Entries Tagged 'strategy' ↓

Despite a silly cover, Michael Donaldson’s book Fearless Negotiating: The Wish-Want-Walk Method to Reaching Agreements that Work is a very good read, even if you don’t do much negotiating.

The premise of the book is simple: before you walk into to any negotiation you should prepare yourself by knowing you Wish, your Want, and and your Walk away point.

Wish: You wish is where, if everything goes perfectly, you would like the negotiation to end up. Think big. Get everyone on board. Start by creating a grand plan and then whittling it down to a manageable number of wishes. Now you know where you hope things will go.

Want: Your want is where you think the negotiation will end up. You’ve researched the field, you know the people you’re negotiating with, and this is where you expect things to end up.

Walk: You walk point is where you say, “I can’t make this agreement, this is giving up too much,” and you are ready to walk away. You won’t make an agreement that is worse than your walk away point. This is similar to what Getting to Yes calls you Best Alternative to a Negotiated Agreement.

That’s it! It is a beautifully simple system.

Of course, simple is not the same as easy. It takes work to do the soul-searching to come up with your wish. It takes work to do the research to have a well-informed want. And it takes work to develop the discipline to write down your walk and be ready to hold to it.

But when you do that work, it smooths the path for a productive negotiation.

Since you know your wish, you an ready to start the negotiation with your big vision and to negotiate from there.

Since you know your walk, you are unlikely to feel “buyers remorse” or worry you made a bad deal.

Since you know where you stand, you’re better positioned to listen to the others in the negotiaiton.

Since you’ve gotten buy-in on your wish-want-walk, you avoid criticism from making a “bad deal.” People have already agreed what’s a good deal and what’s an unacceptable deal.

And this system applies to more than just classical negotiation situations. As I look to the future of ICPJ, I can use Wish-Want-Walk to figure out where I would like the organization to go, where I think it will go, and what future directions would tell me it’s time to move on.

A good friend of mine gave me a copy of Bitch Magazine: A Feminist Response to Pop Culture.

Now, sometimes my reading gets a bit behind, so this issue is from 2004, but it had a great interview with Jennifer Abbot who co-directed The Corporation, a documentary critiquing corporate personhood.

The movie includes a discussion of how Ray Anderson, CEO of the world’s largest commercial carpet manufacturer, decided to focus his company on ecologically sustainable production.

To me, this shows the danger of the “don’t even talk to the bosses” approach of Jeffrey Shantz in We Are Everywhere.

We do need to talk to them. We do need to pressure them. Abbott tells us that “Anderson’s paradigm shift happened through pressure exerted by customers and employees–so the strategy of applying pressure on a corporation to be environmentally sustainable can have an effect. ”

It’s not the only strategy, but it’s a valuable one.

I’ve really been enjoying We Are Everywhere. It has challenged me to seriously consider some of the anti-capitalist analysis that I had previously dismissed.

Their chapter Networks: The Ecology of the Movement is a fascinating analysis of how decentralized networks of activists can create powerful actions, such as the Seattle WTO protest. It disabuses some myths of network-based organizing (such as they create events “spontaneously”).

The authors take their cue from ants: nobody tells them where to go but they are very effective of finding the best food, sharing work, and keeping the colony alive. Looking at ant networks, they propose four rules for effective network organizing:

1. More is different: The power of networks is to have lots of individuals and small groups generating ideas, making discoveries and proposing these actions, and then to interconnect these small actors so that ideas can spread.

2. Stay small: When you get too big, communication breaks down, hierarchies emerge, and the network loses it’s dynamism. So, when groups start to reach that point, they need to divide like an amoeba…or an ant colony!

3. Encourage randomness: Just like an ant’s “random” wanderings may find a new food source, a network and a movement need some randomness to find new ways to adapt, respond, and grow.

4. Listen to your neighbors: Knowledge in a network flows horizontally, not vertically. So, for that to work, you need to connect to your neighbors and share ideas, lessons,  and information with them.

Powerful ideas, and network organizing is certainly an important tool to have at hand. That said, I’m left with some questions:

1. Does network organizing lead people to only do the fun jobs and projects? Door-to-door canvassing, fundraising, reaching out to people who aren’t already on board: none of these are as fun as organizing a reclaim the streets party, but I think they are just as vital for the movement. In a network-based organizing model, is there the structure to get these less glamorous jobs done?

2. Do we have anything in common? In a completely leaderless, flat, non-hierarchical movement, is there enough common experience or language to hold us together? For example, Dr. King’s Letter from Birmingham Jail and Beyond Vietnam speech were two powerful pieces that gave people common frames for discussing the movement. Do we loose this common language in a network-only environment?

