Designing Effective Change Tactics Starts With Viable Targets
When we’re passionate about something, we want to take action. We want to launch an initiative, start a business, hit the streets, get stuff done. Yet our bias for action can be a trap that undermines — or even completely derail — our efforts. No matter what our intentions, actions without a sound strategy are doomed to fail.
Corporate change initiatives often start with a big kick-off campaign. These rarely convince anybody of anything, but can trigger opposition and kill the effort before it ever really gets started. People who feel strongly about social change often start by organizing a march. Yet marches are a very flawed tactic, vulnerable to sabotage and rarely achieve anything substantial.
Effective transformation strategy always involves mobilizing people to influence institutions. That’s where you start. Once you’ve determined what your strategy needs to be targeted at, you can begin to design potent tactics. There are time-tested tools that have proven out over decades that can help you do this. If you’re serious about change, you should learn them.
Mobilizing Constituencies
Much like a General maps the terrain upon which a military battle will be fought, the first step in designing effective tactics for a transformation initiative is…
