The Creative Activist

This post is just an opportunity to propose a new way to create programs, policies, and social marketing campaigns that (we hope) work better and cost less in terms of both time and money. Scientific activism is just a process for formally organizing our thinking about social change efforts. That's about all. It can help to have a system or a framework for organizing the work needed to start a new program, a new nonprofit, or a new advocacy effort. I think this scientific activism framework should be based on specific principles: 1. Data orientation - Use of numbers, rates, proportions, and percentages to inform decisions and guide our evaluations, of what to do and what works once we get things going. 2. Leverage - Related to above, we should look for ways to intervene that will produce the most change for a given level of effort (or spending). 3. Targeted innovation - Related to #2, we should champion social and technological innovations that get at the root of social pro...

The Clinton Global Intiative theme for this year is "Designing for Impact" Designs must take account of needs and contraints (infrastructure, money, human resources, et cetera). Don't forget to consider cultural norms, demographics, technology, education levels, laws, and regulations. Designs need to match the social environment as well as being fit for a given natural environment. Technologies obiously need to be designed. Design thinking should be applied to systems or processes too. Just introducing water purification devices or new software can cause new problems. The rest of the system doesn't really fit what you've done. Do people have the training or experience they need to really use that new software? Feeding hungry people and preserving historic buildings are process that might be designed to work more effectively. Stanford Social Innovation Review describes the principles and give ss few examples of good and bad design thinking. For example, a wat...