Give the article a read. It’s worth a good think.

So, after complaining about how we always need to start from scratch to come up with campaign plans or other lessons from other community organizers, I turned to the true font of all wisdom and knowledge, Google, and found a few resources to help with ballot initiative campaign plans.

First of all, the Campaign Plan for the Florida Minimum Wage Campaign is quite interesting. The fact that this version is hosted on a conservative website tells you something, though. If nothing else, when running a ballot initiative, don’t say that it will change the outcome of a presidentatial election right there on page one. That’s a no-no.

Next, we have a PowerPoint presentation about successful transit funding ballot initiatives. There are some very interesting points in there about how to frame the issue and neutralize opposition. It also led me to the Ballot Initiative Strategy Center. There’s not much on their website, but I’m hoping for some good things from them.

And finally, the Sierra Nevada Alliance has a great organizing manual that includes both a chapter on campaign plans and a sample campaign plan.

There was plenty of other information on candidate campaigns, but I’d still like to see more campaign plan swapping for both ballot initiative campaigns on non-lobbying 501(c)(3) campaigns.

If you want to open a Subway franchise, the company will walk you through the whole process from marketing plans to HR policies.

When community organizers plan campaigns, we often are making it up as we go.

For example, right now at ICPJ  mobilizes a Washtenaw County coalition for the Health Care for Michigan Campaign, we’re on our own for creating a campaign plan that includes outreach methods, coordination, media, volunteer, and funding.

It doesn’t have to be that way.

Why can’t we have access to sample campaign plans from other campaigns like the Massachusetts health care campaign or the Florida minimum wage campaign?

One of the exciting developments in the human services sector is an effort to learn from effective programs and standardize their lessons. For example, the DC Central Kitchen has developed a kick-ass program for training formerly homeless people kitchen skills so that they can become competitive workers and have a sense of accomplishment when they finish the program. Now, they have standardized this program so that other communities can copy it.

Consider it open-source social services.

Why can’t community organizers go open source? Why can’t we post our campaign plans (after-the-fact of course) as well as an analysis of what worked and what didn’t?

I would love to see as many successful grassroots campaigns as there are successful Subway franchises, but we won’t get there if we always have to make  up our campaigns from scratch.

In the chapter “Taking Troy,” in Begging for Change, Roger Egger introduces the idea of the “calculated epiphany.”

His thinking goes like this. Folks are overwhelmed with direct messages about problems and programs. Those messages don’t work anymore. So you need a stealth way to change their worldview. You need a marketing Trojan Horse that will slip past the gates.

You need a calculated epiphany.

Here’s an example. The for-profit catering firm made up of DC Central Kitchen grads caters a black tie reception. At the end of the night, Egger introduces the kitchen and wait staff, gets a round of applause for them, and then tells folks that they are homeless or formerly homeless. The power of their transformation impresses people and gets them to start changing their ideas about the homeless. (Of course, this would only work after the dinner and after the guests have eaten good food and gotten good service.)

So far, so good. I agree this is a powerful way to change people’s views.

But I disagree with Egger when he takes to task some of the print ads and how they use emotion to make their point.

For example, he critiques an ad by the Ad Council and America’s Second Harvest. The add is a tear-jerker with the picture of a young (white) girl and the text:

Julie is cold. She has chicken skin, she says. She woke up in the middle of the night shivering because I turned the heat down. I’m afraid if my bill gets too high I won’t have any money left for food. I pull Julie close and hug her tight. She says she will be fine-she knows she’s not really a chicken.

Egger makes two critiques of this ad. First, he asks “now what?”  Here I agree with him. There isn’t a call to action. The ad doesn’t lead people to do anything.

His proposed ad reads like this:

Everyday, Second Harvest Food Banks save empowerment programs across this country tens of millions of dollars so they can focus on job training, literacy classes, and after-school program so that families like this can live independently

Second harvest-Using Food as a Tool to Combat Hunger and Build Communities, one family at a time.

I ask Egger the same question, “now what?” What do you want me to do?

Also, Egger asserts this will be a more effective ad. I want to see the evidence. Most of the research I’ve seen says that emotion compels action, not statistics and arguments.

Here Egger is acting on ideology, not evidence, and I find it disappointing.

After blogging heavily about “Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion,” by Robert Cialdini, I just want to make a few wrap-up notes.

One great summary of the book is Cialdini’s six basic tenets of how influence works on the Influence blog (which is also a good source for continued discussion of the topic).

Persuasion is about getting people to say “yes.” It can be done with integrity or with duplicity, and there’s a fair amount of gray area. But if we want to make change in the world, at a fundamental level we are in the persuasion business.

