The Ice Bucket Challenge. Occupy Wall Street. CrossFit. For a discrete moment in time, each broke through the noise of popular culture and captured our attention. And then their stories faded away, leaving things largely as they were. Why didn’t these spark lasting change? Because they weren’t really movements. They were viral and even relevant, but they lacked the structure to sustain their spark.

Movements are often triggered by a single action–a woman refusing to give up her seat on a bus, two men getting married, the unveiling of a computer the size of your hand. But movements only spread and deepen when an organized network is ready and moves to outlast a single act. While they may seem spontaneous, successful movements are planned, intentional and take a long-range view of their success.





Movement-making was popularized by nonprofits, but it’s a mistake to think this is just a do-gooder’s strategy. Today, movements have broad applicability in business as an organizational strategy to authentically transform relationships among brands, employees and customers. Businesses that influence the social norms affecting their product, instead of just campaigning for sales, will see their markets created organically.

By creating the environment for loyal demand, those businesses will transcend any individual product release. Apple has nailed this, beginning with the iPod and quickly evolving into the iPhone and App Store. The norm about what can be accomplished away from your stereo or computer has vastly changed how and where we live and work and practically requires us to be near our device at all times.

For your company to be a movement-maker, you must dial in three core elements: a goal that unites, clear roles for participants and the right rewards to transform a single action into lasting change.

It’s not enough to have a mission and vision on your website. You need a highly accessible goal that is inclusive and touches a core belief.

Since 1972, Patagonia’s goal has been conservation and the company is unapologetic about it. Like all movements, Patagonia started at the fringe of societal norms, led by a core of passionate climbers. In 1991 Patagonia nearly went out of business due to its shift to a transactional strategy.