Hailing from the social advocacy and communications sector, I’ve always wondered if my initiatives ever have any positive impact on people. And, this is a problem I cannot quantify using Google Analytics unless I actually have people talk to me one-on-one about it.
Then, I eventually realised that giving access to information is one of the most potent forms of impact one can create for a community.
As Avril Tomlin-Hood‘s podcast episode with Futerra’s Andrew Wanliss-Orlebar podcast episode points out, I realised how obsessed we are with our carbon footprint but not our Brainprint. People in the impact and communication sectors hold the power to sensitise others, empower communities with knowledge and skills to be self-reliant, shape ethical practices, and set cultural norms that can transform societies. We could choose to live in a not-so-shitty ecosystem. Yet, we have been grossly underestimating our influence on crowds, civic action and crowd mobilisation for various causes and interventions.
Futerra recently collaborated with F1, giving an example that the F1 race cars hold only 0.7% of their carbon footprint. Still, their net-zero commitments have a high brainprint (many organisations were influenced by their moves and followed suit to pledge carbon neutrality).
Also, take the case of Shenzhen, the world’s silicon dragon and hardware hub (then a fishing village sinking in poverty), forced to innovate to survive. The sharing culture (Shanzhai, previously associated with the theft of IP and selling counterfeit products, is now associated with grassroots innovation) serves the middle-class and lower-middle-class populations by giving them accessibility and affordability to tech products and solutions. The open-source hardware culture and the maker movements helped them learn from others in their communities and either improve existing solutions or even innovate solutions for people with Parkinson’s disease or Amnesia using robotics and IoT.
The above concepts gave me a call back to a question posed by a scrap dealer who collects recyclable waste from me. He says, ‘Ma’am, I am fascinated by what you say about recycling solutions, but all the videos you’ve sent me to learn more about the processes are in English, not Tamil. I could expand my business with such recycling solutions, but there is no one to teach me in a way using a language I can comprehend‘.
Most of us have unknowingly been gatekeeping crucial information from the masses that could lead to an equitable development.
So, the critical questions I ask as a matter of habit are: Can I quantify or witness my impact? Can my digital advocacy and keyboard activism save the day? Can Marketing, Influencer branding, and Creative Communications actually make an impact?
Yes, there is hope…only if I apply common sense, take feedback from people to improve my strategies, and use my clout as a tool for impact and not as a justification of impact.
References:
- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SGJ5cZnoodY&t=3131s
- https://www.ideatovalue.com/inno/nickskillicorn/2016/10/chinas-shenzhen-became-world-capital-hardware-innovation/
- https://techcrunch.com/2019/07/26/lessons-from-the-hardware-capital-of-the-world/
- https://weareboa.com/podcast/episode/futerra/
- https://www.wearefuterra.com/blog/whats-driving-sustainability
- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=taZJblMAuko
- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kD2wVYKbt6s
- https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2023/9/11/climate-change-dystopian-future-already-here#:~:text=It%20is%20destroying%20hopes%2C%20opportunities,dystopian%20future%20is%20already%20here.