How Change Happens

Foreword

THIS IS AN important book, and it comes at an important time. Leslie Crutchfield has given us a well-researched, highly readable examination of how the messy, complicated world of social change works, and does not.

There’s no real recipe for social change, no “movement in a box” that we can put in place to create a more equitable, just society. This shouldn’t be a surprise. But Leslie has studied a number of organizations and changemakers and given us conclusions that we can apply—if we have the courage and the ability to take up a cause worth fighting for. In other words, we can make change happen.

Most big, important social and environmental issues are daunting and scary, and seem beyond solutions. But this book tells us otherwise. It also shows us that champions and leaders come in all sizes and shapes. And that we can do it, too. In fact, that’s the only way positive, sustainable change will happen.

I’ve been involved in many social change endeavors, including high blood pressure control through my social marketing work at Porter Novelli; striving for women’s empowerment and education at CARE; fighting the tobacco wars at the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids; advancing age-related causes at AARP; and reforming advanced illness and end-of-life care at the Coalition to Transform Advanced Care (C-TAC). I’ve got the scars to prove it, and Leslie’s insights and conclusions strike me as being right on target.

She gives us a big-picture perspective so that we can look back ...