I got the chance to hear Seth Godin speak to a small group of about 25 people over lunch at Catalyst this past year. I have been a long-time reader of his blog (along with everyone else on the planet) but after hearing him speak I was even more impressed so I started reading his newest book Tribes. It reads like a series of blog post that are all tied together by a similar theme; but it still works. My favorite section is on page 103-105 where he lays out what it takes to create a micromovement:
- Publish a manifesto
- Make it easy for your followers to follow you.
- Make it easy for your your followers to connect with one another.
- Realize that money is not the point of the movement.
- Track your progress.
Agree? Disagree? What would you add? What would you subtract?
Dave, What are the microenvironments? I'm assuming it could it be anything from a small group to a church. Affinity-related? Does Godin define it? Curious.
Posted by: KathyJ | November 11, 2008 at 11:52 AM
Good synthesis Dave. I love what you're doing. Between your blog and twitter I'm getting an education on Multi-site. We announced our Gardner campus Sunday.
Posted by: Gary Kendall | November 11, 2008 at 07:27 PM
Agree
Posted by: Randy wood | November 11, 2008 at 07:53 PM
I really like the part about money not being the point. It seems to me that any good movement, to remain a good movement, must passionately retain what it's really about. And this requires deliberate discussions to remind ourselves what it's NOT all about. I wonder how many movements never were, or died young because, though they started well, at some point had forgotten what they started fighting for.
I also doubt there have been any truly good and helpful movements that were primarily about money :)
Posted by: Jeff | November 11, 2008 at 09:32 PM
Have you thought much about how followers can connect with each other? A few NewThing pastors are on Twitter and that's cool but it seems like there could be other tools that we could leverage to make communication between the churches easier.
Posted by: Matt Payne | November 12, 2008 at 10:55 AM
I too would be interested in the definition of a micro-movement. And, it would be great to see a post that highlights several example movements that serve as a bit of our inspiration. What movements do we look to where such factors (as Seth suggests) are present/evident? Which movements would be suggested as our heroes?
Posted by: Jeff | November 12, 2008 at 04:54 PM
I'd like to publically thank Seth for giving me the freedom to be a heretic in his Tribes book.
Dave - you rocked the house at WFX - and give insane props and Clams to your creative team for Reconsilesec -
Michael
Posted by: Michael Trent | November 13, 2008 at 09:29 AM