Story Ideas

1. Using business tools for Innovation and problem-solving to address the world's biggest challenges.

2. What can activists and social entrepreneurs learn by studying business books on creativity, problem solving, and decision analysis?

I also have a list of interview questions available.

PRESS RELEASE FOR 01/14/08

Author Offers Tips for Making Small-Scale Activism Efforts More Effective

This is the very-long season of selling candidates and ideas, including a candidate’s ideas, a party’s ideas, or a group’s ideas for policies and programs. The usual methods of creating and selling olitical ideas are well known to political activists, though some simple principles for creating and selling ideas may have been overlooked.

1. Analyze Challenges – Ask plentty of questions about the nature of the issue, the social environment, the likely solutions. The best quesitons are found in Thinkertoys by Michale Michalko.

2. Define Good Ideas – The social environment, the time fram einvolved, and your organization’s resources will help define what counts as a good idea.

3. Steal Ideas – Look for ideas in advertising, products, commercial services, magazines, novels, government programs, and other organization’s projects.

4. Think Creatively – Use brainstorming techniques or systematic idea generation methods like radnom input and SCAMPER to come up with new ways of doing things. Many good creative thinking books describe idea generation techniques that are both effective and easy to use.

5. Think Design – Ideas have to fit the culture, economy, and political climate of the community. Always test ideas for their fit with that social environment, as it actually exists and not as it should be or could be.

6. Think Marketing – Ideas generally need to be sold. You need to raise money, recruit program participants or get people to vote for something by selling them on your idea’s benefits. Books on social marketing and on copywriting principles can help.

7. Find Leverage – Look for an audience, geographic location, or specfic action that will have the greatest oimpact for the time and money that you can devote to a change effort. Focus on the highest impact focal point that you can identify.

Chester Davis is an author who has written extensively on the social change applications of various tools for idea generation and problem solving. More details on Mr. Davis and his ideas can be found at http://www.chesterdavis.net.

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New Book Offers Guidelines on Systematic Social Innovation

The Creative Activism Guide shows readers how to use formal innovation techniques for social betterment. The Creative Activism Guide covers problem definition, idea generation, structured problem solving, idea evaluation, decision analysis, and the selling of ideas. Social entrepreneurs, activists, nonprofit management people, and anyone interested in socially responsible business will find helpful advice and information.

Readers will discover::

1. Several idea generation techniques

2. Tools for making better decisions

3. Ways to find, steal, and adapt valuable ideas

4. Tools for gaining a better understanding of a challenge

5. Techniques for designing and selling social innovations

6. An eight-part creative activism strategy

7. The rules for powerful and effective social innovation

Mr. Davis holds a Ph.D. in sociology. His business ideas and social innovtions, developed over several years are posted on several Web sites. Many of those ideas resulted from using the principles and techniques described in The Creative Activism Book. He has taught sociology, worked as a VISTA at a nonprofit organization, and done public policy research.

The Creative Activism Guide is available from major online retailers and from Booklocker.com.

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