1. Theory of change
“All through my teenage years, you kept repeating how I desperately needed to fix my sleep cycle. And I promised that I would, even drawing up an elaborate plan for how I would go about doing it. That was, what one would call, a ‘theory of change’. A decade later, the change has very much remained theoretical.”
2. Social entrepreneurship
“This is when you develop a business in order to solve a societal problem. Like back when I used to sell my packed lunch to my classmates to alleviate their hunger. The profits, of course, were devoted to a noble cause (my happiness).”
3. Systems thinking
“This involves zooming out to look at the whole picture, realising how everything is connected and that changing something alters others as well. It’s exactly like the time I forgot to call the plumber to fix our leaking faucet, then looked up a YouTube tutorial on repairing faucets, and ultimately resorted to offering an hour-long sermon on why we should be fixing the planet instead.”
4. Systems change
“Remember how my brother and I weren’t Lovin’ It™ when we had to share a Happy Meal at McDonald’s? Well, systems change involves understanding that the system—sharing one Happy Meal—is unfair. To fix it, you can’t just change one thing (like asking the server for an extra toy)—you must transform the entire setup so that it works better for everyone (like getting each of us our own meal).”
5. Behaviour change communication
“This refers to the use of programmes or media to make people think or act differently. You do this too, by sending me 15–20 WhatsApp forwards daily that remind me of the importance of media literacy.”
