Ashoka Changemaker Schools
Changemaking Defined
Changemaking is a dynamic, creative process that involves:
A changemaker is someone who is taking creative action to solve a social problem. The changemaker’s key skills include empathy, new leadership, teamwork, and creative problem solving. Often known as “social entrepreneurs”, these innovative people notice when things are “stuck” and find ways to get them “unstuck”. They share their solutions with others to take giant leaps to effect change.
Safe Space
Co-creating a space where people feel that they can speak out in spite of their fears is a vital step in the process of learning how to become a changemaker. Empathy researcher Brene Brown explains that being empathetic requires that we be present and wholly engaged without our ‘protective armour’. People wear armour to try to become invisible or fit in with others to hide what they consider to be defects or embarrassing qualities for fear of being judged, labeled, or bullied. It is difficult to feel empathy for others when you are cut off from yourself.
For this reason, we’re starting the change closest to home. Everyone in the changemaking process needs to feel valued, seen, and heard. Because of the culture we inherited and the way our brains work, all of us carry biases. This isn’t wrong or bad, it’s what we do with them that matters. Being humbled can lead to personal transformation.
The exercises below will help you to:
Once the principles of the safe space have been defined and agreed upon by all, they can be used, reinforced, and referred back to as needed throughout the time you share together.
Design Thinking & the Deskless Classroom(Exercise, Time will vary)
Create a Classroom Contract(30-45 minutes)
Learn how to listen: Are you a good listener? (video 5 min + opportunities for deeper thinking)
Empathy & Equity: From the Stanford D.school, this exercise gives designers to an opportunity to pause and notice their biases(15 min daily over the course of week).
Cross the Line: (30-60 min.) We live in a diverse world. In this exercise we will explore the diversity among us by thinking about our values, our backgrounds, our teachers, and our experiences.
CCDI: Explore Power and Privilege (Toolkit with various exercises)
“Changemakers are people who can see the patterns around them, identify the problems in any situation, figure out ways to solve the problem, organize fluid teams, lead collective action and then continually adapt as situations change.”
David Brooks, “Everyone A Changemaker”,NYT Feb 8th, 2018
You’re never too young
The Rate of Change is Accelerating
The pace of change in every sector and in every individual’s life is accelerating. In order to navigate and command this new landscape, everyone must be a skilled and practiced changemaker.
See the differences between the old and new paradigms below and why new skills are so urgently needed:
Old Paradigm | New Paradigm |
Defined by efficiency in repetition | Defined by change and innovation |
One leader at a time | Everyone recognized as a leader and powerful contributor |
Team based on repetitive skills executed harmoniously in a vertical system |
Team of teams fluidly evolving across old boundaries to address complex challenges in a hybrid landscape |
Defined by efficiency in repetition | Defined by change and innovation |
Be practiced at a skill | Be practiced at the core skills of empathy, teamwork, new leadership, and changemaking |
Transaction | Interaction |
Premium on expertise and authority based on specific knowledge | Premium on ethical fiber — personal credibility and authenticity based on changemaking for the good |
Communication through authoritative voice | Communication through storytelling and experiences |
Limited distribution of information based on “need to know” to perform a job or function | Open, transparent communication flow based on everyone having information on which to form a team of teams and act |
‘Why Empathy is as Important as Reading & Math”by Henry de Sio
Youth Changemaker Journeys
(video 4:16 min)
What is empathy?
Assets + Causes
It’s time to put it all together and create an action plan! In this worksheet, you will explore your assets – the skills and experiences you posses, and your causes – the issues and causes you care about.
Your Assets + Causes = Your Project(Exercise, Time will vary)
“When applied, empathy is the ingredient that ensures our changemaking students shape solutions that are guided by humility, understanding, and compassion.”
Changemakers
Educating with Purpose
Thinking Differently
State the problem you/your team is trying to address and run your thinking through the first exercise below.
The Five Why’s
(30-60 min)
You have identified 1-2 root causes of the problem and the knowledge you’re using to identify those causes. Now, map that information onto a Ladder of Inference.
Ladder of Inference
(30-60 min)
Suggested questions for Ladder of Inference:
Systems Thinking: A cautionary tale (video 3:00 min)
Go on a learning journey
Go on a learning journey to visit people/places addressing the problem. Interview stakeholders. What do they say are gaps that need addressing?
