Social change is important to social innovation, however, that change cannot be fleeting — it needs to last.

This idea will be front and centre at a free, one-hour webinar March 12 led by Al Etmanski, a senior fellow and co-founder of Social Innovation Generation (SiG) and founding director of the PLAN Institute.

The webinar will largely focus on Al’s new book, Impact: Six Patterns to Spread Your Social Innovation, which emphasizes the difference between a strategy and a pattern.

During the past 10 years, Al and his wife, Vickie Cammack, have been exploring social innovation. In that time, Al has observed six patterns of social change that have staying power. As part of the webinar, Al will share these six patterns and explain what they mean.

His book also focuses on this paradox between short-term success and minimal long-term impact. Strategies, Al says, can only take you so far. What needs to be observed, he says, are the deeper patterns of change.

“(Another) message (in the book) would be that social change is not for the elite; it is something that requires all of us to be engaged with and, in fact, most of us are,” Al says in a telephone interview.

“Whatever we are contributing is absolutely fundamental. If we see this as part of a larger social change (or) pattern, then we can be more conscious and focused in making that contribution.”

Al says the webinar and book are aimed at two groups of people. One group is young activists who are just starting out and who are passionate about a great idea that they want to make work.

The second group Al’s looking to engage is experienced policy makers and funders looking for recent information.

“For these people, the book is an opportunity to pay attention to some of the new stuff that has been shown to work (when it comes) to making change.”

Al says the best thing people could walk away with from the webinar would be an understanding that they are not alone and they need to seek allies to create the change they want.

“No matter how perfect your solution is and no matter how disruptive your innovation is, for it to become a part of the mainstream you need to work with not only your allies, but also people who may have been your adversaries,” he says.

“(I hope) people come away feeling that they’re not alone and also with a mindset that they will reach (out to others) to make the change that we want to make.”

The webinar is being held March 12 from 1 p.m. to 2 p.m. Click here for more information on the webinar or to register.

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