Critical mass is the Holy Grail of behavioral communications. It is the goal, the main objective, and the way you win in this game. Critical mass is achieved like this: If you keep pounding away long enough on a target audience, and your reasons are valid, then sooner or later you will start convincing a few of those good people to do it your way.

 From the ones you succeed in convincing some will adopt your way as a part of their life style, some will start and stop as the mood hits them, and some will try it and not realize the results you promised - and reject your change.

 The big deal here is that you want any change you go to all this trouble of starting to become a permanent part of the target culture. That means that the majority of your potential targets should eventually be acting the way you want them to. Convince enough people and they will continue convincing others through their actions. The number of people you need to convince for an action to become socially self -sustaining is called the critical mass. Once past that point you can comfortably cross your arms and go back to lounging by the water fountain. The battle is over and your side won.

 

 The ability to reach that critical mass is strongly dependent upon how compatible your request is with the host culture. If we want to convince Muslims to eat pork: the battle is going to be a long hard one, and we will loose. If our objective were to convince children to eat a certain kind of ice cream with a vaccine in it: our life would be easy. So, to knowledge, attitude, and behavior, we must add environment as one of the major factors in change propagation.

 By environment I mean the surrounding in which the individual exists. That includes the legal structure, the social structure, the cultural system, the village structure, and the family unit. All of those elements will effect the individual’s decision to change: and once that decision is made, the probabilities of it becoming a permanent part of there life style. Actually, proper communication is the art of change propagation. The creation of self- sustaining “change reactions” within the host population.

 So, there are three main elements that nurture individual change.

1. Desire

2. Ability

3. Environment

 

 Before someone can change: they must want to change. That means giving them good solid reasons why they should change. Or at the very least reasons they perceive as good and solid.

 Three things affect people’s relationship to a given change. Those three elements can be expressed as the three nonverbal questions a person will always asks themselves about a proposed action.

1. What’s in this for me?

2. Does this change fit with my image of who I am?

3. Can I actually do it?

 Lets have a look at each of those key decisions. What’s in this for me? This question is the most basic of human responses when any decision is required. It’s a normal healthy response, and actually quite helpful to us. By asking that question the person is deciding if they are interested enough in an idea to go further. Present the average person with enough valid, and beneficial, reasons why they should try your idea and they will usually advance to the next stage. Curiosity is the second major step on the road to change.

 Does the change fit with my image of who I am? This one takes in a lot of territory, from personnel preferences to cultural moors and social values. It also means you have crossed the first hurdle in the communications chain. Your target has become interested enough to feel that a decision is called for.

 That decision usually happens in a flash with out any conscious thought. The person compares what you are asking them to do with a lifetime of conditioning and if your request passes those filters then that person will look closer. If not they will usually reject your request, often unaware of why. If asked they might say, “ I don’t think that’s the way to go about it” or “ I think your way is wrong”.

 When you tailor a request for change you must be very careful to avoid any conflict with cultural, religious, social, or political values and traditions. If you don’t, you will most likely loose precisely at this point.

 Suppose rats are spreading disease and you want to reduce the rat population. If you want people to burn their trash in order to reduce the number of rats, and there is a municipal ban on burning, then you have a problem. If you ask people whose religion forbids killing any type of animal to kill rats- you have a problem. If rats play an important part in the local culture then you have a problem. People will not stand in front of your poster and hold an internal debate on the issues. They will simply think, “ this is nuts: I can’t do that” and ignore it.

 Hitting a barrier like those above is not always the end of the world. Most impediments to change are open for discussion. Municipal rules can be changed, usually if the leaders are convinced that the reasons for changing the law make more sense than maintaining it. Cultural images can be modified, with difficulty.

 Religious bans are usually untouchable. Try to change those and you will have some very serious problems. That said, there are traditional practices that are bad for the general well being of the population and often need to be changed. Female circumcision is one such practice. It only serves to create some very frustrated women.

 Can I actually do it? This question actually has a lot to do with how the individual perceives himself. It also has a lot to do with how you present your ideas. Some people are quite confident in their abilities and in them selves, if that type of person believes that acting your way will make their life better they will try it. Most are not so confident. They need constant encouragement and support if they are to adopt and maintain your ideas.

 The key is a person’s attitude toward new, their confidence in being able to implement a new idea, and the perceived benefits of that change. Someone who believes they cannot quite smoking, never will. A person who is absolutely convinced they can quite has a very good chance to do so.

 So, your campaign must convince the average person, usually not very confident, that what you want is not only feasible, but easy to achieve, and worth while. That type of campaign will need long term funding and a donor who doesn’t mind waiting a while until the number of successes start to out weight the failures.

 Take the entire above, place it in context, and your job is clear.

1. Get peoples attention and teach them the benefits of trying your easily implemented change.

2. Support them when they try your change, insure that the environment is conducive to your way of doing it, and make sure they actually receive the perceived benefits. Motivate them to continue doing it your way.

3. Maintain their interest in continuing with your actions and encourage them to convince others to try your actions. This part is very important if you ever want to reach critical mass.