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There is a reason charity appeals often show you one child’s face, or a a lone sad-eyed puppy.
A study by researchers Deborah Small, George Loewenstein, and Paul Slovic found that our brains react very differently to a single, identifiable individual in need compared to hundreds.
When we’re faced with overwhelming statistics – ‘thousands starving’ or ‘millions displaced’ – our empathy can actually shut down. It’s too big, too abstract. Our brains get overloaded, leading to what some call compassion fatigue or psychic numbing.
But show us an individual, give them a name, a face, a story – and things change. We connect emotionally. We can picture their specific struggle and imagine how our donation directly helps them. Your £10 suddenly is no longer a drop in an ocean; it’s the meal that feeds that child for a week. This tangible impact, this personal connection, is a far more powerful motivator than any statistic.
The bigger the unit the more pessimistic we get about it.
When faced with vast issues like global warming or national debt, we feel a deep lack of control and efficacy.
Conversely, smaller units of change, like a local community, breed optimism. Here, problems are concrete, solutions feel tangible, and our actions have visible impact. We feel a sense of agency and ownership.
This explains why focusing on community-level efforts is so powerful – it taps into our innate need to feel that we can genuinely make a difference.
Last week I was in Dublin at the brilliant HSE #SparkSummit25 , which brought together over 500 health innovators from across the Republic of Ireland, many of them showcasing bottom up innovations.
I outlined how the principle holds true for healthcare: the larger the unit of change, the greater the pessimism. National health systems, like the NHS, often trigger widespread pessimism. The immense size makes problems seem insurmountable, fostering a sense of individual powerlessness. How can anyone fix issues for millions across vast areas? The bureaucracy and abstraction overwhelm us.
But zoom into the problem at community level, and we get more optimistic. Here, problems are tangible: a specific street’s lack of healthy food, or a local clinic’s access issues. Solutions become relatable, and can be co-designed by residents and frontline staff who understand the local context. Initiatives like the HSE Spark Innovation Programme fund initiatives and empower those on the ground to innovate, seeing immediate, visible impacts. This direct connection, leveraging local assets, makes change feel achievable and meaningful, turning abstract challenges into hopeful, practical improvements.
By embracing the community as the primary unit, healthcare transformation becomes more human, more responsive, and genuinely optimistic.
At the street level ‘they’ becomes ‘we’.
The power of community as the most effective unit of change stems from a few key factors:
Shared Identity and Trust: People in a community often share a sense of identity, a common bond that fosters trust and a willingness to work together. This intrinsic social capital is a powerful engine for change.
Local Knowledge and Nuance: No external expert can match the granular understanding that local residents have of their own place – its history, its social dynamics, its specific needs, and its hidden strengths.
Agency and Ownership: When community members are involved in identifying problems and co-creating solutions, they develop a profound sense of ownership. This translates into greater commitment, resilience, and a sustained effort to see initiatives through.
Agility and Adaptability: Large-scale systems are often slow to respond. Communities, being smaller and more agile, can experiment, adapt, and pivot more quickly in response to emerging needs or unforeseen challenges.
Leveraging Existing Assets: Every community possesses assets – be it strong social networks, local businesses, voluntary groups, or passionate individuals. Place-based working at the community level focuses on identifying and amplifying these existing strengths, rather than solely focusing on deficits.
When we empower communities, we’re not just tackling local issues; we’re also combating the widespread pessimism that can paralyse larger-scale change efforts. Seeing tangible improvements on the doorstep, driven by their own collective action, instills hope in people.
Of course it doesn’t happen by accident.
The crucial, often overlooked ingredient for community-led innovation is permission.
Permission to imagine a different way.
Permission to challenge the rules.
Permission to experiment.
Permission to fix what they see broken right on their doorstep.
The people living with the problems every single day are the ones with the best ideas for fixing them. They know their streets, their neighbours, their challenges better than someone working in a remote office , or more likely, comfortably sitting at home.
If people are optimistic and have permission, they will be creative.
Before you start another Centralised top down change initiative, you should reconsider.
Go where the hope is. Go local.
Related: Can Modern Institutions Collapse Like Ancient Civilizations?