Thought and Action

Step 1: Catch the spark:  when someone is inspired to tackle a problem, to right a wrong and make a difference in their community, they often don’t know where to start, stumble at the first hurdle or beat their head against bureaucratic brick walls and give up. They may spot a need or opportunity but become discouraged or get sucked into a labyrinth of meetings and agencies that don’t give them what they need. Often all they need is a good listening to, a conversation that helps them clarify their ideas, encouragement and a connection with a person or agency that helps them. The moment of inspiration, the spark, can start a ripple of change and build into a movement, but it is easily lost under everyday pressures. Some people carry unfulfilled sparks for decades, while a few make things happen, often after a chance encounter and encouraging conversation. The Scarman Trust, for which I worked from 2004, was brilliant at supporting ‘Can Doers’ make a difference and start life-changing journeys from bottom-up. ‘Can Doers’ are people who have a spark to do something positive, who some would call “social entrepreneurs”. (Participate + convene)

To bring about social change at scale we need more ‘Can Doers’, people with energy and ideas to make a difference. They are everywhere but people in marginalised communities often don’t get the support needed to get ideas off the ground.

Anyone can ‘catch a spark’ so a simple first step for the RSA’s new Mission is to encourage Fellows is to be spark spotters, among Fellows and more widely. To support people furthest from opportunities, it needs to be proactive. Four ways to find ‘Can Doers’ and ignite sparks more widely are:  

1)      Invite people to an event about an issue, with small groups and follow up (see the Network Accelerator).

2)     Offer small grants to individuals with a simple, fast application process

3)     Go headhunting – through community associations, schools, and networks

4)     Knock on doors

Some change agencies do this in different ways. The Scarman Trust was particularly good at reaching out, finding and supporting ‘Can Doers’ through local community networks to create ‘ladders of hope’ – see Learning Communities for Change.

The essence of this step is: listen, hear and encourage, then help people connect with others who can give them just the right kind of support they need. 

Step 2: Connect: when people are motivated to take action they need different things  – to find others working on their issue, time to reflect and develop their ideas, or opportunities to develop confidence and sort out personal issues before they can move on. Good connectors are key –  talent spotters and animators to connect people with others on a similar pathway and opportunities to take their next step. The RSA’s Mission needs connectors to co-ordinate & lead each pathway (Participate + convene).

In The Tipping Point: How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference, Malcolm Gladwell (2000) adapts Everitt Rogers’ diffusion of innovation theory to show how to create a critical mass for change to happen. This graph is my version, identifying key roles and moments in social change:  

1.  Innovators come up with ideas, most of which bump along with little support, until 
2. The context is ripe and a few key people enable their ideas/initiative to take off, particularly 
3. Connectors, people with a vast social network, often in several different social spheres, and people Gladwell calls Mavens, trusted insiders who amass information and pass it on to their tribe), who create 
4. A sticky story: something catchy that stands out (e.g. see Chip & Dan Heath (2007) Made to Stick: Why Some Ideas Survive and Others Die, and Donald Miller (2017) Building a StoryBrand: Clarify Your Message, . The Springboard: How Storytelling Ignites Action in Knowledge-Era Organizations
5. Champions who are good at persuasion (called salesmen by Gladwell), to build 
6. A movement and 7) help get the initiatives widely adopted (see Step 5 below).

The tipping point is a key moment when many things contribute to an initiative taking off. This can involve long lead times, during which skilful change agencies cultivate the context and build capacity to bring about their vision, hence –

Step 3:  Build capacity – this includes both cultivating the context and supporting individuals and groups to progress along their chosen pathway (Participate + convene, research + evaluate). Activities to build capacity include:  

1. Recruit, coach and support a network of champions – modern missionaries – people who actively develop the pathway, supporting people creating demonstration models that show what success looks like, and inspire others to take action.
2. If possible, offer small grants with support to make it more inclusive and accessible as well as give recognition and validation (for lessons from The Scarman Trust see Investing in People Power: Community Champions Briefing).
3. Create places to meet, share, learn, reflect & plan for champions and people actively involved in the pathway – 
4. Coach: offer ‘Can Doers’, champions and change agents a one-off or short series of solution-focused coaching sessions, aimed at helping people find solutions to problems, make connections, build confidence and develop projects on the pathway from inspiration to implementation. 
5. Develop peer learning opportunities, through facilitated forums, action learning circles, peer coaching, campaign training and networking events to accelerate progress. 
6. Research issues and share findings through talks, workshops, drawings and social media. 
7. Measure what matters: collect quantitative data and qualitative case studies to support reflection, review and evaluation, to provide real-time feedback on progress and results, i.e. impact and outcomes, adapting Kirkpatrick’s Four Levels Evaluation Model. 

This could become an RSA Academy, a school for social change, working in partnership with training providers, colleges and universities, drawing on funding through the Apprenticeship Levy (as I do for my Level 5 course in Campaigning, Leadership and Management) and other sources.  

Step 4: Create communities of expertise – the next level up is to identify and support pilots and demonstration projects, bring together innovators and leading practitioners, and draw lessons from experience (Design + innovate). 

Step 5: Scale out – work with the grain of existing institutions and wisdom of the world to amplify lessons and implement innovations across civil society, public services and private sector at an appropriate scale. I’ve worked on implementing several very different initiatives – the National Curriculum, Local Management of Schools, family learning, citizenship education, Agenda 21 and accountability in global governance – I suggest that scaling is not about rolling out a model, but an iterative process that involves local, bottom-up participation as well as a wider framework (national, regional or global) skill, appropriate resources and governance structure.

Step 6: Celebrate! – fill people with pride about their achievements and share the stories to inspire others at each stage along the journey. RSA Awards do this. 

These steps overlap and are not linear, since initiatives can suddenly be accelerated by government policy or private sponsorship. Most of steps will be taken with myriad partner organisations, which may have a single-minded focus on one or other of the RSA’s seven pathways. Where the RSA can add value and a distinctive contribution is by enabling people to make connections, think things through and incubate initiatives through support from Fellows and staff.  These steps turn the RSA’s Design for Life principles – (Participate + convene) (Design + innovate) (Research + evaluate) – into a rough pathway from inspiration to implementation at scale.