To those who are surfing the net off hours, or starting a new day… to all of us.

A few days ago, “The Story of Change” has been released, a short documentary from Annie Leonard’s excellent team, who I often quote in several newsletters, regarding The Story of Stuff, her previous work, on the linear production system.

I liked it very intensively because she basically emphasizes the need of taking action in the wake of our beliefs. She says that CHANGE is achieved by adding 3 factors:

1) a big idea, centered in the problem, produced by our intellect, our creative potential, a proactive idea;

2) it has to be applied collectively; which is nowadays widely favored by our means of communications (formerly, to manifest an idea was very difficult, you could be murder if you were considered a heretic – in Eduardo Galeano’s “Los Hijos de los Días” [The Sons of the Days] you can find several examples)

3) and it has to gain massive action (this would be our missing link today)

In order to achieve this, Leonard suggests a sort of personality classification to take part in CHANGING our system. It is brilliant… Lots of times I wrote to you that each one of us, from where he or she is standing, can do something to change the world’s situation. But Leonard expresses this idea in a very simple manner. She says that each one of us, from where he or she is standing, can act for change, by being an investigator, a communicator, a builder, a resister, a nurturer, or a networker.

It does not mind from which plane or social label you are: by being a student, laborer, professor, businessman, housewife, doctor, coach, sportsman, driver, street sweeper, president, chef, errand boy, whoever…

The investigator is the one who seeks for practical solutions; he attacks the core of the problem. Investigators analyze it scientifically; they read about it and expose problems and possible solutions. They end a lot of their phrases with a question mark.

A communicator tells stories and shares powerful communication in a profound but accessible manner, the bind us together as a species towards a better future, through artistic expressions such as music, oratory, films, and several other ways. They remind us that we are all connected.

The builder is he who has a creative mind and puts hands into action and invents from community gardens, to solar panels and safe chemicals. Builders do not study the solution, they invent it.

The resisters are those who speak up, those who protest actively against environmental aberrations; they are the ones who stand between the tree and the excavator while we carry on with our lives.

The nurturers, in Leonard’s words, pitch in, often behind the scenes, keeping us healthy, providing child care, contributing financial help and other kinds of support to keep the movement for sustainability sustainable and healthy itself.

Networkes are those who spend lots of time using internet, mainly with social networks. They are very important to spread the word, to maintain the cohesion of the movement, maintain humanity connected and informed (2 weeks ago, I wrote about the possibility of staying informed by connecting ourselves to social networks, and using them proactively)

I loved this classification, which is why I share it… In the website where the video is exposed, you can do a survey to see towards which personality you are headed, and by knowing this, you can rethink your daily actions and see the ways you can act towards change.

The survey said I am a communicator, and I laughed, happily, the rest of the day…

Cheers,

Brian Longstaff.-

Comments