In the last 25 years Ric Young has been the architect of numerous campaigns for social change, in a great variety of venues, from government, to health, to environmental sustainability and ethics in sport. His struggle to understand how change happens in complex systems was critical to the birth and growth of social innovation, a field he devotes himself to today.
Ric believes that the social movement in Canada is at a powerful “inflection point,” akin to what happened in the women’s movement or the environmental movement. In this interview he challenges and inspires with a vision of community for the 21st century.
Learning Objectives:
To deepen understanding of the power of story in community
To explore the true meaning of community
To think about the role of belonging and place
To consider the creativity possible in today’s world
To grapple with the notion of working with those whose values and beliefs are very different from our own
Eric Young has been at the vanguard of social marketing, a discipline focused on the development of strategies and campaigns to promote social change, for over twenty-five years. He is the founder and president of E.Y.E., an agency that works with leading government, corporate and voluntary organizations to address some of the most pressing issues facing contemporary society.
Listen to Paul Born introduce Eric here:
Paul Born is the President and Co-founder of Tamarack and has worked with many organizations and communities to develop innovative and sustainable ideas that motivate people to collaborative action and change. Read more here.
Story making is a hugely important part of change making.
We don’t need to believe that only those who have their hands on power have the capacity to affect change. Great stories reach a part of us that others can’t and they can mobilize huge numbers of people, igniting “those places where we have the courage to stand up and say let’s go on this journey.”
Barack Obama has done this in the U.S. He has told a different story – of possibility and hope. And people have believed it because of his authenticity and the resonance they feel.
Cecil Paul, a Haisla elder, was able to galvanize a First Nations community in the Kitlope on the northern B.C. coast, by telling the deeper narrative of the spiritual need that his people had for their heritage, which held their stories and all their wisdom for living.
When we lose our sense of place, we lose ourselves.
There is a longing for community now – and it’s important that we understand this longing in ourselves rather than just supporting communities by working for organizations.
Community is the place we live. There is as much done through a polite encounter with the dry cleaner as there is by a social service organization.
What is it that we actually want? Quality of life is determined by the quality of places and spaces we inhabit. Our sense of space is being vaporized by the global economy and the virtual world.
Place is going to emerge more and more as the idea of the 21st century. Cities and places are going to have to become innovative in shaping our destinies in the future.
Community is not incidental, but essential to our nature. There was some fascinating research that came out of Roseto, Pennsylvania back in the ‘50’s, which showed that social cohesiveness and an ethos of egalitarianism resulted in a rate of heart attacks that was a dramatic 40% below what science would have predicted.
We are at an inflection point – a potent time for a powerful social movement in Canada. Something is in collapse – 9/11, climate change, the recent economic meltdown, etc. We not only have a moral imperative but a pragmatic imperative to reorder the way society works.
We all want to have our talents engaged, to have rich connective tissue with others, and meaning in our lives. But a very important piece of this is that, as John McKnight says, communities are made up of citizens, not of saints. We must build out of what we are – not some imagined ideal.
We all seek our own personal well-being. We are also hard-wired for cooperation. We need to develop a greater belief that there are collective action problems, but also goals we can share.
Hear Ric talk about rising to the challenge of today’s world here:
The messy truth about human coexistence is that collective action requires a collective conversation.
When we enter into what Bill Isaacs calls a genuine dialog space, we are not just trying to get our story into the heads of those who see things differently. We want to create a situation where people speak from their hearts. You get a different kind of conversation.
Listen to Ric talk further about finding “a profound respect” for all humans and creating the conditions for the right kind of conversation here:
Is there a deeper story to some seemingly intractable situation I am working with?
What is it about my work that speaks to the essential quality of community? Can I find a way to articulate that in a way that makes it accessible to all?
What would it take for me to engage with others whose beliefs are very different from mine, in a way that will let us all move forward?
Who are the people who are part of my own community (as distinct from the ones with whom I am engaged in “community work?”)
To reflect on these and other important questions, refer to the Resources and Links below.
The Story of Somewhere - Ric’s speech to the National Conference of Community Leadership Organizations was given in 2003, but it resonates every bit as powerfully today. Read his insights and his challenge to us all: that we create the new narrative for community here.
Cities as Innovative Engines - Ric’s story about his Haisla friend, Cecil Paul, is recounted in his opening remarks to the Toronto City Summit Alliance in February, 2007. Read his full speech for more stories of cities and communities that have grappled successfully with huge challenges here.
John McKnight and Caring Citizenship - Ric talks about the work of John McKnight as a useful model for creating an environment in which to embrace differences. Read more about McKnight and his ideas on caring citizenship here.
Robert Putnam on the Decline of Civil Engagement - Robert Putnam has been described as one of the most influential academics in the world today. Read about his contribution and its significance for informal educators and animateurs here.
Sustaining Social Innovation – Learn about the new narrative, living the changes you desire to see and the difference between conversion and conversation in this great Tamarack tele-seminar with Ric on the subject Sustaining Social Innovation. Access the seminar here.
True Sport Report - What is the future of community sport in Canada? How is it currently falling short of the expectations and aspirations of Canadians? And what values do we want to see undergirding our sport in the future? Read the full True Sport report here.
In the last 25 years Ric Young has been the architect of numerous campaigns for social change, in a great variety of venues, from government, to health, to environmental sustainability and ethics in sport. His struggle to understand how change happens in complex systems was critical to the birth and growth of social innovation, a field he devotes himself to today.
Eric Young has been at the vanguard of social marketing, a discipline focused on the development of strategies and campaigns to promote social change, for over twenty-five years. He is the founder and president of E.Y.E., an agency that works with leading government, corporate and voluntary organizations to address some of the most pressing issues facing contemporary society. 
