Leadership
What Business Can Learn from Social Movements
Chicago, Illinois is the place I call home. The Windy City is recognized for its hardball politics and organizing history. In the late 1800s, the Pullman Strike led to major advances in improved labor law. Saul Alinsky, a well known community activist, spent his career in Chicago. He authored Rules for Radicals, still a popular handbook for organizers. His work with Chicago Industrial Area Foundation in the Back of Yards neighborhood catapulted him into organizing notoriety. Alinsky later helped found The Woodlawn Organization, a key player in the 1960s Chicago civil rights movement. The city’s rich history of activism laid the foundation for my own brief moment in organizing.
Right out of college, I was idealistic. I still am. But in my early twenties I had less financial obligation to hinder my aspirations of changing the world than I do now. When I attended my first and last job fair, the role that most interested me was a six month internship in community organizing. I spent an hour at my future mentor’s assigned table talking with him about social change as he convinced me that mobilizing every day people was the best method for systemic progress. Instead of accepting a full time job when I finished my final college course, I signed up for the internship.