If you don’t agree with me, that’s fine. Let me buy you a cup of coffee and we’ll talk about it.

The last chapter of by “Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion,” by Robert Cialdini talks about the role that scarcity plays in persuasion.

People want things that are in short supply.

In particular, people want things that they used to have but no longer do.

Here’s one way sales staff misuse this tool. They’ll have an item on the showroom at a sale price, so people will look at it, start to get interested, and then the salesperson will say, “we’ve just sold our last one.”

There’s the scarcity. It used to be an option for them, but they no longer have the option. Now it is even more desirable.

So here’s how the salesperson finishes the trap. He’ll say, “I can check if our other stores have any left, but before I do, I want to know that you’re interested in buying it if I find one.” Now they’ve blended scarcity with commitment. The people have gone from mildly interested to covetous and committed to buying the now-scarce item.

What does this mean for organizers?

We’re certainly not going to manipulate people like an unscrupulous dishwasher salesman, but we can still use scarcity to our advantage–and do so with integrity. Part of it is just letting people know what scarcity there is. “Just 5 tickets left.” “We’ve almost sold out of peace calendars–buy yours today.”

Truthfully, though, this principle is harder for us to use. We just don’t have enough scarcity.

Maybe we should make more.

I’ve just finished reading The Art of Innovation, and although it focuses on the product design work of IDEO, it has many lessons that can be applied to community organizing.

My favorite chapter of the book was the one on brainstorming, which is a key part of the IDEO innovation method.

Here are the Seven Secrets for Better Brainstorming:

1. Sharpen the Focus: “Good brainstormers start with a well-honed statement of the problem.” Without a clear understanding of the problem your brainstorming solutions for, you’ll wander around without focus and without clarity.
2. Playful Rule: “Don’t start to critique or debate ideas. It can sap the energy of the session pretty quickly.”
3. Number your ideas: This helps do 2 things. First, it can motivate people, “Let’s try to get 100 ideas before we leave the room,” which helps you go for quantity. Second, it makes it easier to refer to previous ideas without losing track of where you were.
4. Build and Jump: When you build, you take one idea and build on other ideas that relate to it. For example, “Shock absorbers are a great idea; now, what are some other ways to reduce spillage when the bicycle hits a bump?” When you jump you move back to an earlier path you skipped to quickly or forward to an entirely new path. Whether it’s building or jumping, the idea is to keep the energy high throughout the session.
5. The Space Remembers: Writing the ideas up with a sharpie on big paper not only keeps the focus of the group, but when you go back to previous ideas, being in the physical space of the previous idea helps re-capture the mindset the group was in then. That’s why IDEO encourages covering every surface with paper before the brainstorm.
6. Stretch your mental muscles. It can help a brainstorm to warm up before hand, especially if they are now to working with each other, don’t brainstorm regularly, or is distracted by pressing or unrelated issues.  How can you warm up? One approach that works for IDEO is to play a fast-paced word game to get people into the moment and into an outgoing frame of mind.
7. Get Physical: Include sketches, drawing, mind-maps, diagrams, etc. Go even farther, bring in props that relate to the subject of the brainstorm, or things to model 3-D images of what you’re working on

The book also offers six ways to kill a brainstorm

1. The boss gets to speak first: The boss can limit ideas and set boundaries that turn off the creative spigot.
2. Everybody gets a turn: Follow the energy of the discussion, not some imposed order that kills energy.
3. Experts only please: Some of the best ideas come from people who approach the question with fresh eyes.
4. Do it off-site: You can brainstorm wherever and whenever. If you make it seem like it has to be off site, then you limit the power of this tool.
5. No Silly stuff: Silly stuff opens up the door for creative ideas and helps overcome self-censorship.
6. write down everything: if the participants are taking notes, they are focused on the notes rather than generating ideas.

There’s plenty of other great stuff in the book, such as the chapter “Innovation starts with an eye,” which reminds us that that good design is user-centered (just like good organizing is community-centered) and the discussion of really working to understand your audience. They talk about going beyond just surveys and focus groups to really watching how your audience behaves, and drawing lessons from that.

(A big thank-you to Andy Goodman  for recommending this book in his excellent Free Range Thinking newsletter.)

Why should you read Finding Strategy: A Survey of Contemporary Contributions to Progressive Strategy?

Because if progressive voices are going to win, we need to have a plan! In Finding Strategy, Wolfgang Brauner and Charles Knight examine different strategies that progressives have used. They don’t evaluate them, they just describe them. It’s a useful way to consider the different perspectives on how we can change the world.

(Thank you Gilbert Report for the link)