How Change Happens: Why Some Social Movements Succeed While Others Don't

by Leslie R. Crutchfield

Discover how those who change the world do so with this thoughtful and timely book

Why do some changes occur, and others don't? What are the factors that drive successful social and environmental movements, while others falter? How Change Happens examines the leadership approaches, campaign strategies, and ground-level tactics employed in a range of modern social change campaigns. The book explores successful movements that have achieved phenomenal impact since the 1980s--tobacco control, gun rights expansion, LGBT marriage equality, and acid rain elimination. It also examines recent campaigns that seem to have fizzled, like Occupy Wall Street, and those that continue to struggle, like gun violence prevention and carbon emissions reduction. And it explores implications for movements that are newly emerging, like Black Lives Matter. By comparing successful social change campaigns to the rest, How Change Happens reveals powerful lessons for changemakers who seek to impact society and the planet for the better in the 21st century.

Author Leslie Crutchfield is a writer, lecturer, social impact advisor, and leading authority on scaling social innovation. She is Executive Director of the Global Social Enterprise Initiative (GSEI) at Georgetown University's McDonough School of Business, and co-author of two previous books, Forces for Good and Do More than Give. She serves as a senior advisor with FSG, the global social impact consulting firm. She is frequently invited to speak at nonprofit, philanthropic, and corporate events, and has appeared on shows such as ABC News Now and NPR, among others. She is an active media contributor, with pieces appearing in The Washington Post. Fortune.com, CNN/Money and Harvard Business Review.com.

Examines why some societal shifts occur, and others don't Illustrates the factors that drive successful social and environmental movements Looks at the approaches, strategies, and tactics that changemakers employ in order to effect widescale change Whatever cause inspires you, advance it by applying the must-read advice in How Change Happens --whether you lead a social change effort, or if you're tired of just watching from the outside and want to join the fray, or if you simply want to better understand how change happens, this book is the place to start.

Genres: Nonfiction, Politics, Social Change, Sociology, Social Justice, Activism, History

240 pages, ebook

Published March 6, 2018

About the author

Leslie Crutchfield is an author, Executive Director of the Global Social Enterprise Initiative at Georgetown University’s McDonough School of Business, and a leading authority on social change.

Leslie’s first book, Forces for Good: The Six Practices of High-Impact Nonprofits with Heather McLeod Grant was recognized by The Economist on its Best Books of the Year list. She then coauthored Do More Than Give: The Six Practices of Donors Who Change the World with John Kania and Mark Kramer of FSG, Social Impact Consultants where she serves as Senior Advisor. Her third book is How Change Happens (forthcoming/Wiley April 16, 2018).

Leslie was previously a managing director at Ashoka, the global venture fund for social entrepreneurs, and she cofounded a U.S. nonprofit social enterprise in her 20s.

She has contributed to Fortune, Forbes, The Washington Post, The Chronicle of Philanthropy, and Stanford Social Innovation Review, and has appeared on programs such as NPR and ABC News.

Leslie has served on nonprofit boards including SEED Foundation and Kiva, and she volunteered with Crossroads Africa in The Gambia. She holds an MBA and BA from Harvard, and resides in the Washington, D.C. region.

Reviews

[Rachel Paulsen · Rating 3 out of 5]

I could probs give this one a 3.5. It was interesting to learn about various movements and how they became successful, which turns out to be a lot of different factors. I think I was anticipating like one big key underlying factor, but there really wasn’t one. Like they listed 3 but they were all sort of conditional and situational. I also felt like this book tried to be unbiased but still had a good deal of biased tone. So like step in the right direction but not quite there. I also think this book was written so that chapters could be read on their own, which would be nice if I was only reading one but reading start to finish meant there was a lot of repeating which is good and bad for me.

Overall: interesting, glad I read.

[Sofia · Rating 4 out of 5]

Lots of interesting insights into the traits of successful movements.

[Melissa · Rating 3 out of 5]

Some interesting points and patterns were identified in this book, but overall there was no major "aha!" moment for me. This pales in comparison to the research and critical points raised in Prisms of the People, which I feel is a much stronger book on all accounts (though perhaps more academic and a bit denser).

Pluses:
- They lay out clear patterns that distinguished the successful movements they looked at. Some of these patterns were a bit redundant (grassroots investment and "be leaderfull"), and some were a bit flimsy (the power of businesses in movements), but they made a clear case for each.
- Their definition of "movement" is very broad, which allowed them to include some nontraditional examples I was less familiar with, such as the global cause to eradicate polio and Mothers Against Drunk Driving.
- This book is easy to read, easy to follow.

