How to Inspire Action in Seven Steps
#PurposeSeven: The Purpose Power Framework
I started a business and wrote a book to help mission-driven leaders more effectively engage for change. The Heptagon Method, or the #PurposeSeven, is a seven-step framework designed to take big, bold, ambitious ideas from ideology to action. Here’s the high-level overview of this approach.
#PurposeSeven & the Art of Engagement
You have to sit before you stand. You have to crawl before you walk. Almost everything in life is incremental. It takes time and dedication to work through the stages of progress that will ultimately achieve a desired result.
It’s not enough to work within a negative frame. Objection and resistance are insufficient to deliver the future we desire. We have to know what we stand for, not just what we’re against. We have to do the work to define and understand the core ideas that drive us to engage for change.
Today, those who seek to plant the seeds of change need look no further than Purpose Power for a framework of positive movement-making. Here are the seven steps to take an idea from ideology to action.
Step 1: Ideology
Owning an ideology may seem a radical aim for a fledgling endeavor, but it’s necessary to inspire action.
What is Ideology?
Definition:
- Visionary theorizing
- A systemic body of concepts especially about human life or culture
- The thinking characteristic of an individual group, or culture
- The integrated assertions, theories and aims that constitute a sociopolitical program.
A movement begins with an idea that represents a collection of deeply held beliefs which, taken together will drive a specific result. Clearly defining the values that will guide you and the vision you are working towards is fundamental to achieving a desired outcome. Without ideology, we are simply left with talking points.
Step 2: Identity
Identity builds on ideology to convert your stated purpose into visual inspiration.
Your ideology deserves a brand — a name, a logo — that can be easily shared and remembered.
Step 3: Message
“There are two ways to influence human behavior. You can manipulate it or you can inspire it.” -Simon Sinek
Defining message requires deciding what you want people to hear and empowering your employees and advocates with the framing they need to amplify your ideology. It means understanding how your audience relates to your ideology, and using your core beliefs in earnest to inspire their commitment to your cause.
Step 4: Story
We want to feel relevant, we want to feel heard. A story you can relate to makes something theoretical feel personal. Stories provide a steady drumbeat of motivation, steadily raising the visibility of the ideology to become more prominent and recognized. Stories turn the talking points of message into the narrative of human experience, which is much easier for us to grasp and share.
Step 5: Experience
Experiences help shape human awareness and foster greater connection and community among those present. We enter a space as individuals and leave as a group who have all borne witness to a singular moment in time. A simple invitation to attend an event can become the initiation of a deeper level of belonging.
Step 6: Community
Individuals who have lived the same experience feel an unbreakable common bond. People want to feel that they are a part of something that will endure. They want to feel surrounded by a community of people who share their ideology and their conviction to be part of something bigger than themselves.
Step 7: Action
Once you feel a part of something, you want to help move it forward.
There are many ways to encourage action on behalf of a cause and sequence calls to action to cultivate an individual’s growing commitment over time.
Calling someone to action before they understand your ideology is unlikely to achieve your desired result. But when you pave a path of engagement built on inspiration, you cultivate a commitment to take action.
Purpose Power: How Mission-Driven Leaders Engage for Change explores these seven steps and their application in depth. You can pre-order the book when you back the Purpose Power Town Hall your today:
