The Slow Lane: Why Quick Fixes Fail and How to Achieve Real Change

Avoid the speed trap! Discover how changemakers can find lasting solutions to urgent social problems through a proven 5-step process for listening thoughtfully, building broad support, and exploring unconventional options.

Society celebrates leaders who promise fast, easy solutions to the world’s problems—but quick fixes are just mirages that fade, leaving us with the same broken systems. The truth is, effective social change happens through slow, intentional actions. The author, a globally acclaimed social entrepreneur, offers a 5-step process for taking the slow lane to change—the lane that gets you to the right place faster:

• Listening—Listen to build trust, which can change hearts and minds and allow for something new to emerge.
• Holding the urgency—Accept that even in moments of crisis you can move only at the speed of trust instead of rushing into action.
• Sharing the agency—Create an inclusive environment where everyone can lead.
• Healing democracy—Build bridges that allow marginalized people to participate.
• Maintaining curiosity—Be inspired by nontraditional sources.

Using dozens of examples—prison reform in England, urban development in Venezuela, healthcare in the Navajo Nation, early childhood education in New York, and many more—The Slow Lane shows how, by following the principles taught in this book, readers can create lasting change.

Sascha Haselmayer is a globally acclaimed social entrepreneur who has led urban innovation, economic development, and government innovation projects in over fifty countries. He is a senior leader at Ashoka, one of the world’s leading nongovernmental organizations, promoting social innovation in more than seventy countries. Haselmayer’s work has been covered by the New York Times, Robin Chase’s Peers Inc., Henry de Sio’s Changemaker Playbook, and Anthony Townsend’s Smart Cities, and he has been cited as an expert on city and government innovation by Time magazine and the Economist. Governments and think tanks commission Haselmayer to author reports on public policy, government innovation, cities, social entrepreneurship, and creative public procurement.