I’ve been doing some reading here http://www.innonet.org/ on evaluating advocacy efforts. People around us doubt and devalue work to inform changes in attitude and policy constantly. I think it is only when you can look back over a (long) history of small alterations and shifts, that you see that indeed, your work has produced the path toward a particular social change. It is the easiest thing in the world to give up, to lose faith, to despair.

I believe that the changes I work for, although many people think they are insignificant, will change a lot of attitudes affecting all of us every day, about kindness to one another. I haven’t found a mentor, yet, but I appreciate the reading here and the other comments, very much, as a kind of community of support beyond my local colleagues.

Participating with you in the reverse engineering process with you and Dimitri has been one of the most exciting starts to a new year I can think of!

So grateful for your insight… looking forward to witnessing what the future holds…

In Spirit,
Tracey L. Sisson

For more on how concentrated digital catalysts can accelerate grassroots-up transformation, please check the ideas at Openworld.com and Buildership.org .

Best,

Mark Frazier
@openworld @buildership @peerlearning

I think that all too often, we think that when the social change occurs, we do not remember that is based on what we learned but in addition to our tenacity. Tenacity is one part, but impact takes skills, it takes using your brand and your leadership to shape, persuade and influence. I see too many of my colleagues forgetting that and then fumbling around when they have to recreate the steps to try and strike different change.. I am reflecting on this on in my own life and in the work that I do and i hope that the change i can make is to help other learn and be that change they want to see in the world.

Bonnie: In every single class students raise that clip. They talk about the fact that there was no fear in Indie’s face was he did it – that life of wisdom-building and knowledge-building had prepared him with just what to do. Rather than sensing a leap of faith, his face shows that he is just (albeit perhaps a bit cautiously) doing what needs to be done.

And of course once he takes that first step, the path reveals itself.

If someone were new to everything Indie already knew were doing the exact same “doing” steps as Indie did, they would have shown utter panic – it would have indeed been a leap of faith. For Indie, it was just what his life of experience and learning told him.

He is a GREAT example of “being” that work. Thank you for that!!!
HG