The Quest to Inspire Action

Chris:

This is at the heart of what I believe to be a purposeful existence in
life, not just marketing. A number of years ago, I developed a
personal mission statement, “to educate, engage, and empower those he
encounters to maximize their personal potential through their church,
community, charity and/or career, in turn maximizing each of these
institutions.”

As a company, before engaging on a project, we evaluate potential
clients against a matrix of educating, engaging, empowering and
experiencing. Treating the matrix like a hierarchy of needs,
education is simply a starting point and the least acceptable level of
existence. From there an organization or community of any sort needs
to commit to the engagement (plugging people in) and empowerment
(making people leaders) of individuals in participating in the
improvement and evolution of who and what that organization would like
to be.

The power of social media is that these communities can now progress
without barriers of geography, capital and often even language.
Inspiring indeed.

This is exactly what social media consultants need to hear…that what they are teaching their clients will result in Action…or more specifically, participation in communities. We are educators of social media and therefore our goal is to inspire action in social networks.
The action you speak of, in my interpretation, is Positive and Honest action. I hope that people who become active in social media do so not with the intention to sellsellsell but to helphelphelp! That is why being both a contributing and receiving member of social networks is so important. Participation should be reciprocal. You can’t just hop on board Twitter or Facebook and expect flocks of people to follow you without being a follower yourself first. Unless you are Barack Obama :)

Thanks Chris, another insightful and inspiring contribution.

Knowledge is nothing without action… and massive action at that.

I make a ton of mistakes, and a lot of the time I make those mistakes is because I am ignorant as to how to make the right choices… this happens because I like to take action, be in the game, and stay involved with what is going on.

If I didn’t take action I wouldn’t learn as quickly though, and I would rather take action and make some minor mistakes along the way to learn how to perfect something…than to wait forever to take action just because I want to have the knowledge to do so.

I think we/companies need to start taking more action like you suggested Chris, and stop worrying about having all of the knowledge. Will we make mistakes? Probably so, but like I said, its better to be in the game and make a foul, then to sit on the bench. Just learn not to foul the next time so you keep your butt on the court… you dig?

@lewishowes

I think inspiring others to take action is all about being out front and leading by doing. Others will take action if you are out there doing, inspiring, leading, acting your self.

Now, that’s not always as simple as it sounds, but we all know that :)

http://twitter.com/franswaa

Inspiring action in others comes down to you (me) being out front leading. If your out front inspiring, leading, doing, acting others will see it, learn and be motivated to take action them selves. Simple :)

Education is action, meaning someone who is knowledgable is not educating unless they make good use of their knowledge. Inspire by putting your thoughts out there and show that you are taking action. Spread your thoughts and engage other. Keep up the tremendous work Chris.

I’m late to this party, but I appreciate the quote and want to extend it. The relationship between education and action is far more dynamic and interactive than the linear phasing of the quote might suggest. Consider it in the context of this quote (which I first heard from John Westerhoff but may have originated elsewhere): “I’m far more likely to act myself into a new way of thinking than I am to think myself into a new way of acting.”

How I would inspire action? Simply put, I think people need to be taught to look to the interests of others and not just think of themselves. Seeking education for knowledge alone is pretty one-sided and selfish unless that knowledge is shared with another person, mobilized for a purpose or a catalyst for something of use to someone else. How can I act on this? I can ask myself each day, “Based on what I already know, what action will I take today benefit someone else?” How can your organization act on this? Ask, “Out of our collective wisdom, what’s the one thing our organization can do this week, this quarter or this year, to benefit our customers and our community?”

i would love help in promoting that action with my high school math students. i’m starting up a student group with the goal of creating the school of their dreams, completely bucking the status quo. and then sharing it with the rest of the world.
i don’t doubt their abilities to utilize the latest in blogging, podcasting, etc, however – i’m anticipating the need for a jumpstart in the beginning. i think teens are tech savvy – but not always for educational purposes. in any event – they are certainly ahead of me.
gosh – i crave any direction you could give me.

In fact the more I think about this, I’ve been toying with the following idea:

Knowledge isn’t power… action is power

Sure, those who have knowledge contain incredible power, but in the regular running of life with knowledge being so freely available, it is those who can act upon what they know that posses the power of creating change.

As the recent election teaches us, it is change that people believe in.

So simple and so true, Chris! I chose “Community Organizer 2.0″ as the name of my social media marketing firm because I felt it conveyed that philosophy: community organizers educate to lead, and bring people together to act. Social media is just organizing any community, but on the interconnected web.

This post ties in nicely with an older post of yours urging people to ask questions on blog posts, incite discussion, and not be the “expert” when we write. Education is not passing on knowledge, it is a conversation that moves people to act. Thanks.

Knowledge isn’t power anymore.
The real power is ACTION!
Keep ACTION to be better.

Build your power by Action…don't too long in dreaming
keep action

yes!
stop dreaming start action

i love that slogan :D