If you do a Google search for the word “changemaker”, you will inevitably run across Ashoka.org, the worldwide organization leading the way, celebrating and encouraging institutions to develop changemakers capable of doing the work that our world needs to make it a healthier more functional planet for the good of all. You’ll find lists of characteristics published by various changemaker advocacy groups. Words like “doers”, “reciprocal”, “curious”, “problem solver”, “courageous”, “perspective-taking” and “passion”. You’ll also find the very c-skills (cultural competence, collaborative, critical thinking, character, communication, creativity, citizenship) mentioned in my last post.
One model out of Northampton University in the UK focuses on how changemaking can and should happen at all levels of society from individual transformation to institutional systems change, from social change within a community to innovation with broad worldwide benefits. Thinking this way reminds us that changemaking is everyone’s responsibility whether you work in business, healthcare, community, faith-based organizations or schools. Changemaking responsibility remains even when our primary circles of influence remains mostly within our own family contexts. Change making is a way of approaching the very important work that we're doing at every level within our own lives while also considering the lives of those around us.
I’ve been told the Gandhi quote I’ve often referenced, “Be the Change you want to see in the world” was actually a paraphrase of a much broader message. Still, it speaks volumes to those of us who wish others would “go first” in making change happen. There is no one but you and me. We must be the change.
For this reason, Blue Roads Education has developed the Changemaker Journey, a path for helping each of us to be that change. The Changemaker Journey is a theoretical framework developed to help us (first myself and, hopefully, others) understand what it takes to be a changemaker. I’ll introduce the Changemaker Journey more fully in the next blog post. In the meantime, I hope you’ll be pondering the changes you hope to make and your own path as a changemaker to date.
Be the Change.
Always learning, always changing,
Patti Talbot
