Becoming a Changemaker in Challenging Times - Part 1

We can all feel the world changing right before our eyes. It’s changing how we think about health, about community, about work, about education -- about everything. It’s showing us that no one and nowhere is immune to change. It also provides us with an opportunity -- or perhaps a necessity -- to rethink our relationship with change.  

Teaching at UC Berkeley’s Haas School of Business is one of the greatest professional honors of my life. I’m certainly not here because I know anything about economics (just ask any of my public policy grad school professors), and certainly not for any accounting prowess (ha!). If there’s one thing I theoretically know, it’s change. How to navigate it, how to harness it, how to shape it, how to lead it, 

In this challenging and changing world, perhaps we can also find an opportunity right now to become changemakers. In that spirit, I’ll share one changemaking idea per day to help you navigate these challenging times until I run out of ideas (less likely) or you get tired of me and these posts (more likely).  

My hope in writing and sharing these is that we can find personal agency to better deal with change so that we all come out of the Corona Virus crisis stronger, more resilient and more compassionate than we came in. Let’s do this!

Part 1: Action

I love the quote from singer Joan Baez: “Action is the antidote to despair.” As we watch the news and refresh our social media feeds it’s easy to become fearful and hopeless at the scale of this challenge before us. Yet I believe nothing spurs a reframing of fear more than taking action; doing something. You need not do much, but my first changemaker challenge to you is to commit to taking some action right now in service of others. It could be donating a small amount of money to the WHO; it could be reaching out to check-in on a loved one or colleague; or it could even be resharing this post to inspire others to take action. It could be offering to do a food or grocery run for someone who can’t leave or it could be sending a note to someone struggling right now reminding them that you are here for them.  

We often get paralyzed with fear as we attempt to go from idea to action. We must not let fear get in the way; it’s not the size of the action that matters here, it’s simply doing something. Do something today, if for no other reason than to give yourself an alternative to despair. And if not for yourself, take action for someone else who might need to see you doing it so that they have reason to be less afraid. Action is the antidote to despair; so let’s decide now to choose action.    

Let me know how it goes today and I’ll look forward to sharing another idea with you tomorrow.

#CoronaChangemaker