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No. 135: The "3.5% Rule"

Small but committed nonviolent protests can change the world when they reach critical mass. Historically, when nonviolent movements actively engage at least 3.5% of the population, they have never failed to bring about political change.

No. 135: The "3.5% Rule"
Photo by Gayatri Malhotra / Unsplash

We could all use a jolt of inspiration, so when I came across the "3.5% rule" this week, I had to share. It refers to the tipping point when protests lead to political change, and I think it could have broad applicability to social impact movements in general.

While we're on the subject of change, you'll want to check out the featured company this week even if you're not in the job market. Cortico is building some fascinating software to surface community feedback so local governments and other organizations can make equitable decisions. I'm also sharing another job board to add to your list of bookmarks.

I continue to be impressed by how many companies are hiring in the current environment. There's no shortage of change-making opportunities – let's find yours this week.

~ Greg

What we're reading

The "3.5% rule" shows that small but committed nonviolent protests can change the world when they reach critical mass. (BBC)

  • Research by Harvard political scientist Erica Chenoweth found that nonviolent campaigns are twice as likely to succeed as violent ones: 53% of nonviolent protests succeed compared to 26% for violent protests.
    • Historically, when nonviolent movements actively engage at least 3.5% of the population, they have never failed to bring about political change.
    • Checking the back of my napkin here, if the U.S. has around 340 million people, then 3.5% would represent around 12 million protesters. For comparison, the Hands Off! protests last week attracted a few million participants by organizers' estimates.
  • Size and broad participation are key advantages of nonviolent movements. Of the movements studied in Chenoweth's research, nonviolent campaigns attracted four times as many participants (200,000 on average) as violent campaigns (50,000).
    • Peaceful movements draw from a wider demographic, and the more people who join the movement, the more likely it is to cause the kind of disruptions to daily life that inspire action.
    • My personal take is that protests make feedback tangible in a way that poll numbers do not. Major news organizations have polled the population for feedback on recent actions taken by the government, but a high percentage doesn't have the same impact as seeing your local Capitol building or city park filled to capacity with people.
  • So how do you get to 3.5%? Chenoweth says that general strikes are particularly potent tools, though anonymous forms of resistance can be helpful as well. Think of boycotts for example: you can put economic pressure on an organization without exposing participants' identities or place them in physical danger.
    • I'm interested in how this could be applied to change management more generally. Does this apply to cancel culture? How about conservation efforts? I suspect the tipping point varies, but imagine what you could accomplish if you knew the level of support you needed to be successful: the vision becomes clear.
  • For a comedic take on starting a movement, check out this TED talk from a number of years ago. Seriously, it's the best three minutes you can spend today. It has stayed with me ever since I watched it, and now I try to be the "first follower" whenever I can.

Job of the week

Sometimes I come across a company that's so outside the norm that I can't help but feature it even if the role might not be a fit for most people. That's the story with Cortico, a community engagement platform that helps municipalities and other organizations draw insights from group conversations using audio processing and artificial intelligence.

The premise is you record a group conversation – say, meeting with members of the community to discuss what they want to see from a new parks project – and Cortico's software parses the audio and identifies feedback themes from all participants. The resulting data visualization allows decision makers to trace themes to their originating comments. I was browsing a portal for the City of Durham, NC focused on equitable community engagement to get a sense of the technology, and I'm seriously impressed.

Which brings us to the job opportunity itself: they are looking for a Software Engineering Director to lead their team of nine engineers and help them scale the product. The role is remote, and I think the qualifications are very reasonable – software development is an ever-evolving set of languages and tools, but the key requirements here are your software management and scaling experience.

