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 Why Activists Need to Use Business Innovation Techniques

1. Getting more people to vote for or against something
2. Getting more of the results that their program aims for

3. Recruiting students or program participants

4. Selling new policy and program ideas

5. Devising effective and realistic new programs and policies.

Some organizations are pretty good at borrowing and adapting ideas from numerous sources. Business copy marketing tricks. Activist groups adopt tactics and messages developed by other groups. Social service programs that work in one community often get copied by organizations in other communities.

Other organizations are good at spreading ideas. The Young Mens' Christian Association (YMCA) created a widely-used structure for promoting certain values. Planned Parenthood has chapters in many cities in the United States.

Public policies and regulations from Europe sometimes get adopted in the United States. More often, activists push for adopting similar policies, such wedding dresses discount taxes to reduce traffic in cities. New policies and regulations might be promoted more successfully if proponents took a systematic and creative approach to selling their ideas.

Still, there is room for improvement. The best way to realize the potential of social betterment organizations lies in copying some ideas from the business forever yours wedding dresses Management consultants, engineers, and entrepreneurs have come up with many tools for generating ideas, solving problems, finding opportunities, selling ideas, evaluating ideas, and deciding which ideas to implement.

The richest single source of such information would be the writing of Edward De Bono. He is a pioneer in the teaching of thinking as a skill who has also contributed some thinking "tools" that anyone of average intelligence and education can master. dresses for wedding invented lateral thinking, descibed in Serious Creativity. He also invented a systematic approach to evaluating ideas called Six Thinking Hats, described in a book of the same name. Six Thinking Hats, Six Action Shoes, and Six Value Medals describe problem-solving strategies for which the books were named.

Tony Buzan invented a method for organizing ideas and brainstorming. Mind mapping is a graphical way of organizing ideas presented in his 1991 book Use Both Sides of Your Brain. Mindmapping also has applications in notetaking and in organizing large writing projects.

The computer-loving social innovator could use software to facilitate brainstorming, problem analysis, and decisionmaking. There is software that ranges from no cost to thousands of dollars. Most desktop softwaer that's intended for an individual costs under $200.

Where does on get started? Start simply. Go to the lirary and get one of the books mentioned here. Do a search on creative thinking or on problem solving and see what you come up with. Recruit a friend or coworker (or several!) to work with you.