Creating Change

"Be the change you want to see in the world" - Mahatma Gandhi

11%. Roughly 1 out of 10. That is the number that speaker Marianne Williamson says is needed to create change. In the short video snippet I saw, she did say that social scientists have come up with that number and the Women's suffrage and Civil Rights movements were used as examples and it makes sense. Not everyone is going to be thrilled about change, not everyone is going to commit to making change happen, but if a relatively small number of committed individuals driving change can force an entire nation to change, then I would think the same thing can happen at any level, state, district, or school.

As I thought about that number, I began to think about what that would mean for different districts. Getting four persons to drive a change could get an organization of 36 moving. Eight persons could move an organization of 72 and so on. Four or eight is not a huge number.
All it takes is one person to convince two others and those two to convince two each and the number is now five, including the original change agent. The key to that, is the first person.

The concept is interesting and I will continue to try to find the research that goes into that number.