun). Some of my predictions:

• The idea that we have jobs with benefits that last even 5 years will become a thing of the past.
• We will stop equating “social change” to one big act and see it as the incremental progress that we make.
• We will accept that the benefits that are alluring with a salaried job come at the cost to the worker.
• I think that we will stop asking  “if” people want to change the world and ask “what are you doing” to change it.

How many times do you say, I hate my (boss,job,organization,life). I have friends who say it regularly.  I haven’t said in 2 years.

This business has/is a journey and I am still not looking back.

Onward!

This summer, I have been teaching and talking a great deal about Diversity (nope, scratch that, Inclusion). Its been a growing area of social change work for me. But, I have hesitated to mention it here because I did not want to be seen as the black woman who talked about diversity. I did not want to be pigeonholed. But that was an objection that I played only in my head.

Leadership lesson: Part of being a leader is saying those words that need to be said.

What needs to be said….

About race is that we don’t live in a post-racial ( or anything else)  society.  We still care about race.  A lot.

• We are still having discussions about whether the current  U.S. President is a U.S. citizen. ( Birth certificate verification gate)
• We still think that people of color doing anything outside of what we think they should be doing is novel ( What, there are 2 people of color swimmers on the U.S. Olympic team?)
• We still think that Asian people are the model minorities even when members of the Asian disagree. ( we even published a report on it)

These are just a few examples that consistently beg the ” Are you frigging kidding me?” question.

Are we still questioning the place, virtues, talents and contributions of people of color?  Do some people still act as though someone who has higher melanin content than them is some how less than they are?  Is it both blatant acts and subtle criticisms that illustrate this?

Yes to all of the above.

Its our thinking, not just our actions

In conversations like this one , I always reference the idea of paradigm shifts. A paradigm shift is defined as:

Think of a Paradigm Shift as a change from one way of thinking to another. It’s a revolution, a transformation, a sort of metamorphosis. It just does not happen, but rather it is driven by agents of change

Source: http://www.taketheleap.com/define.html

I honestly believe that all sorts of social change require us to shift our paradigms. In this case I am referring to race, but this idea of paradigm shifts would apply to income equality, women’s rights, LGBT, etc.

Changing our paradigms is much harder work than changing our actions.  Our actions can change depending on the situation or the social pressure and can be temporary.  But our minds (which includes our intellect and our beliefs), taking longer to change because what we are changing is fundamental to who we have been and are.

On the situation of race,  we need to move beyond the laws and into the intentions. We have done a very good job of creating laws and legislation to combat racial discrimination although we can differ on how those laws are applied.

Its begs the question, “how resistant are we to change?”  Some of us would run towards change with big open arms, while others of us back into our corners, cover our eyes with one hand and punch anything coming at us.

The elephants in the room

As I think about this and help others think about race, diversity and inclusion, I have seen that we can run into roadblocks AND that we can see opportunities.

Roadblocks

• Fear
• Judgement
• Anger
• Blindness

Opportunities

• Trends ( if you are in the U.S.)
•  Decreasing crime
•  Globalism

In an ideal world

I have started saying in my workshops that we should be able to talk about the issue of racism (or other isms) as easily as we talk about our personality tests ( MBTI, Strengthfinders, Introvert/Extrovert scale).

Overly idyllic maybe? But it is in stark contrast to where we are now.

In my big, warm worldview:

• We should be willing to do some of that work on ourselves that beckons us to ask questions
• We should embrace that as human beings we are biased and stereotype things and people.
• We should take responsibility for our beliefs, impulses and actions
• We should talk about it.

Paradigm shifting will not break us. It never has, it never will. Our ability to grow and be resilient is what makes us human and is what social change requires.

Ready to start some shifts?

Yours in social change,

photo credit : Angela Wheeler

My sense of humor has always been important to me. I get giddy when people LOL, LMAO, or ROFL  at something I intentionally did or said to make them laugh.

And I still take myself seriously as a leader.

Our ability to laugh and make others laugh is an essential leadership skill.  It should be regarded as highly as the skills of delegation, managing team members and creating budgets.

You should laugh when that kerfuffle or snafu occurs and its so bad that you have no choice but to laugh. When someone makes a joke that tickles your funny bone, then a snicker or two will do.  When life hands you lemons, well you get the idea.

Bing Bam Boom

Laughter is an amazing change agent because it:

Shifts our perspective
Sometimes, the shizzle hits the fan and  everybody knows it. When the situation is bad enough,  we can quickly descend into grumble sessions or pass the blame game.  Or that one person will start laughing until everybody guffaws.  All of you are accepting that  the project  missed the mark, is over budget, or not reaching its goal.  And at that moment it is the funniest thing on earth to you.  Its a release. It blows off the steam.  And it allows there to be more room for a new perspective to come through. The one that allows you to go back to drawing board and make things right.

Comedy is defiance. It’s a snort of contempt in the face of fear and anxiety. And it’s the laughter that allows hope to creep back on the inhale.- Will Durst

Builds relationships
Your relationship with staff, colleagues and higher ups depends on having a sense of humor.  That could mean acting silly in front of your staff, or laughing with your supervisor or the chair of the board. It makes you likeable and human.  I use laughter to build relationships all the time because I know that if I can make you laugh then you might like me.  And from there, anything is possible.