On the other hand:
- I dislike their vague, broad determination of what qualifies as a "movement." In fact, they don't even DEFINE movement, they just say they take a "systems approach" when determining what qualifies as a movement (by looking at all of the inter-related pieces that come together to achieve something.) But by this definition a political campaign could be a movement, a fad could be a movement! My frustration with this lack of definition definitely colored my opinion of this book from the start, to be honest.
- Their choice of the "environmental" example was the cap and trade agreement that addressed the acid rain problem in the late 80s/early 90s. I don't know any environmentalists (except maybe EDF) who would call this a "movement." This was a successful campaign! It was not transformative (as I'd define movements to be), it was transactional. It also flies in the face of one of the main factors of movements in that those most impacted weren't at the forefront--environmental justice communities almost universally HATE cap and trade, because it's permission to pollute in the poorest and least represented areas.
- Relatedly, the cap and trade example touted the involvement of businesses and a "market-based" solution to this problem. I'm not sure that I believe a market-based solution can ever be transformative, as it's inherently based on the system (capitalism) that is at the root of so many of society's problems today.
- It seemed like a weakness of this book to me that despite the emphasis on the "grassroots" and a networked leadership approach, there was no analysis of what "grassroots power" looked like, no deep dive into how organizations invested in their grassroots (beyond the topline of how much money was spent, and a bit on how MADD set-up their chapters), and the only people interviewed for these case studies were the top leaders at huge organizations or coalitions.

This provided a lot of food for thought for me as I explore my and my organization's role in movement-building. But I can't say it offered much that I hadn't already been thinking about.

[Kim · Rating 3 out of 5]

Would give 3.5 stars if I could. Useful overall lessons that are clear and actionable, but gets quite repetitive if you read it all the way through.

[PTG42 · Rating 4 out of 5]

Three for personal enjoyment, but four in total. This is a book that really does what it sets out to do in a manner that is surprisingly easily approachable. We are told, in a clear and concise manner, what the author and her research colleagues have found to be the core areas that determine if a social movement falls flat or takes off and soars, and explains these areas with a few key examples that are revisited continously throughout the book. The focus is entirely on social movements in the U.S. which is the main reason why my personal enjoyment was slightly lower than the book deserves. It is also leaning a lot more towards matter-of-factly than passionate and inspiring which might not be for everyone but did not bother me given that the book was so clear and concise. It should also be added that here and there, paragraphs were easily skippable, which I find to be okay in a non-fiction book as long as it is easy to see what parts you can safely skip.

[Danica Holdaway · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a very fascinating subject, and I loved all of the clear examples of the principles. Like the 10/10/10/20 = 50 concept for gay marriage, or hearts-and-minds approach for smoking! But I will say that just because you are smart, educated researchers does NOT mean you can write an easy/fun-to-read nonfiction book about your work. This was unreadable at times and I can't even put my finger on why. I just knew they should have had someone else write it for them.

The concepts are super interesting and important, so it's worth reading if you're trying to create a movement... just skim, skim, skim.

[Larkin Tackett · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read this book for a few work projects to develop a framework for successful social movements. While I learned a ton, especially about the concepts of "networked leadership" and of being "leaderful" (that reinforced for me some community organizing models), I wish there were more local (instead of all national) examples and ways that movements use social media to "turn grassroots gold." The chapter about dealign with "adversarial allies" was also helpful. I anticipate coming back to this book and its helpful references.

[Lee Woodruff · Rating 5 out of 5]

For any change-maker concerned about our planet, this book is a blueprint for why some social movements succeed - drunk driving for example - and others like gun control and climate change don’t. It’s a wonderful historical romp through the 20th century through the lens of an impactful social thinker.

[Lauren · Rating 4 out of 5]

Full disclosure: The author of this book is my current boss. However, neither she nor anyone else asked (or any synonyms thereof) me to review or rate it. I'm simply anal about keeping track of my thoughts on all of the books I've read.

[Kathy · Rating 3 out of 5]

I was assigned to read this by the Bolder Way Forward leadership before helping out. It was interesting to see how movements have made changes in the past and it helped me understand how they are organized.

[Michaelann · Rating 4 out of 5]

I liked this. Super accessible read and very actionable. It felt like a better Good to Great for nonprofits and movements and left me with some good ideas about how to be more of the leader I want to be. I'll be referencing it for a while.

[Christina Dent · Rating 5 out of 5]

If you want to see change happen in the world and are part of trying to make it happen, read this book. Fascinating, easy to read, and teaches you what the successful movements of the last decades have in common.

[Gabriela Barrocas · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love this book. I have recommended it to over a dozen people already.

The title is exactly what it's about and Crutchfield does a magnificent job at breaking things down.

[Ailith Twinning · Rating 1 out of 5]

DNF - I got annoyed by the opening discussion of smoking and moved on - this is a fairly idiocratic response however so, no idea how other people will feel about it.

[Kevin · Rating 2 out of 5]

Pretty repetitive, has a few good points in here that will help my cause but they were best summarized by the bullet points at the end of the book.

[Leslie McIntosh · Rating 3 out of 5]

The book has gems of wisdom for anyone interested in understanding how change happens through movements in the US. It does read like a self-help book, though, with much repetition.

[Mitzi · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting insights, but fairly dry and way too repetitive.

[Lynne · Rating 4 out of 5]

Super interesting. It is crazy to think back to the world before some of these social changes—gives me hope for the future.