Posted on October 18, 2011 by Hadley Earabino

Occupy Wall Street demonstrators are entering their second month of protesting and they are getting increasing pressure to issue their demands. Maybe it’s better to ask a small number of pointed questions instead.

If I was going to coach the folks over at Occupy Wall Street, I’d ask them, “How can you make your message stickier?” Coaching might help them create a message that’s easy to understand, easy to remember and appeals to more people.

(See the book “Made to Stick” for what I mean by “stickier.” Not sticky: “We want to maximize shareholder value” Sticky: “We want to put a man on the moon by the end of the decade.”)

“We occupy Wall Street as a symbolic gesture of our discontent with the current economic and political climate,” just isn’t very sticky.

It’s not easy to create a message that is memorable, clear and inspiring. My two favorite signs are the most colorful, but don’t really illustrate the core message:

“One Day The Poor Will Have Nothing Left to Eat But The Rich.”

“Shit is Fucked up and BullShit.”

In fact, a group of coaches has come together to help the movement “strengthen their voice,” and help protesters “find their purpose.” The coalition is called Coaching Visionaries and has a newly-built website and a Facebook page, along with a .pdf document called Welcome to Coaching Visionaries.

In this document, they offer five questions for activists who would like to work with one of the coaches associated with “Coaching Visionaries.” I’ll paraphrase the questions here:

1. What gets you fired up about Occupy Wall Street?
2. What matters most to you in life and motivates you to move and change?
3. What personal strengths do you want to utilize in this movement?
4. What is your role in the movement?
5. Was there a time in your life you did something you were very proud of?

Readers are asked to answer these questions–printed on the back of a flyer– and then bring them to the coalition of coaches in order to explore their purpose within the movement.

I think this is a great example of how coaching can help, not just individuals, but groups as well. By asking the right questions of the individual protesters, the general message of Occupy Wall Street can get stronger, stickier, and more powerful.

Maybe Occupy Wall Street will narrow their focus down to a handful of pointed questions. As coaches know, it’s not about having the right answer, it’s about having the right questions.