Innovation of the Day: Second Chance

Californian police give motorists a free pass

This month, a number of motorists received a novel ‘Second Chance’ warning ticket from police, despite being pulled over for minor traffic violations. The tickets were issued to those motorists whose licences showed they were registered organ donors, thanks to a campaign by Donate Life California that ran with the support of local police departments in the cities of Fullerton and Placentia, as well as with California State University Fullerton’s campus police.

Random acts of kindness. Waaaaaay back in 2011 we wrote a full report on this trend (PDF link). And yes, we’ll admit those were more innocent times. However, as with all compelling trends the underlying human insights still stand: be genuine; be personal (but not too personal); create a meaningful moment and make it shareable; be compassionate not crass, and more. The environment changes quicker than people.

Shock & awe(some). But the environment has changed significantly, of course. A majority of Americans now hold negative views about social media. It has damaged our democracies and our mental health. But amid this, it’s easy to lose sight of the fact that humanity has as much capacity for good as evil. The 100K readers of this newsletter work in companies that collectively impact billions of lives each day. So today embrace that power. Gather your team. Watch the video. Then challenge yourselves to create an equally emotional and surprising story that will spread and incite positive change. And let us know, so we can feature it soon? ;)

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