{"product_id":"stick-your-neck-out-isbn-9781576753040","title":"Stick Your Neck Out","description":"\u003cb\u003eAn accessible, comprehensive handbook to achieving change in any environment, featuring time-tested methods and practical tips from real activists.\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eAs President of the Giraffe Heroes Project, which since 1982 has been recognizing people who “stick their necks out for the common good,” John Graham has seen what hundreds of average citizens around the world have done to bring about constructive change. He’s drawn on their experiences, his own as a veteran environmental activist, and that of a hand-picked group of seasoned activists to produce an accessible, eminently practical, inspiring guide on how to work effectively for change in any environment.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003eStick Your Neck Out\u003c\/i\u003e covers every aspect of working for change, from choosing an issue to mapping out a strategy, getting a team together, building alliances, working with the media, and more. Each chapter contains a series of practical tips as well as inspiring examples of real people—artists, truck drivers, doctors, waitresses, and others—who have made a difference on issues like poverty, racism, gang violence, environmental pollution, and many more. Everything in this book has been honed and practiced; nothing is untested theory.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThis is a comprehensive guide to the skills, qualities, and strategies you need to make a difference on any issue. But it’s also about becoming fully alive—about the meaning and passion you can add to your own life by getting involved. Active citizenship and personal growth are linked. The information in this book can change your world—and it can change your life.Preface\u003cbr\u003e Who Should Read This Book \u003cbr\u003e Hard and Soft \u003cbr\u003e How to Use This Book\u003cbr\u003e What’s Not in This Book \u003cbr\u003e Acknowledgments\u003cbr\u003e INTRODUCTION  WHAT DO YOU CARE ABOUT?   \u003cbr\u003e What Problem Do You Take On? \u003cbr\u003e Giraffe Stories\u003cbr\u003e CHAPTER ONE  WHY DO IT?   \u003cbr\u003e What’s the Path to a Meaningful Life? \u003cbr\u003e Going for It \u003cbr\u003e Giraffe Stories\u003cbr\u003e CHAPTER TWO  START HERE\u003cbr\u003e Research \u003cbr\u003e Decide the Form of Your Participation \u003cbr\u003e Create a Specific Project \u003cbr\u003e Create a Vision for Your Project’s Success \u003cbr\u003e Add Details to Your Project \u003cbr\u003e Giraffe Stories\u003cbr\u003e CHAPTER THREE  TRUST THEM? ARE YOU KIDDING?\u003cbr\u003e The Importance of Building Trust \u003cbr\u003e How to Build Trust \u003cbr\u003e Efforts to Build Trust Are Risky \u003cbr\u003e Giraffe Stories\u003cbr\u003e CHAPTER FOUR  BUILDING A TEAM AND KEEPING IT TOGETHER\u003cbr\u003e How to Build a Team from Scratch \u003cbr\u003e Team Structure \u003cbr\u003e Team Management \u003cbr\u003e Create and Communicate a Team Vision of Success \u003cbr\u003e Giraffe Stories\u003cbr\u003e CHAPTER FIVE  MAKING A PLAN\u003cbr\u003e Steps for Visionary Planning \u003cbr\u003e What to Do When Your Plan Succeeds \u003cbr\u003e Giraffe Stories\u003cbr\u003e CHAPTER SIX  RISK TAKING AND COURAGE   \u003cbr\u003e An Ostrich Nation \u003cbr\u003e Turning It Around—the Giraffe Heroes Project \u003cbr\u003e Turning It Around—Why You Should Take Risks for the Common Good \u003cbr\u003e Tips for Taking Risks as an Active Citizen \u003cbr\u003e Giraffe Stories\u003cbr\u003e CHAPTER SEVEN  FINDING COMMON GROUND: NEGOTIATING AND RESOLVING CONFLICTS\u003cbr\u003e General Principles for Negotiating and Resolving Conflicts \u003cbr\u003e Ten Steps to Common Ground \u003cbr\u003e It Doesn’t Work Every Time \u003cbr\u003e Giraffe Stories\u003cbr\u003e CHAPTER EIGHT  PERSUASIVE COMMUNICATIONS: SPEECHES, FUND-RAISING, AND MORE\u003cbr\u003e Persuasive Communications—Style, Attitude, Heart, and Vision \u003cbr\u003e How to Give a Great Speech \u003cbr\u003e Tips for Raising Money \u003cbr\u003e Giraffe Stories\u003cbr\u003e CHAPTER NINE  DEALING WITH THE MEDIA: THE SECRETS OF GOOD PR\u003cbr\u003e Why Should You Tell People What You’re Doing? \u003cbr\u003e Creating a Media Strategy \u003cbr\u003e How to Get the Media Results You Want \u003cbr\u003e Giraffe Stories\u003cbr\u003e CHAPTER TEN  GETTING INSTITUTIONS TO DO WHAT YOU WANT\u003cbr\u003e Developing the Public Will \u003cbr\u003e Working with “the System” \u003cbr\u003e Lobbying \u003cbr\u003e Giraffe Stories\u003cbr\u003e CHAPTER ELEVEN  PUBLIC TESTIMONY AND LEGAL ACTION\u003cbr\u003e Public Testimony \u003cbr\u003e Legal Action \u003cbr\u003e Giraffe Stories\u003cbr\u003e EPILOGUE  A PERSONAL JOURNEY\u003cbr\u003e Connectedness—A Spiritual Concept with Political Power \u003cbr\u003e Lightening Up \u003cbr\u003e Being Responsible for Our World—and for Ourselves\u003cbr\u003e Resources \u003cbr\u003e IndexJohn Graham shipped out on a freighter when he was 16, took part in the first ascent of Mt. McKinley’s North Wall at 20, and hitch- hiked around the world at 22.