The Story of Solutions (9:06 minutes)
Draw Toast Exercise (1 hour minimum)
Ask yourself the following question: Based on all that I’ve learned, what do I believe is the best solution to the problem? Draw the steps you believe are needed to solve the problem using the Draw Toast Exercise.
Pro Pro Chart
We build empathy for the stakeholders by looking at how they benefit from possibilities. This method get us into a more creative mindset and unstuck from either/or thinking when generating solutions. Instead we shift our focus to new and unexpected relationships. This is called a Pro-Pro Chart.
1. Go back to some of the solutions you generated in the Toast exercise.
2. Identify two very different ways this problem could be solved. You can look at actions that are already happening.
3. Identify three stakeholders. These are the three groups of people who are most impacted and/or have the most influence in the situation.
4. Capture the benefits of both models. For each model you will list at least three benefits for each stakeholder, for a total of 18 benefits. Each benefit should tell you:
a) What is good for that stakeholder about the model?
b) How does that model produce the benefit?
Source: Rotman I-Think Initiative
S.M.A.R.T. goals
Venture Guide (video 2:28 min)
S.M.A.R.T. goals Download PDF (Team exercise, 30-45 minutes)
Elevator Pitch (45 Minutes)
Your success hinges on your ability to share your idea with others. In order to share efficiently, you need to be able to communicate your idea succinctly and with power. People respond best when things are explained as simply as possible. To this end, you need to prepare an “elevator pitch!” An elevator pitch is a brief explanation of your idea. So brief, in fact, that you could explain the whole thing in the course of one short elevator ride! Having this pitch prepared will make it easier for you to share your idea at times when it counts the most.
Connect with your stakeholder
Innovative and successful solutions come through deeply empathizing with the people you’re designing for. From the knowledge you gain, you can generate a lot of ideas and prototype possible solutions.
Buddy Bench
Reflect & Interpret
Changemaking requires deep reflection throughout, and especially at this phase of the process.
What did you learn about yourself through this process?
As a team member?
As a leader?
Students, how did it feel to make decisions about how to identify, learn, and solve problems?
Teachers, how did if feel to surrender control in certain aspects of the process?
Do you feel like you became a more empathetic person? Do you have a sense of how others on your team or in your classroom/club feel?
Can you think of one or more things that surprised, frustrated, or thrilled you in your journey?
What would you say was your biggest challenge?
What would you do differently next time?
How would you frame your changemaker journey?
Why does it matter? What was the point of taking action?
Has your connection with your community changed as a result of this experience?
What commitments are you going to make moving forward?
How can you grow or scale your idea to make an even greater impact?
Stories
Sharing our stories of change inspires others to believe that they, too, can create change. We at Ashoka have some stories to tell.
Create Your Story
Help your students give TED-Ed Student Talks by signing up through the Ashoka/TED Ed portal.
(Length: Several classes)
Safe Space
Co-creating a space where people feel that they can speak out in spite of their fears is a vital step in the process of learning how to become a changemaker. Empathy researcher Brene Brown explains that being empathetic requires that we be present and wholly engaged without our ‘protective armour’. People wear armour to try to become invisible or fit in with others to hide what they consider to be defects or embarrassing qualities for fear of being judged, labeled, or bullied. It is difficult to feel empathy for others when you are cut off from yourself.
For this reason, we’re starting the change closest to home. Everyone in the changemaking process needs to feel valued, seen, and heard. Because of the culture we inherited and the way our brains work, all of us carry biases. This isn’t wrong or bad, it’s what we do with them that matters. Being humbled can lead to personal transformation.
The exercises below will help you to:
Once the principles of the safe space have been defined and agreed upon by all, they can be used, reinforced, and referred back to as needed throughout the time you share together.
Design Thinking & the Deskless Classroom(Exercise, Time will vary)
Create a Classroom Contract(30-45 minutes)
Learn how to listen: Are you a good listener? (video 5 min + opportunities for deeper thinking)
Empathy & Equity: From the Stanford D.school, this exercise gives designers to an opportunity to pause and notice their biases(15 min daily over the course of week).
Cross the Line: (30-60 min.) We live in a diverse world. In this exercise we will explore the diversity among us by thinking about our values, our backgrounds, our teachers, and our experiences.
CCDI: Explore Power and Privilege (Toolkit with various exercises)