This presentation is from a student in the online class, "Acting Up - Using Theater & Social Change," Spring 2012, from DePaul’s School for New Learning. Tom Tresser, instructor, tom@tresser.com.

1. Occupy Evansville:
My Research
and Highlights

2. First…
I needed to research
what was the Occupy
Movement and how did
Occupy Evansville fit in?

3. Through research online, at the
library, and at local bookstores, I
learned of how the Occupy
Movement intent was to drive social
and economic reform, resulting in
equality for the masses.
The movement took hold in
key financial and political
centers through out the
world (such as Wall St.). It
has spread to many smaller
cities, like Evansville, IN,
where the movement has
done a great job of raising
awareness to drive change.

4. The movement spread like
wildfire in Fall of 2011, but
while it is alive and still
organizing, it appears the
momentum is starting to
wane. It makes me wonder,
in conjunction with this
project, what is causing the
loss of momentum: is it a
‘flavor of the month’ or is it
starting to become more
organized, which is slowing
it’s apparent impact.

5. This is what I identified as my focus for this project.
How can we take a movement that took such great
strides and continue to keep the momentum going-
specifically here in Occupy Evansville .

6. So I figured, when looking at
Occupy Evansville, I see 3
big items the group needs:
•A way to better organize
and strategize (the
movement has no leaders
and the protests seems rare
and sporadic).
•A way to make the
movement sustainable.
•A clear vision to provide
focus to their cause so not to
confuse the community.

7. When looking at the assignment and brainstorming what I would
do if I became their director, the first thing that came to mind was
what I do when driving change at work (implementing Reliability
Engineering programs). I use the Kotter 8 step process for
leading change.

8. I thought how ironic it would
be to drive social change for
the Occupy Movement by
using a tool developed to aid
big business.
The very tool which helped large
corporation realize business
change, resulting in expanded
efficiency and profitability for the
1%, would now be leveraged as
an effective strategy for driving
culture change in the community
to help the 99%.

9. Kotter’s process focuses on
how to lead change by using
a clear vision, create short
wins, and then structuring the
organization to ensure
sustainable, long term
execution of the change.
This is what I see Occupy
Evansville needs to move
beyond being a group
created as a response to
Occupy, but a sustainable
organization bringing change
for the world.

10. As the new director of Occupy Evansville, I would follow Kotter’s
process to lead change by raising urgency though short term
wins, building a guiding coalition, developing a clear vision to
market and lead by, executing the vision, and work to keep the
movement sustainable through a living strategy. I think a little
structure and planning will help foster the catalyst of emotions
behind the movement to really build the Occupy Evansville
movement into a long term player driving social change.
VS.