\u003cbr\u003e A Foreign Service Officer for 15 years, he was in the middle of the revolution in Libya and the war in Vietnam. For three years in the mid-1970s he was a member of NATO’s top-secret Nuclear Planning Group, then served as a foreign-policy adviser to Senator John Glenn. As an assistant to Ambassador Andrew Young at the United Nations, he was deeply involved in U.S. initiatives in southern Africa, South Asia, and Cuba. By most measures he was very successful.\u003cbr\u003e But something was missing.\u003cbr\u003e In 1980, a close brush with death aboard a burning cruise ship in the North Pacific forced him to a deeper search for how he could put his ideals for a better world into action. He found the perfect vehicle in the Giraffe Heroes Project, an international organization that inspires people to stick their necks out for the common good and gives them tools to succeed. He’s been a leader of the Project since 1983.\u003cbr\u003e Learning from the courageous men and women honored by the Project, and from his own life experiences, Graham has for the last 20 years been teaching people how to stick their necks out to help solve public problems in their communities and beyond. Now he’s put what he knows into this book.\u003cbr\u003e A familiar keynote speaker, Graham talks on themes of risk taking, meaning, and service at national and regional conferences of all kinds, and to companies, service organizations, advocacy groups, universities, schools, churches, government agencies, trade unions, leadership groups, and outdoor clubs. His interactive workshops help people to deal with conflicts, and to create and communicate visions for success that inspire others and attract resources.\u003cbr\u003e Graham walks his talk: in the 1990s he was a leader of an environmental coalition in the Pacific Northwest, where he lives, and now he is an international peacemaker, active in the Middle East and Africa.\u003cbr\u003e Graham has done TV and radio all over the world. Articles about him have appeared in major magazines and newspapers. Previous books include Outdoor Leadership: Technique, Common Sense \u0026amp; Self-Confidence (Seattle: Mountaineers Books, 1997) and It’s Up to Us (Langley, WA: Giraffe Heroes Project, 1999).\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e He has a bachelor’s degree in geology from Harvard University and a master’s degree in engineering from Stanford University, neither of which he ever expects to use.INTRODUCTION\u003cbr\u003e WHAT DO YOU CARE ABOUT?\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e 1\u003cbr\u003e One of the great liabilities of history is that all too many people fail to remain awake through great periods of social change. Every society has its protectors of the status quo and its fraternities of the indifferent.… But today our very survival depends on our ability to stay awake, to adjust to new ideas, to remain vigilant and to face the challenge of change.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e MARTIN LUTHER KING JR.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e USER’S GUIDE\u003cbr\u003e Perhaps for you the problem to work on is already clear: you see a pressing challenge that’s not getting handled, for example, or a government or corporate policy you think is dumb or dangerous. Perhaps you’ve already joined an organization or group working on it. If that’s the case, then you might skip to chapter 1. If it’s not clear to you what problem has your name on it, however, then read on.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e WHAT ARE THE public problems that test our times?\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e At the local level, “public problems” might include anything that makes your community less supportive and safe, such as failing schools, violence, poverty, home-lessness, transportation snarls, unwise development, or corrupt and ineffective government.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e Many of these same problems exist at the regional and national levels, in addition to rising health-care costs, environmental pollution, and shredded social-welfare nets.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e And while there are more than enough public problems and challenges at home, we’re all citizens of a rapidly shrinking world, where the effects of globalization, terrorism, and regional conflicts make us all more aware of just how close—and dangerous—that world is. The rosy future promised by global free trade has yet to be realized by most of the world’s have-nots, who know very well from television and the Internet how the other half lives. Warlords in failed states make violence an everyday event for much of the world’s population. Half the planet is becoming a powder keg of frustrated expectations—and a recruiting ground for global terrorism.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e Behind all these problems is a larger one. The end of the Cold War freed up resources and created unparalleled opportunities to advance the causes of peace and justice, both at home and abroad. Instead, in my view, we’ve produced a profound and selfish shal-lowness. Especially in the western world, we’ve become consumers more than citizens. What happened to the concept of the common good? Of looking beyond the welfare of ourselves and our families and paying serious attention to the welfare of others we may not know, and of the planet we all live on?2\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e image The challenge now is to take responsibility, not just for solving the problems staring us in the face, but for doing so in ways that revive the common good—that bring people closer together instead of pushing them further apart. This book describes those ways.