Throughout history, social movements — small groups, loosely connected, but united by a shared purpose — have created transformational change. Women’s suffrage, Indian independence and civil rights, just to name a few, were all achieved by the powerless banding together against the powerful.
Today, digital technology has intensified these forces, making it far easier for groups of likeminded people to connect and coordinate action. In recent years, the Color Revolutions in Eastern Europe, the Arab Spring, the LGBT movement and others have driven world events. There is greater opportunity to create change now than ever before.
Yet the lessons of these movements transcend the political arena. As Moisés Naím pointed out in The End of Power, similar forces are transforming business, military affairs and even religion. So for managers who seek to create change, both within their organizations and in the marketplace, it is essential to learn the lessons of successful social movements.
Most movements begin as a protest. People become unhappy with the present state of affairs and want something different. However, merely pointing out what you don’t like won’t get you very far. To actually create the change you want to see, you have to make an affirmative case and define exactly what you want to happen.
Clearly defining change is a consistent theme running through successful movements. Gandhi wanted independence from the British. The civil rights movement wanted specific legislation passed. The color revolutions wanted a change in leadership. These were all tangible goals that they could build a strategy around.
In a similar vein, when General Stanley McChrystal sought to transform military operations in Iraq, his mantra was “it takes a network to defeat a network” and he built his strategy for organizational change around that one simple principle. Lou Gerstner pulled off one of the most extraordinary turnarounds in history by refocusing his organization from its proprietary “stack” of products to its customers’ “stack” of business processes.
The need for a clearly stated purpose becomes glaringly obvious when you look at unsuccessful movements. For example, as Joe Nocera noted, the Occupy movement “had plenty of grievances, aimed mainly at the ‘oppressive” power of corporations,’ but “never got beyond their own slogans.”
So a good first step is to ask yourself, “If I were king or queen for a day, what would be different?” A revolution doesn’t begin with a slogan, but with a vision.
Once you have clearly defined the change you want to happen, you need to start building along the spectrum of allies, by outlining those that you can expect active or passive support, neutrality and active or passive opposition. As Sun Tzu wrote “know yourself, know your enemy and know the terrain.” The spectrum of allies is the terrain.
What makes movements successful is not overpowering opposition, but undermining their support. So you want to work your way through higher and higher thresholds, starting first with active allies to activate passive ones, then bringing neutral groups over to your side. Once you start winning over the passive opposition, you’re on the brink of victory.
For example, in the civil rights movement, Martin Luther King first helped to mobilize southern blacks, but then shifted to bringing northern whites over to his cause. And when Harvey Milk began the LGBT movement, he started with gay people on Castro St, but then moved on the straight liberals in the Bay area. Colonel John Boyd, the military reformer, pursued a similar path, first preparing briefings for junior officers, then congressional staffers, then elected officials. He moved on to the top generals last.
All too often, movements seek merely to inspire, without asking questions like, Inspire who? How? And “for what? Make no mistake, if you don’t develop with a plan to persuade, your movement is unlikely to get very far.