I learned very early that an audience would relax and look at things differently if they felt they could laugh with you from time to time. There’s an energy that comes through the release of tension that is laughter.- Twyla Tharp

Promotes creativity
Humor promotes play. Play promotes creativity. Creativity promotes innovation. Innovation promotes change.

Easy enough, right?

Have you seen Toy Story, Up or Wall-E?  In each of those stories, the characters all manage to get things done by being innovative. In Toy Story, the characters are always crafting new hybrid toys to figure out how to solve their problems.  In Up, the little boy and the older man work together to figure out how to use the house filled with balloons to escape the villain.  In Wall-E, the robot is constantly whizzing about trying to create a new and improved version of himself to save his true love. Beyond the great storytelling, every Pixar film has a great deal of humor.  I just imagine that Pixar is the place where people are always laughing. I bet its in the job description.

“If you lose the power to laugh, you lose the power to think.” – Clarence Darrow

So go ahead laugh. Chuckle. Make ridiculous connections.  See the absurdity in something.  Make really bad jokes.

Know that you aren’t less of a leader if you do so; you are more of one.

Drumroll

Wanna hear a joke? I made a video that is going to make your sides hurt.

Your turn!

I am a “connect the dots” kind of person, an  “ecosystem” kind of person, a “the whole is a sum of its parts”  kind of person.  I will see different people working on similar things and think “Wendy Water ” needs to talk to “Sally Sanitation”; and then wonder, “does anyone else see it this way?”

This way of viewing the world influences how I think about social change. I think of it as an ecosystem, a living and growing thing that has lots of parts, lots of players and lots of activities.

However, right now the  social change ecosystem is not operating at its most efficient and its strongest. Recently, I wrote that massive change means en masse involvement.  That statement led to other questions such as:

• who is playing on the social change team
• how are they playing
• and for what reasons

Have you been wondering the same thing?  Well, I am going to share what I have learned.

More, more, more

People
It used to be that the main 3 players in social change were government, nonprofits and foundations.  The role of the private sector and individuals were to fund those efforts either through tax dollars or donations.  But they were not expected to  participate directly.

Now the social change field is crowded with:

Social Entrepreneurs

Social entrepreneurs play the role of change agents in the social sector by:
• Adopting a mission to create and sustain social value (not just private value),
• Recognizing and relentlessly pursuing new opportunities to serve that mission.
Ex: Darrell Hammond, Kaboom

Free Agents

Free agents are hyper-connected individuals who are passionate about social change, but don’t work within institutional walls. Free agents use social-media channels like Facebook and Twitter and can create social movements in the palms of their hands.

Ex: Martha Payne, Never Seconds

Corporate social intrapreneurs

Social intrapraneurs are people who work inside major corporations or organizations to develop and promote practical solutions to social or environmental challenges where progress is currently stalled by market failures.

Ex: Susan Mecklenburg, Starbucks

Resources
It used to be that we financially contributed to social change in the form of donations (gifts, endowments, tithes).  But now, there are lots of way to commit dollars to social change.  With these new forms, there is an expected return on the monies invested.

A few ways that people are investing include:

Socially responsible investing
An investment that is considered socially responsible because of the nature of the business the company conducts.

Ex: Calvert Investments

Impact investing

Impact investments are investments made into companies, organizations, and funds with the intention to generate measurable social and environmental impact alongside a financial return.

Ex:Acumen Fund

Crowdfunding
Inspired by crowdsourcing, this term describes the collective cooperation, attention and trust by people who network and pool their money together, usually via the Internet, in order to support efforts initiated by other people or organizations.

Example : Crowdrise

Reasons
What is a social change outcome? This is a $50,000 question. It sometimes get measured in numbers, stories, or legislation.  The outcomes are varied as they are specific to the work that social change agents are doing.

Here are a few outcomes:

Triple bottom lines

Comprehensive investment results—that is, with respect to performance along the interrelated dimensions of profits, people and the planet.

Ex: Patagonia

Social return on investment

A principles-based method for measuring extra-financial value (i.e., environmental and social value not currently reflected in conventional financial accounts) relative to resources invested.

Ex: REDF (also known as The Roberts Enterprise Development Fund)

Social innovation

New strategies, concepts, ideas and organizations that meet social needs of all kinds – from working conditions and education to community development and health – and that extend and strengthen civil society.
Ex: OpenIDEO

Why we need to pay attention

My interest in learning about this isn’t just an intellectual one.

This is about tapping into:

• increased strength
• possible partnerships
• new approaches
• bigger and broader impact

and being aware ( but not scared) of

• new efforts that don’t have all of their building blocks in place (infrastructure, funding and sustainability )
• duplicate work being done
• differing opinions on “how long” social change should take
• a non existent, consistent definition of impact and change
• turf wars

These opportunities are not going to go away.  They may change in name or morph in how they look.  But they are permanent additions to social change.

Right now, it seems like we are all tripping over ourselves to help the world.  We are not our most powerful and strategic. Imagine what we could do when get there.

Watch out world!

Yours in social change,

p.s. Stay tuned because this conversation is going to continue….