# Presentation: 460029

## Welcome to the 2006      National 4-H Conference

- Cathann Kress, Director
- National 4-H Headquarters

## The Power of Youth

- How 4-H youth *LIKE YOU* have changed the world
- Three Ideas about Change
- Why you are NOT leaders of tomorrow

## What do you think “POWER” is?

- When you hear the phrase,
- “The Power of Youth” –
- what does that mean to you?

## Leading Community Change

- Average adult yield was 17 bushels per acre;
- 4-H youth grew an average of 65 bushels per acre with many growing between 150-220 bushels per acre

- Led to gardening practices that increased the variety and quality of the American diet.
- Led to food safety techniques becoming standard practice.

## The Power of 4-H

- Learning by Doing
- Leading by Example

## Leading Community Change

- Early Adopters
- How did the Early Adopters succeed in translating change to the majority?

## Ideas, messages and behaviors spread just like viruses and epidemics do.

## How Change Happens

- Innovators
-    	Early Adopters
-                 		Early Majority
- 					Late Majority
- 						      Laggards

## Change happens dramatically

## We are trained to think that what goes into any change must be directly related in intensity and dimension to what comes out.

## Prepare yourself for the possibility that sometimes BIG changes happen because of something rather small.

## Change

- Why is it some ideas lead to CHANGE while others don’t?
- What can we do to deliberately start positive change?

## Three Ideas About Change

- The Law of the Few
- The Stickiness Factor
- The Power of Context

## The Law of the Few

- 80/20 Rule – 80% of work is done by 20% of the people.
- In social change, a tiny percentage of people do the majority of the work.

## The messenger matters but so does the message.

## The Stickiness Factor

- A message makes an impact when you can’t get it out of your head.

## The Tetanus Story

- Tetanus messages:  “high fear” and “low fear” and free shots
- 100% could report the dangers
- Those given “high fear” messages more likely to report they *should* get inoculated
- Only 3% actually did (didn’t stick)

## What made the message stick?

- They repeated the messages but included a map and hours when the shots were available.

- THIS WAY TODAY AT 3:00

## The Secret of “Stickiness”

- The message needs to be practical and personal- “Tell me what to do, when to do it...”
- Not louder, more repetitive or proven through more research.

## Power of Context

- We are heavily influenced by our environment.
- Key to getting people to change often lies with the smallest details of their immediate surroundings.

## The Ketchup Story

- High School with 36% minorities
- Fistfights literally every day at lunch
- 5 story building; 22 minutes for lunch

## Power of Context

- People will always assume that you
- can explain events based on personal
- issues rather than looking for
- contextual ones (structure, environment).

## Changing the World

- We have become
- convinced that we
- need to tackle the
- whole problem all
- at once.
-               We don’t.

## Doing a Lot with a Little

- 4-H has always been about changing the world one young person at a time.
- 4-H is
- Learning by Doing *AND *
- Leading by Example

## Look at the World Around You

- It might seem like an immovable place
- But it’s not.

## What do you need to be among the FEW who change the world?

- You need to be a “connector”
- Connected to other people, other groups
- Connected to information
- You need to be able to focus efforts on the small and personal
- You need to be convincing through your energy, enthusiasm, charm, likeability and optimism

## The World Needs You Today

- You are not the leaders of tomorrow—

- You are leaders today.