The Participation Blog

Making Change

You’ve probably noticed that we’re in a hard-to-explain business. I’ve largely given up trying to describe what I do for a living if the person asking isn’t already connected to it in some way. As Run DMC said, “It’s tricky.” There’s no simple soundbite answer, but one accurate definition is change-agent. We help people understand and engage in projects and proposals that will – or that people believe will – change their lives in some way. Most of us aren’t big fans of change – especially the changes we don’t choose or control. People tend to react to almost any kind of forced change in a similar emotional way to how they react to environmental health and safety risks. Here’s a case in point.