ORGANIZING NOTES
(2000)
Campaigns
(#9)
Introduction
This week as we discuss campaigns we begin pulling together all the elements we have discussed since the beginning of the semester. We reflected on the interests organizers hope to address, whose they were, what resources are needed to address those interests, power arrangements governing access to those resources. We looked at ways leaders bring people together to discern common interests and mobilize common resources. We reflected on how to mobilize strategically and motivationally to build relationships, share understanding, and take action. When people mobilize for civic action, they do so as organizations (in space) and campaigns (in time). Next week we discuss how we can structure organizations to help us make decisions, allocate tasks, and assign responsibility in effective ways. This week we discuss how to conduct campaigns as coordinated steams of activity focused on achieving specific goals. Campaigns unfold over time with a rhythm that slowly builds a foundation, gathers gradual momentum with preliminary peaks, culminates in a climax when the campaign is won or lost, and then achieves resolution (Campaign Chart #2). When they are done well, campaigns strengthen the organizations that give rise to them.
What are Campaigns?
Our word for campaign derives from a similar source as other words we have come across this semester -- the word for field, this time in Latin. Campaigns were conducted on fields of battle. They were concentrated, intense, had a clear beginning and end, and, usually, a winner and a loser. A campaign, was an episode in a much greater undertaking, such as winning a war, but was made of a number of battles that together comprised the campaign. A campaign was not the whole nation, but an event in the life of the nation, which strengthened it or weakened it. Conducting a campaign is not the same thing as managing an ongoing program, but it is how programs are created, strengthened, or renewed.
A campaign is a way to organize time – one of the most valuable resources we have. As Gersick shows, organizations have a temporal life as well as a spatial one. Work gets done according to the internal rhythm of an organization that may be more or less well "entrained" with the rhythm of events in its environment. Many people note, for example, that student groups need to get started in the first weeks of the semester or they wont' get started at all. After mid-semester, the rhythm changes as people focus on finishing what they've begun, rather than beginning new things. Stephen Jay Gould says that time is sometimes a "cycle" and sometimes an "arrow." Thinking of time as a "cycle" helps us to maintain our routines, our normal procedures, our annual budget, etc. Thinking of time as an "arrow" on the other hand focuses us on making change, on achieving specific outcomes, on focusing our efforts. A campaign is time as an "arrow."
Why are Campaigns Strategic and Motivational?
A campaign is a strategic and motivational way to organize our activities -- relationships, interpretation, and action. It is strategic because its is a way to link targeting, timing and tactics to maximize our power. It is motivational because it enacts the hope we can achieve our objective, as it progresses it persuades us we can make a difference, it gives our work the urgency of genuine deadlines, it energizes us with the solidarity of collaborating with others in a common cause, and it allows us to turn our dissatisfaction (anger) into constructive purpose.
Campaigns facilitate targeting resources and energy on specific objectives, one at a time. Creating something new requires intense energy and concentration -- unlike the inertia that keeps things going once they have begun. Campaigns are crucibles out of which new organizations, programs, or practices can emerge. Campaigns allow us to maximize the value of our time -- our most limited resource. We can invest energy and commitment for a limited number of days, weeks or months at levels we cannot -- and should not -- sustain for long periods of time. As a campaign ends, we consolidate our "wins" or our "losses", we return to "normal life," we regroup, and perhaps we undertake another campaign in the future. The "adventurous" quality of a campaign facilitates the development of relationships more quickly -- and with greater intensity -- than would ordinarily be the case. We more easily come to share a common "story" that we all take part in authoring. How did Gandhi, Chavez, Mandela, the Orange Hats or DSNI target their efforts? Why?
The timing of a campaign is structured as an unfolding narrative or story. It begins with a foundation period (prologue), starts crisply with a kick-off (curtain goes up), builds slowly to successive peaks (act one, act two), culminates in a final peak determining the outcome (denouement), and is resolved as we celebrate the outcome (epilogue). Our efforts generate momentum not mysteriously, but as a snowball. As we accomplish each objective we generate new resources that can be applied to achieve the subsequent greater objective. Our motivation grows as each small success persuades us the subsequent success is achievable -- and our commitment grows. The unfolding story of our campaign makes the unfolding story of our organization more credible and, thus, more achievable. Timing has to be carefully managed because a campaign can peak too quickly, exhausting everyone, and then fall into decline. Another danger is a campaign may "heat up" faster in some areas than in others -- as some people burn out and others never get going. What role did timing play with DSNI? Why was Gandhi's "salt march" a particularly good example of timing?
A campaign links relational, interpretive and action tactics as each lays groundwork for the next. We may begin the campaign with 5 organizers, each of whom uses house meetings to recruit 15 precinct leaders (75 people), each of whom goes door to door to recruit 5 volunteers for the phone bank (375 people), each of whom contacts and commits 25 voters (9375 people). Along the way, leadership develops, signs go up, people are talked with, rallies are held, and so forth. Using the 1988 California campaign plan, we turned 300 organizers into 11,000 precinct leaders into 100,000 house signs into 25,000 Election Day volunteers into 750,000 additional voters. Although it was not enough to elect our candidate President, we created a new wave of grass roots leadership for political efforts throughout the state for the next several years. What sorts of tactics were linked in Chavez's effort or the DSNI campaign? How did each build upon its predecessor? How did the "salt march" tell a story?