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e WHAT PROBLEM DO YOU TAKE ON?\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e ■ Problems in Your Face\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e Sometimes a problem confronts you in ways that are direct and personal. Giraffe Lois Gibbs, for example, became a crusader against toxic waste when she saw her own kids getting sick (see sidebar, page 4). Here’s how some kids found their problem, right at their schoolhouse door.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e image\u003cbr\u003e The Discovery School, in Coupeville, Washington, is a public school for kids challenged by schoolwork, discipline, or both. Following the Giraffe curriculum then used by the school, the kids asked themselves what problem they cared about most. The choice was easy. Several students had almost been hit by cars that were speeding past the school grounds, ignoring the speed limit to get to the nearby ferry landing. The kids knew that these weren’t the only close calls, and that if something wasn’t done, somebody was going to get seriously hurt or killed. The lack of traffic safety around their school was the problem they wanted to tackle.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e The students started off their project by videotaping speeding cars, clocking them with a stopwatch on a measured distance, and graphing the results. Then they interviewed workers in the area about close calls these people had seen. With that data in hand, they got a state trooper to confirm their findings with his radar gun. They got one of the county commissioners to visit their school to see the problem for himself, and then they made a formal presentation to all the commissioners. The result was a $12,000 traffic light, a crosswalk, and the admiration of everyone who witnessed what they’d accomplished. 3\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e ■ Suggestions for Your Search\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e Maybe there isn’t a problem right in front of you, but you’re open to getting involved if one appears. Don’t wait for somebody else to find it for you. Actively seek that challenge important to you and then take it on with everything you’ve got. Here are some suggestions for your search.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e Look around. Look at all the things in your community and country and world that you think aren’t going right. For example:\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e Are there people in your community who don’t have enough food or who have no shelter?\u003cbr\u003e Are you concerned about the impact of money on politics?\u003cbr\u003e Is the air where you live fit to breathe and the water fit to drink?\u003cbr\u003e Are there global problems that concern you: environmental or economic problems, for example, or human rights problems? In today’s interconnected world, local actions, such as consumer boycotts, can have global impacts. It was consumer pressure, for example, that led Home Depot to stop making patio furniture out of wood from old-growth forests overseas.\u003cbr\u003e Which of these problems do you care most about? Which do you always seem to be talking about with your friends? Which animate your voice and body language?\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e 4\u003cbr\u003e image Watch the local and national news every night, and read the newspaper. Ask your spouse and friends—and your kids, if you have any—what they think needs fixing. Then make a list of the problems that resonate most with you.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e Take an inventory of your background and experiences, and of what you like to do and what you’re good at. Those elements are not in your life as accidents. If you assume, as I do, that there is purpose to existence, then it’s hard to avoid the conclusion that personal attributes, whether innate or acquired, are there in order to be used. So if you’re really good at working with preschoolers, or giving speeches, or balancing budgets, consider these as indicators of where your path of service may lie.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e image Make a résumé—or update the one you have—as if you were applying for a job as an active citizen. Then read it as if you were the “employer.” What job would you hire yourself to do?\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e Don’t rely too much on your mind. The answers you seek will come at least as much from your heart as from your head.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e image Take some quiet time and be open to signs, hunches, and intuitive leaps that might help you find your path.