 |
 |
 |
About the Book“This book is a practical and inspiring roadmap to the future we all know is possible. I know of no one more experienced to create such a roadmap than David Gershon, who has spent the past three decades empowering individuals and communities, as well as business and government leaders. I have looked forward to this book for some time to gain a deeper understanding of how David has initiated so much positive change and created so many innovative strategies to help people achieve their visions for a better world.” So many of the assumptions we have been operating with as a human community have proven faulty that we must now literally re-envision them. And with the accelerating unraveling of our planet’s life support system and the deterioration of so many of our social systems, we are being called upon to create rapid transformative change. But the current social change tools at our disposal of governmental command and control, financial incentives, and citizen protest – Social Change 1.0 – were designed for slow-moving, incremental change. Not only must we reinvent our world, but also the process by which we achieve this reinvention. If the current social change tools are not sufficient, what else do we have? Taking a page from Thomas Jefferson’s playbook, might we be able to motivate people to change because of a dream that inspires their imagination, enlivens their sense of possibility, and lifts their spirit as a human being? Or to ask this question in a more tangible way, how might we empower people to voluntarily adopt new behaviors that help them, their communities, and their organizations operate at higher levels of social value so we can realize more of our potential as a human species? According to systems theory, when the current solutions prove inadequate for the magnitude of change required, a system goes into stress and begins to break down. What is required to help the system evolve is a second order change solution – or solution capable of transforming and reorganizing it to a higher level of performance. Social Change 2.0 represents such a solution for our social systems. It stands on the shoulders of Social Change 1.0 because it could not function optimally without the rule of law and a democratic form of government that allows for free expression. But it is designed to go beyond the constraints purposefully built into this more incremental approach to social change. Social Change 2.0 has a simple and some might say radical premise: That the natural starting point for changing our world for the better is us. That taking personal responsibility to make the needed changes within ourselves and our communities is the foundation for changing our institutions, not the other way around. That people are willing to make these changes if empowered by a personal vision and the means to bring it to fruition. That these changes can be accelerated and reinforced with the right laws and financial incentives, but the process begins with us. To bring about this type of change we need leadership schooled in the competencies of transformative social change. With our planet on the line and with such a propitious opening for transformation as the world strives to reinvent itself, change leaders need to be playing at their best. Social Change 2.0 provides a blueprint to help them do just that. |
