Tell me your story about the power of one

In Faith and Fortune, author Marc Gunther tells the story about Barbara Waugh, who as a non-executive, drove huge changes at HP. Barbara was a career activist for the environment and diversity who ended up at HP twenty years ago. She used street theatre techniques to demonstrate to HP execs issues within the company related to diversity and e-inclusion (giving developing nations access to the web). In the end, HP executives embraced her passion and story telling capabilities and made material changes in their social responsibility programs.

She was only one out of 100,000 people, but she made a difference. Check out an article by Marc Gunther that includes a profile on her here. She also wrote The Soul In The Computer, an endearing read.

This is the future of social responsibility: Individual employees that take their values to work and convince senior staff as to the business case for socially valuable investments/activities.

I am currently working on my third book and need your stories. I'm looking for stories like Barbara's. I want stories about how an individual saw a pressing social need and led their business to serve it. These stories will inspire and empower thousands of others to do their best to "save the world at work."

Please post your stories/ideas in comments and I will contact you by email.

Comments

[Catherine Nelson]

My office opens at 8:00 a.m. Since last summer I have been arriving at 7. It takes me about 10 minutes to get from home to work at that time. I have been consistenly frustrated with the traffic when I leave the office at 5 p.m. At a minimum it doubles my drive time. So I tried getting in at 6:55 and leaving at 4:55. That changed my commute back home to 15 minutes. Then I tried arriving and leaving at 10 til. Now both ways I was not sitting through multiple light rotations and the commute time was 10 min.
Imagine, if my office (about 90 people) allowed those who could, to arrive as early as 7:45 and then leave as early as 4:45. I believe it would be a small thing one office could do to cut down on all the negative environmental impact areas of driving.
I am working on a proposal to suggest putting this into practice.

[Justin Marantz]

Hey Tim!

We love the idea of the power of one! A few months back Mary and I (power of 2 I guess) started a project that we hope will make a huge splash in the photography industry and promote social change.

The Portrait House came about when we met the Rogers, a family displaced by Hurricane Katrina. They came to stay with a family in our church for one year, and the families became very close. I had the great privilege of photographing them together the day before the Rogers returned to New Orleans. Out of that experience, and the impact it had on us, The Portrait House was born.

The general idea is for us, and our network of photographers across the country, to donate portrait sessions in exchange for a direct donation to Habitat for Humanity. Our goal is to raise $50,000 by this time next year...enough to sponsor one house. Our hope, or better yet our dream, is that the following year we can grow enough to build many houses all over the country, thereby connecting thousands to the mission that is Habitat.

If you're interested, you can check out our launch video here:
http://www.simplephotolife.com/simplevideo/view_video.php?viewkey=a7d1f0ed65aaa29c04b1

[Tim Bursch]

Tim-
We built our company with a mission to make a difference in an overlooked community. Our for-profit (impactnorth.net) is an economic engine for social enterprises. I would love to share more.
Take care!