Bill B

The strategies for change essay is about the five major strategies being engaged in our world. The rational planning model is only one of five strategies. Last night, during his marathon session, Cory Booker presented a narrative and the facts in a compelling political theater. He could have written a nice article that went in some medical journal or some political science journal. It would have been read by three people. Several things occurred during his 24-hour speech. First, there was the story of the record-setting speech itself. The theater was compelling. Secondly, the speech did not primarily go out over the news channels. It was going out through social media, through postings. That’s where it’s being listed. Third, Booker presented a series of individual narratives. These were not statistics, it was his description of what was occurring with individual people. So that was a different strategy. The issue of ethical or unethical, true or not true, is confined to the rational model. As Jeremy asks, how do physicians get involved effectively in the other domains?  Actually, five physicians, including Benjamin Rush, signed the Declaration of Independence. There is a long history of physicians being very much involved, often in the role of Surgeon General for the US government or head of the CDC. Some of them got destroyed or at least dishonored, and some kind of made it out alive.

Jeremy

Up to this point, we have mentioned the rational and political approach to the initiation of change. Was there another one that you think is relevant to our discourse on compelling narrative?

Bill B

I think they all are, but one of them is social networking.

Jeremy

Do you think Corey combined political and social networks in his speech?

Bill B

Social networking nowadays is showing up on how many people connect through various media. That is the new networking. There are old farts like us who meet on a Zoom. Not many years ago, the six of us would have met in person, but we’re all big high tech now. We meet on Zoom. And of course, we’re old timers. Most people meet not on Zoom or in person. They are meeting through all these new media. So that’s the new form of social networking. A diffusion of innovation strategy is relevant to determining the nature, scope and duration of Corey Booker’s impact following his speech.