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e It’s Not All or Nothing\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e 5\u003cbr\u003e Sticking your neck out to help solve public problems—becoming an active citi-zen—doesn’t necessarily mean bailing out of the for-profit world. There are great opportunities in that world, not just to produce needed products at fair prices, but also to provide decent livelihoods for workers, to contribute to communities, and to model what it takes to combine a civic consciousness with a successful bottom line.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e It also doesn’t necessarily mean upending your life. It may simply mean doing what you do in a different way. Once, after a speech I’d given in Florida, I was stopped in the hall by the publisher of a major newspaper, a man who’d reached the top of his profession in his mid-40s and saw no more peaks to reach. “How can I step down from all this?” he asked. I asked him why he wanted to step down at all. His state was dealing with unchecked growth, racial violence, and a deteriorating environment. What if he were to transform his mission from selling newspapers into helping solve those problems? With a mission of service, he could stay right where he was, stick his neck out, and use his own editorial pages to help create and promote solutions.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e Finally, active citizenship is not about being a superhero. It’s about starting from where you are, using your talents, personality, enthusiasm, and preferences. You don’t have to save the world—maybe the problems that grab your attention are small. Maybe they have to do with some big, pressing social concern, and maybe they don’t. Your cause doesn’t have to be something intrinsically noble, like feeding the hungry or freeing the oppressed. Most problems are much more “ordinary” than that, but that doesn’t mean they are any less worth solving, or that doing so would be any less satisfying.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e I worked with Evelyn Schaeffer, a remarkable activist in rural Ohio whose problem was getting her phone company to provide toll-free calling within Ashtabula County. Schaeffer saw that having to make long-distance calls to people who were nearly neighbors not only ran up the bill, but it also stifled a sense of community. The crusade she led improved the quality of life for a lot of people in one little corner of Ohio. As she wrote recently, “What we did succeeded, and that mattered to me, to all the others who worked on the campaign, and to all those people who still stop me in the street and say, ‘You’re the lady who got us decent phone service.’” 6\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e A GIRAFFE STORY\u003cbr\u003e Lois Gibbs\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e As a young housewife and mother, Lois Gibbs learned that her Love Canal neighborhood, in Niagara Falls, New York, was built on a toxic-waste dump. Her children were sick, possibly fatally. She had to do something. Gibbs set out to talk to neighbors about what they could do. But she was so unsure of herself that she quit after knocking on one door. Reminding herself that people’s lives were at stake, she went back out and knocked on door after door. People called her nuts, or “that hysterical housewife.”\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e “Experts” told her she didn’t know what she was talking about, but she kept on, gradually persuading other people to question what was going on and not to trust the corporate polluters and government officials who said that nothing was wrong. Eventually, the effort she started got all 900 families in Love Canal relocated.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e Gibbs also went to Congress, where she made sure that what had happened at Love Canal powered a drive to create the Superfund, a multibillion-dol-lar federal program that forces polluters to clean up their toxic messes.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e Gibbs went on to found the Citizens’ Clearinghouse for Hazardous Wastes, now called the Center for Health, Environment and Justice, which helps other toxin-plagued communities not only clean up the poisons, but also work for safe jobs, drinkable water, uncontaminated foods, recycling, and reduction and proper disposal of wastes. The center has an active membership of over 5,000 grassroots organizations and handles about 1,500 requests for assistance every year.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e Lois Gibbs went from being a shy housewife, afraid to talk to her neighbors, to being a national leader on an issue of vital concern, all because keeping her family and other families safe from toxic wastes meant so much to her. She didn’t find the meaning in her life from getting her picture in the papers—although she did become famous. She found her meaning in service, first to her kids, and then to the nation.","brand":"Berrett-Koehler Publishers","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":46304569655525,"sku":"NP9781576753040","price":14.95,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1842\/7735\/files\/9781576753040.jpg?v=1767737321","url":"https:\/\/k12savings.com\/products\/stick-your-neck-out-isbn-9781576753040","provider":"K12savings","version":"1.0","type":"link"}