Defining the ProblemDefining the Problemwith perhaps excessive text excerpts from

Jonathan Swift’s “A Modest Proposal”

The Goal: Compel the target audience to The Goal: Compel the target audience to make a change by implementing your ideas. make a change by implementing your ideas.

Define the problem asSignificant & affecting significant peoplePressing, due to

◦Compromised values◦Postponed & abandoned goals ◦Impending negative consequences

Solvable, if there is the willWorth the solution’s cost

◦higher costs require more vigorous justification◦Probable positive consequences

Define the problem by Define the problem by summarizing existing consensussummarizing existing consensus

I think it is agreed by all parties that this prodigious number of children in the arms, or on the backs, or at the heels of their mothers, and frequently of their fathers, is in the present deplorable state of the kingdom a very great additional grievance; and, therefore, whoever could find out a fair, cheap, and easy method of making these children sound, useful members of the commonwealth, would deserve so well of the public as to have his statue set up for a preserver of the nation.

Define causes by examining Define causes by examining a parallel situation a parallel situation

My conversation with a student… Why don’t people critique more? In online communities, he says, feedback

is rated—like/don’t like—and tends to be mainly positive. Negative feedback can often be mean, from ‘jerks.’ No one wants to be a jerk. Aha.

Define significance with analogiesDefine significance with analogies

Snow emergency No Parking signs are posted in the middle of the night

What if the government raised taxes on April 14th and then fined people for underpaying taxes?

What if a teacher tested students on a never assigned chapter?

What if a town changed the speed limit but didn’t post the new speed?

Define significance by humanizing Define significance by humanizing & dramatizing via description, & dramatizing via description, narrative & visualsnarrative & visuals

“Homeroom Zombies”

It is a melancholy object to those who walk through this great town or travel in the country, when they see the streets, the roads, and cabin doors, crowded with beggars of the female sex, followed by three, four, or six children, all in rags and importuning every passenger for an alms. These mothers, instead of being able to work for their honest livelihood, are forced to employ all their time in strolling to beg sustenance for their helpless infants: who as they grow up either turn thieves for want of work, or leave their dear native country…

Define the problem with dataDefine the problem with data

What is wrong with the current system of fire and EMS within Rensselaer County? Many are simply unaware of the problem. Despite having only 152,538 citizens (Wikipedia Contributors) 60 responding agencies provide emergency services within the county. Forty-three of these agencies are Fire Departments, each with on average 5 vehicles. Seventeen additional agencies provide Emergency Medical Services (Rensco). An estimated 215 vehicles within Rensselaer County are dedicated to Fire and EMS. For an area of 654 square miles that may not seem like many until one realizes that is 1 vehicle for every 3 square miles of land!

From Rensselaer County Fire and Rescue: A From Rensselaer County Fire and Rescue: A reorganized Emergency Services for Rensselaer reorganized Emergency Services for Rensselaer

County, By Brent Campbell, EMAC 2010County, By Brent Campbell, EMAC 2010

Even more pressing is the lack of use of these vehicles; many Fire Departments answer at best a call per week, some trucks will sit for a month at a time. Emergency Medical Services on average have two or more ambulances [.…] It is now easy to see how over-saturated EMS and Fire is within Rensselaer County, this equates to higher taxes for maintenance and replacement of vehicles plus the huge task of managing 60 agencies within the county.

The number of souls in this kingdom being usually reckoned one million and a half, of these I calculate there may be about two hundred thousand couple whose wives are breeders; from which number I subtract thirty thousand couples who are able to maintain their own children, although I apprehend there cannot be so many, under the present distresses of the kingdom;

Skipping ahead to the modest proposal….

I have been assured by a very knowing American of my acquaintance in London, that a young healthy child well nursed is at a year

old a most delicious, nourishing, and wholesome food, whether stewed, roasted, baked, or boiled; and I make no doubt that it will equally serve in a fricassee or a ragout.

I do therefore humbly offer it to public consideration that of the hundred and twenty thousand children already computed, twenty thousand may be reserved for breed, [….] That the remaining hundred thousand may, at a year old, be offered to the persons of quality and fortune through the kingdom; […] A child will make two dishes at an entertainment for friends; and when the family dines alone, the fore or hind quarter will make a reasonable dish, and seasoned with a little pepper or salt will be very good boiled on the fourth day, especially in winter.

A Modern Modest Proposal

““The Yes Men Fix the World””

 Andy Bichlbaum and Mike Bonanno, attacking problems by raising awareness

Define the problem by:

Summarizing existing consensusReviewing the complexity of processesExamining a parallel situation or analogyHumanizing & dramatizing via description

& visualsSupplying dataAnd…visit Social Entrepreneurs page