Elizabeth Anderson’s Notes from Power Shift New York 2012

4/28/12

• positivity in [environmental] movement, despite negatives
• work towards a goal
• bartering system (like Zero Waste center/Ren-cycle through a FB group)
• when people are negative, bring up something positive
• find a time for club meetings, etc. when people are going to be awake/productive

Leadership

• empowering others to achieve purpose in the face of uncertainty (Marshall Ganz, who helped Cesar Chavez)
• delegate tasks, empower others to be involved
• guide to facilitate
• staying positive even when things are going tough
• difference between giving jobs and telling people
• split up work in a way to make people feel included, not force people to do things
• step up-step back
  • example: talk more/less depending on your norm
• humble, not always first person to step up
• we’re all leaders
• not teaching…teaching more as preaching–telling people what you know/showing them the steps
  • useful to remember for when you teach, how to change this?

Public Narrative

• develop own story of self
  • environment
  • history (such as injustice)
• myself
  • homeschooled
    • was able to take trips around the country and see how other people lived
    • visited lots of natural parks and didn’t understand why people would want to destroy nature
  • 5th grade environmental science class showed me how much humans had messed up
  • read US history books starting at age 10
    • asked myself why was there so much injustice in the past?
    • was appalled when I learned that there was still injustice
  • no one else seemed to care
  • thought I would be an environmental architect but then discovered I loved writing
  • then I got to college and in Vasudha
    • found out I wasn’t alone
    • learned about what I really wanted to do
  • wanted to teach since I loved helping others learn, do research and write papers, and help the environment and poeple
• ideas: vivid pictures; show, don’t tell
  • keep central idea/framework
• self, us, and now
  • trips around the country, awareness of diversity in how people live, national parks and environment
  • history, where we stand, consumerism vs. injustice (inc. environmental injustice), technology, many people need a solution
  • need to do something, frustration no one else was, Vasudha provided opportunities
  • want to be active and change now, also go to grad school

Skit

• Good Teams
  • equality, all leaders
    • double conscious
    • assignment of roles
  • respect
  • know limitations and delegate with these in mind
  • honest
  • members step up
  • common goals
  • being aware of social groups and be inclusive
  • diverse (background, skills, etc.)
  • tone of voice
  • emails (not too much and be timely)
• Bad Teams
  • divided
  • different levels of commitment
  • lack of communication
  • push people too much
  • unclear goals
  • no one listens

Social Media

• online tactics, not strategies
  • connect and take action through social media in ways you otherwise might not be able to
  • views –> your vision: how the world would be perfect
  • goals –> tangible, and can be reviewed and directly measured
  • strategy –> using community and resources to achieve goals
  • tactic –> part of strategy
• combine with offline tactics
  • encourage people to do offline stuff (example: protests), take pictures and post to social networking sites, ask people to share and sign up for email lists, ask for more offline protests
  • examples: Arab Spring, Occupy Wall Street
• lack of coordination between groups can be a problem
  • keep in mind different demographics might use different or even no social media
  • connect the dots, step outside of comfort zone, don’t be narrow minded, collaboration
  • subsets of supporters (example: wine lovers and hydrofracking)
• leader of engagement

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