Sunday, October 9, 2011

How to Start Taking Action: People and Politics

There are many ways to start taking action. Here's one example:
I was at a gathering this week and we were put into pods, groups of 10 people who met every day to share their learnings and explore ideas that had been presented each day. At our last meeting we started talking about how to access the political system and build political clout. As we talked people seemed interested in tips and timing. One of our group members, Linda, had a wealth of knowledge and experience on the topic, so we started making a list of what the path might look like. I said I'd pull together the information Linda shared, 'Linda's List,' and send it out for all to add to, share and use. That was all good and we went our own ways for lunch.

The CEO of the Federation of Canadian Municipalities, Brock Carlton, just happened to sit at my table for lunch. What perfect synchronicity. We discussed this notion of accessing the system and creating a stronger voice. At the most opportune time (his mouth full of salad) I told him about our 'Linda's List' and adamantly invited him to share his knowledge and add to it. After he agreed I looked him in the eye, gave him my business building block and said (while using my peace fingers pointing back and forth between our eyes) that I would look forward to his response, we had witnesses and would expect his reply. All in good fun of course.

Later I heard that in his afternoon session Brock mentioned our discussion and was surprized that people on the ground may not know 'how to' access the system. He made note of our message and it was on his radar.
From a small group of people to a 10 minute conversation, a spark ignited.

There is possibility in each one of us to start taking action. How will you?