Mobilizing Commitment for Social Change: Two Cases

Social change processes involve multiple, diverse constituencies attempting to collaborate. What major factors enable or hinder them to work through their differences and come to shared awareness, mobilized commitment, and implementation of their goals? Two cases of multi-stakeholder social change will be examined: one successful and one problematic. In the first case, my role was as the facilitator/consultant, whereas in the second case, my role was as a participant. The Genesis Transformation Model explains some of the effective dynamics in the first case, and some of the problematic dynamics in the second. For a deeper understanding of why the first case was successful and the second one problematic, Gestalt therapy concepts are helpful.