Sustaining Social Change: Warren Nilsson at TEDxCapeTown

Warren Nilsson: Social Innovation Researcher

I am Warren Nilsson. I spend most of my time puzzling over how organizations do or don't foster social innovation. After 10 years doing community development work in the U.S., I moved to Montreal, Canada to do my doctoral research. I'm now on the faculty at the University of Cape Town and am also the co-founder of Organization Unbound.

I TEDx because I have been working with and studying some of the most beautiful and innovative social purpose organizations on this planet. They have taught me a great deal about the generative power of authentic community and I want to share what I have learned.

My idea worth spreading to present at TEDxCapeTown 2012 is that the biggest challenge the world is facing is not how to create change but how to sustain change, and if we want to sustain change we are mostly paying attention to the wrong things, particularly inside our social purpose organizations and social movements.

In the spirit of ideas worth spreading, TEDx is a program of local, self-organized events that bring people together to share a TED-like experience. At a TEDx event, TEDTalks video and live speakers combine to spark deep discussion and connection in a small group. These local, self-organized events are branded TEDx, where x = independently organized TED event. The TED Conference provides general guidance for the TEDx program, but individual TEDx events are self-organized.* (*Subject to certain rules and regulations)

[BeTheSolution]

Attention all educators,  social reformers this!  It applies broadly to decision-making in small groups.  As a grassroots activist, it challenged me to look "outside the box." For example,  Nilsson points out the difference between practicing the ideal process (i.e. the actual perceptions of individual participants in that process.