Overview

Overview:

We create and deliver innovative activities, exercises, and seminars to teach skills for personal and social transformation. At our core is a model for change called “transformative action.” This is based on scientific research into the strategies that are most effective for people who are working to change their lives and the world around them.

TAI is devoted to:

  • Helping people transform their own lives
  • Helping organizations transform their cultures
  • Helping to transform educational curricula and delivery
  • Helping social entrepreneurs, innovators, and other people who want to make the world a better place

During his doctoral research, Scott Sherman, the Transformative Action Institute’s founder, investigated the question, “what strategies are correlated with success and failure when people try to change the world?” After studying hundreds of case studies across many social causes, the findings astounded him.

Most of the strategies that he learned as both a community organizer and a lawyer turned out not to be effective in solving social issues and conflicts. In fact, these strategies are often counterproductive. They can generate a bitter, fractious “us versus them” atmosphere where tremendous resources and energies are wasted in fighting, while solutions go undiscovered. As a result, many good-hearted citizens who are working for democracy, the environment, health care, and other important causes become burnt out, exhausted, and overwhelmed.

Instead, Sherman discovered that the people who were most often winning their campaigns were using very different tactics. These people were successfully transforming enemies into allies, hatred into goodwill, and conflict into collaboration. Rather than simply protesting about what’s wrong with the world, they were coming up with creative win-win solutions that uplifted all stakeholders. As a result, these leaders were successful in catalyzing the power, money, and creativity of everyone towards finding innovative solutions. With no term to define these tactics, Sherman called this phenomenon “Transformative Action.”

Details:

  • Length: Typically around 3 days
  • Apply: Varies, check site for upcoming trainings

Spud’s Thoughts:

Scott Sherman is one of my favorite human beings. He’s had a tremendous impact on the social entrepreneurship community and his research and techniques have been applied across a wide range of organizations. I brought Scott to State College a few years ago to get his thoughts on some ventures we were launching in town and he provided some great insight. If you get a chance to make it to any of his trainings, by all means – take advantage of it!!