The Proven Way to Build a Movement: Using the Change Adoption Curve for Activists
When we take a look back through history at the big change-making activists and movements, we tend to confuse the scope of their work with the size of their impact.
For example, the Birmingham Bus Boycott had a huge impact and continues to serve as a model for economic boycotts – but as it was happening, its scope was hyper-local and had to be sustained by a specific community for over a year before policy change was made.
Similarly, ACT UP’s early organizing during the 1980s AIDS crisis didn’t start with national press or widespread policy changes; it started with small, local chapters of friends, partners, and neighbors showing up in living rooms, church basements, and community centers to care for each other and share resources.
The biggest and most effective shifts don’t start with scale. They start with relationships; with community.
So when I hear folks ask “what can I do?” in the midst of rising fascism, I offer a few tactical suggestions, but I always circle back to: who are the folks in your communities? Start there.
Making Change in our Communities
Last week, I shared a poem from David Whyte and it began:
Start close in,
don’t take the second step
or the third,
start with the first
thing
close in,
the step
you don’t want to take.
Changework is most effective when we start close in, with the people immediately around us, with whom we can set the foundation for the broader society to shift. Omkari Williams writes, “it’s the “micro actions [that] build, one on another, to significant change.”
The following model is a framework for creating change in our communities. It’s pretty big-picture, but I think it’s vital as we seek to make an impact without burning out.
If you’re in a rush and can’t sit with it right now, here’s the gist:
In every community, there will be some folks ready for change and some folks who aren’t. Instead of spending a ton of energy trying to shift the folks who aren’t, start with the folks who are and begin to embody the change.
Richard Rohr says “the best criticism of the bad is the practice of the better.”
Find the folks who are ready and excited for change and begin the work there. As the change begins paying off, others’ willingness to engage with the change will begin to shift.
The Change Adoption Curve for Activists
Within any community or social organism – from a small family to a whole country – there are five ways of responding to any potential change.
(And we fit into these groups in different ways depending on the type and style of change. For example, I tend to be a Pragmatic Builder when it comes to organizing communal protest, but I’m learning to be more of an Initiator when it comes to conversational changework.)
1. Initiators
In response to harm and the injustices of the world, these are who we think of as our activists, visionaries, and organizers.
Initiators are the folks in our communities who see the problems and choose to do something. They’re not waiting for permission—they’re moving into action, even if it leads them into the unknown.
When you hear someone say something racist and choose to call them in, you’re acting as an initiator. When you ask your employer why the company doesn’t have a pay equity policy, you’re acting as an initiator. When you choose to talk about Bruno even though we don’t talk about Bruno, you’re acting as an initiator.
Examples:
Martin Luther King Jr.
2. Catalysts
Catalysts are folks in our communities who often need an invitation before they’re ready to go.
While they might not lead changemaking efforts by themselves, they’ll often join in during the early stages and provide a huge boost. They want to make change aligned with their vision and values – they just need someone to provide an outlet for their curiosity and passion.
And in terms of systemic changemaking, they are vital. No change is made without Catalysts pushing for it and lending their time and skills to the work.
Example:
Artists, poets, musicians who join movements early and use their skills of storytelling to spread the message
The first folks to “champion” the change being worked toward
How do we engage our community’s catalysts?
Conversation, vision-building, and invitation
3. Pragmatic Builders
The heart of any changework, this group waits until they see value or more large-scale support.
They don’t necessarily oppose the change being considered, but they want to hear how the new way will be better than the old. They buy-in when the Initiators and Catalysts have proven it’s worth it (and often when it’s clear the change is gaining momentum.) They want to know the new path isn’t just symbolic – it’s sustainable and might really have an impact.
And when they do join in, they form the critical mass that can serve as the tipping point.
Examples:
Folks who attend a protest after seeing their friends go
People who embrace a change once they see its impact/can see how it will make an impact.
Neighbors who join a community cleanup after a group organizes and shares about it.
How do we engage our community’s Pragmatic Builders?
Stories of success, data, and low-barrier to entry
4. Skeptics
This group within a community is made up of folks who move only when they have to, not because they necessarily want to.
In my experience, this is actually the most difficult group to engage with when it comes to changework. Sure, the Protectors of the Status Quo will overtly challenge the change being sought, but everybody knows where they stand. This group? Skeptics approach a potential change as if they are open to it, but then meet it with negativity, mis- and dis-information, and with comments like “it won’t work for us,” and “not-in-my-backyard.” This has a tendency to “poison the well” of conversation and make the potential change hard to talk about in an objective way.
Whether out of fear, exhaustion, or a deep loyalty to what’s worked before, Skeptics want to know – to feel – the change won’t leave them behind.
Examples:
Someone who embraces the sentiment of “I support the message but not the method.” (Or someone who likes the idea of change, but pulls support when it challenges their comfort.)
A colleague who says, “We’ve always done it this way” in the face of proposed changes.
How do we engage our community’s Skeptics?
Reassurance, empathetic and humanizing listening and sharing of lived experiences, proof the new way is going to work or is already working, constant and patient invitation
5. Protectors of the Status Quo
This one’s pretty simple: these are the folks in a community most likely to be openly antagonistic to a potential change.
They like things the way they are, they don’t see the need for change, and they don’t particularly want to see the need. The system, as is, probably works for them. And the change being proposed challenges that comfort and desire for the status quo. This group prioritizes stability, familiarity, and consistency.
There are two typical approaches to this group:
Engage them in a direct and focused way and try to convince them the change is positive. This rarely works and leads to burnout.
Ignore them and focus only on the other groups. This lead to this group feeling “othered” and not welcome, hardening their approach to the potential change.
It’s important to name that in our changemaking efforts, we can’t afford to see these folks as villains just because their life experiences lead them to disagree with our way of seeing the world.
The only way to move Protectors left on the adoption curve is through patience (sometimes for years) and relationships. And it’s possible they won’t ever accept the change; if this is the case, the work is to build such a strong culture around the change that their harm is contained.
Example:
People who are so bought into MAGA they can’t accept that harm is being done.
Why This Matters
If we want to build durable, people-powered resistance to fascism and injustice, we can’t just demand that everyone change right away. We have to understand where people are, what they need, and how they move.
And most importantly: we need community at every step. Initiators need spaces to dream. Catalysts need invitation and collaboration. The Pragmatic Builders and Skeptics need relationships of trust. Even the Protectors of the Status Quo need to feel they belong. Community and the expansiveness of our relationships are what will serve as an antidote to fascism.
Start close in. Start small. Start with the people right around you.
