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Catalytic Thinking Exercise:
How Hyper-Local Information Creates Real Change

What would be possible if people in your community had solid information they could trust?

If the U.S. election pointed out anything (and we know that it pointed out a LOT of things), it is the power of misinformation in influencing decision-making. The power lies not just in made-up stories masquerading as truth; it lies in the fact that we are more likely to believe those stories when they are shared by the neighbors and friends we trust.

It’s easy to throw up our hands and think that is all outside our control. The latest episode of the Creating the Future podcast puts that control right back in our hands.

Josh Stearns is part of the team at the Democracy Fund, where his focus is on the power of hyper-local media to make a huge difference by connecting people in communities.

What do we mean by hyper-local?

Picture your local newspaper or tv station. Now picture that scaled down to your neighborhood – news that applies directly to you and your neighbors.

Imagine the power of having a news source that provided usable information just for the folks your work is helping. And imagine that those news sources are so local, that that is what neighbors and friends are talking about.

That’s where Josh focuses.

"Some of the most profound and exciting change I've seen taking place has really been place-based and authentically rooted and emerging from community. I hear a lot about top-down change efforts. But when I see durable, resilient change taking root, I tend to see it happening from the bottom up.

We have an opportunity right now to rethink the role of news and information in communities. How can news and information help us build power and find solutions? How can news and information help build bridges and connect us in new ways?

It's a profound opportunity to stop and rethink and redesign. What does it look like to build journalism that is not for the public, but actually in relationship to the public?”

You can listen to the whole conversation here.

Listening to Josh’s thoughts has encouraged us to think about what could be possible if the work you are doing considered what Josh proposes. How might your work be a source of news and information that helps build bridges and connect folks in new ways?

Try this:
To answer that question, we just need the questions of Catalytic Thinking, starting with the first one:

Whose lives are affected by the work you are doing?
And what would it take for them to participate and lead change in their lives?

As you identify the ripples your work creates among people in your community, imagine what could be possible if all those folks had reliable information about the factors affecting their lives. Imagine the power all those individuals would have to lead their own change.

That leads to the “conditions” questions of Catalytic Thinking.

• For folks to step into their power, what would they need to know?
• What would they need to understand?
• What would they need to be assured of?

From there, the questions of Collective Enoughness can help you determine an approach to turn your ideas into reality.

• Who is already doing parts of what you are considering? (Perhaps neighborhood associations, or parent/teacher associations, or existing newsletters, or…)
• What could be possible if you partnered with them? What could you accomplish together that could provide even more benefit to your community?

With Josh’s insights as a starting point, there are so many avenues your “news and information” could take. At every turn, your work could be activating citizens to step into their own power. That power is at the heart of the questions of Catalytic Thinking.

And it is the power at the heart of our new podcast. If you’re seeking a path toward true change in these unsettling times, subscribe at this link, to listen to future episodes.