Community roundup

  • Those new Certified B Corp standards I mentioned two weeks ago? Call it a coincidence, but they were just released and you can read all about the changes here.
    • From what I've seen so far, the changes are a step in the right direction. There are new minimum standards that ought to stave off some of the greenwashing concerns, and I like how they've tailored the requirements based on the company's size, sector, and industry. I'm looking forward to updating my own assessment to get a better sense of how the new standards will work.
    • I know there are some B Corp Certification experts who read the newsletter – I'd love to hear your thoughts on the changes.
  • Nepal has been on a hot streak importing electric vehicles. The goal is for 90% of private vehicle sales to be for electric vehicles by 2030, and the rise has been significant: 250 to 13,000 imports per year after four years. (The Guardian)
    • Historically, Kathmandu has been one of the world's most polluted cities, but they're not the only one. I'm excited to see how this affects air quality and whether those lessons learned could be applied elsewhere.
    • I'm still reminded of how our skies were cleaner than they had been in years as traffic decreased during the pandemic. At the time, the New York Times wrote that "in Kathmandu, Nepal...residents reported being able to see Mount Everest, 100 miles distant, for the first time in decades."
  • Climate commitments were popular with major companies in the last few years, but those mentions have dropped significantly. Based on an analysis of earnings calls, mentions of climate-related terminology have dropped by 76% compared to three years ago. (Grist)
    • This trend has inspired new vocabulary for your trivia night: greenhushing.
    • For what it's worth, I think many of the efforts themselves will continue even if the marketing doesn't. Goodwill is not enough to create a return on investment – these companies are largely responding to market forces and business need, not to mention that when they make these multi-million dollar investments, there's significant inertia behind them.
  • A team of researchers has developed a model that predicts when and where lightning strikes can start wildfires to 90% accuracy. (Yale E360)
    • 90% is no joke, and given how common these fires are – around 7,000 of them last year – this sort of predictability could help firefighters contain them more quickly.

Civic corner

  • Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. made comments at a conference in Utah that he intends to assemble a task force to remove the CDC's guidance recommending fluoride in water systems. (ABC News)
    • We've discussed Utah's efforts to ban fluoride a few times, but it's worth bringing up again because the EPA may get involved. Per ABC News, a ban on fluoride would need to come from the EPA because they set the maximum amount of fluoride in water.
  • The new administration's policies continue to be challenged in court. Among the notable updates this week was one that barred the National Institutes of Health from restricting medical research funding. (NYT)
    • Depending on when you read this, I wouldn't be surprised if you saw news about an appeal. The Supreme Court issued a series of narrow rulings upholding the administration's actions on mass deportations and firings, and the NIH decision is likely headed to the Supreme Court as well.
  • Speaking of whiplash, the National Park Service removed a photo of Harriet Tubman in a description of the Underground Railroad then restored it after public backlash. (Axios)
    • The NPS said that the updates were a mistake and made without approval from their leadership. Honestly, I kind of buy it – take DOGE for example, which has gained access to databases that would normally be restricted to a small handful of people. Other government websites have been scrubbed for keywords, and I can picture that work being done by people beyond the purview of department leadership.
    • When I see news like this, the fact that they backtracked gives me hope that there are still boundaries. The government is at odds with itself, but social impact is not always on the losing end.

Hot job opportunities

Resource of the week

I'm adding to your job board bookmarks this week with another solid entry: the aptly-named Work for Good. The site focuses on nonprofit jobs, and I love how you can filter on jobs by "focus area" so you can quickly get to the jobs that resonate with your personal mission. It's in the tab just below the search box, or you can browse a full list of focus areas here.

Based on my perusal, I'd say most of the roles fall in the mid- to senior-level category. Major cities have a good selection to choose from, and I found 50+ remote opportunities. Might be worth a look, eh?

Test your knowledge

Muhammad Yunus, the founder of Grameen Bank in Bangladesh, was the answer to last week's question about a social entrepreneur who won the 2006 Nobel Peace Prize. His work popularized microcredit and microfinance: systems that provide small loans to people who would typically be denied by traditional banks due to their economic status.

It reminds me a lot of microlending – you may be familiar with Kiva, which is a microlending platform where you can loan small amounts of money to people around the world (including the United States).

Do you ever feel like a plastic bag? Katy Perry did, and she wouldn't have to suffer the indignity if more countries followed in this nation's footsteps:

Which country became the first to ban plastic bags?

Email me your guess, and I'll send one lucky winner a couple of One Work stickers!

I am working tirelessly to set up a space for us to connect with a focus on collaborative projects. I can't wait to tell you all about it – stay tuned for an out-of-cycle newsletter with more information.