Instigating change

The main drawback with introducing changes to aspects of traditional lifestyles is that those people often don't accept new ideas very easily. It's essential that you can get people to accept the project idea, so a change management strategy is close to the core of what you want to do.

You already started to introduce change when you consulted people about their needs and their aspirations for change. People had time to digest new ideas, ask questions, consider implications, and make the ideas their own. By the time the consultation is finished, the final idea might already sound more like theirs than yours. If you have done it right, some of your thinking has also changed.

Use a realistic system of increments. You don't have to change the world overnight. If you implement a program in stages, each stage should be a simple, natural progression from the last. They should make implementation easier for everybody. In fact, they might even be almost invisible to local people. If your supervisors or colleagues become impatient for change, (the "change the world overnight" kind of people) you can simply explain that you are on track, and show them your progress according to plan.

Give people time to change their thinking. Your community education period might be longer than you expect, especially if people must re-consider worldview issues and process communication static. Some kinds of change take generations rather than months or years.

Identify your entry points for change. The best advice is to help the helpable and win the winnable. Work with people who are most receptive to change and can benefit from it. You will often need to work with the group of community leaders, but not always. Microcredit usually starts with networks of women, and some programs start with neighborhood networks, especially in education and health. Some start with affinity groups, e.g. sports clubs. Some kinds of public education programs are most effective when they start with school children.

Give people a working example. People can be very pragmatic. They want to see it working and see demonstrable benefits. We once put a worker in a rural area to use organic fertilizer. The fertilizer was cheap and effective, but he had no samples or demonstration plots, only photographs. People just didn't believe him and wanted to continue using harmful, expensive chemicals.

See also: Change: How to create it