Getting Gen 1 To Enlist Others

I'm learning a lot about what's easy and what's hard as we promote Topple Two Night.  One of the surprising things is that  people who have signed up have not recruited others - despite being proded to do so (although not very hard).  I would have thought that generation 1 would have brought in another wave of Topplers (gen 2).

I'm very pleased with the number of people signed up (30 and counting), but I would have thought that some of those people would have said to someone "hey, this is super cool, you should check it out."  Now, maybe they have tried to recruit others and the friction in the system (there's a fair amount) has stopped the topple from spreading.  But still, all that you need to do to get someone else to play along is say "email [email protected] to learn more."  We tried to keep it pretty simple.

I continue to be fascinated by the process of what is involved in moving from a receiver of a domino to a "tipper" (someone that passes on the domino or recruits others).  I've come to believe the receiver needs the following to become a Toppler: incentive, education, inspiration.  And everyone needs these in different doses, and the tipper has a range of capabilities in providing them to the receiver.  Anyway, more on that later...

So, if we have a nice (although small) set of generation 1 Topplers signed up, how come they haven't recruited more yet?  There must not be enough incentive, education, or inspiration.  Each of those catagories have a huge range of dynamics themselves.  And we've done very little to push on any of them.

But again, if you were me, wouldn't you expect that if a bunch of people said "I would love to participate," and they were asked to recruit others, that they would have some success doing so? 

My conclusion is that being an effective Creator or topples mean making sure there's plenty of incentives, education, and inspiration to motive and prepare others to help spread the cause/purpose of the topple.

Comments

[Laura Olinger]

Herb - one of the barriers I see to this is making it unique enough that it doesn't occur in the "another thing to do" nor "getting someone else to do something.' We all have very busy, full lives, and are asked to so many things. I am constantly asking people to do volunteer, organize, participate...so this one has to hit that fun and inspiring note right off. I'm hoping there will be more momentum, more juice to the inspirational piece after Topple Two night.

[Herb Morreale]

I totally agree on the "fun" comment. I'm coming to realize that more and more. It's particularly true for a pay-it-forward style topple. There are other kinds where the each toppler in the chain has a strong sense of mission tied to the original purpose, and in those cases it's great when it's fun but less important. For example, if you had a parent start a topple about kids with cancer, and each domino moved only to parents in similar situations, I think the topple continues on without it needing a "fun" part. But even in that case, you can find a way to keep it light, and I think that helps.