Campaigns provide an opportunity for learning by allowing for "small losses" in the early days of a campaign. As Simkin argues, creating space for "small losses" early in an undertaking affords participants the opportunity to try new things, essential to learning how to do them. It also afford the organization as a whole a chance to learn how to "get it right." In most campaigns, we know the first "rap" we write will be changed once the "rubber hits the road" and we begin to use it. Of course it is important to use the early phase of a campaign "mindfully" in this way so it isn't just a preview of what we will do wrong on a large scale, on a small scale.
As is the case with strategy, campaigns are nested. Each campaign objective can be viewed as a "mini-campaign" with its own prologue, kick-off, peaks, climax, and epilogue. The campaign also "chunks out" into distinct territories, districts, or other responsibilities for which specific individuals are responsible. A good campaign can be thought of as a symphony of multiple movements, each with an exposition, development, and recapitulation; but which together proceed toward a grand finale. A symphony is also constructed from the interplay of many different voices interacting in multiple ways but whose overall coordination is crucial for the success of the undertaking. If this seems an overly structured metaphor, you may prefer a jazz ensemble.
What Are the Phases of a Campaign?
A campaign strategically integrates relational, interpretive, and action tactics --as well as leadership development -- in each of five phases: a foundation, kick-off, peaks, the peak, and resolution. Use Campaign Chart #1 to look for similar dynamics in the cases we read about or in your own project.
Foundation
During the foundation period, the goal is to create the capacity (the "power to") with which to launch a campaign. A foundation period may last a few days, weeks, months or years -- depending on the scope of the undertaking and the extent to which you start "from scratch". The 1968 New Hampshire McCarthy campaign was up and running in a couple of weeks. The foundation for the farm workers' campaign was built over a period of three years. During a foundation period, relational tactics are emphasized and typically include one-on-one meetings, house meetings, and meetings of small groups of supporters. Interpretive tactics include deliberation to clarify interests, identify problems, think through how to turn them into issues, research the terrain, and design a plan - as well as the first formulations of the story of the campaign. What kinds of action tactics are most useful for this period? (Remember, you want to build as broad a base as possible while not letting things heat up too quickly.) This is the time to nail down resources, conduct a census, handle small issues (claims), deal with individual cases (collaboration), and so forth. This is a crucial period for leadership development. Initial leaders are identified and may be brought together in an "ad hoc" organizing, sponsoring, or campaign committee -- a provisional leadership group with whom you can work to develop the initial stages of the campaign.
Kick-Off
The kick-off is the moment at which the campaign officially begins. A campaign doesn't creep into existence, without anyone noticing.... or it will fade away the same way. Setting a date for a kick-off creates the urgent focused concentration and commitment it takes to get things going. It is a deadline for initial recruiting, planning, and preparation of materials. Typically a kick-off takes the form of a big meeting or rally for which everyone with an initial interest is mobilized (relational). Leadership can be recognized there, the campaign story told, the plan ratified, and the program adopted (interpretive). In terms of action, sign-ups can be gotten, commitments to hold a meeting, make phone calls or pass out leaflets obtained, and so forth. A kick-off is also a deadline for the formal delegation of leadership authority to those who will be responsible for carrying out the campaign. Short campaigns have a single kick-off. During the three years of the Grape Boycott we had another kick-off each spring
Peaks
The campaign proceeds toward reaching a series of peaks, each one building on what has gone before. In the example in the reader, we set an objective for organizer recruitment, precinct leader recruitment, voter identification, house sign distribution, Election Day organization, and total voter turnout. In the marches you read about, what were the peaks? What were the peaks of the Montgomery bus boycott? Were there peaks in the DSNI campaign? As the program unfolds, relational tactics that contribute to the peaks include recruiting, training, committee expansion, periodic "big meetings," etc. In the Pelosi campaign we had a weekly Saturday AM rally at which new precinct leaders were recognized, voter contact results announced, and special training conducted. As to interpretation, peaks focus on development of issues and interpretation of actions and reactions. Increasingly, action tactics become the focus of attention as services are expanded, key events take place, or the conflict escalates. Leadership development continues as more responsibilities can be delegated, training continues, and more people are brought into the planning. The art of leading a campaign through this phase is in finding ever-new ways to broaden support, sharpen the issues, and renew commitment. It is also in devising peaks that are inspirational, yet achievable -- and recovering from peaks not achieved.
The Peak
The campaign "peak" should come at the moment of maximum mobilization -- even though it doesn't always work out this way. I once ran a campaign which "peaked" at the kick-off. The leadership fell apart, losing the capacity to follow through an exemplary mobilization. In some cases the timing of the peak is predictable as in an election campaign. In other cases, those who lead the campaign can designate the peak. Chavez's march to Sacramento, or his 28 day fast, Gandhi's salt march, and the Selma to Montgomery march had "natural" peaks at their conclusion -- which created a kind of "crisis" of expectation on everyone's part. The resources mobilized to reach this peak -- even though not directly targeted on the opposition -- generated so much capacity that it caused the opposition to respond. The farm worker's boycott target, Schenley Industries, was so fearful the march would focus on them when it reached Sacramento that they signed with the union, five days before it arrived. This victory turned the end of the march into a real peak as 10,000 people showed up ready to go right into the next boycott. Other times, the "peak" emerges from the actions and reactions of all those playing a role in the campaign. As the first few grape growers signed contracts, it created a powerful momentum -- which we worked at heating up -- and which continued to grow until the entire industry signed three months later. Relational tactics include mass meetings, rallies, marches, etc. Interpretive work is critical in bringing a campaign to a successful peak -- deliberating about appropriate moves and interpreting events in the most persuasive way possible. The peak is the action program.
Resolution
Campaigns are either won or lost. Their effectiveness comes from the fact that they are commitments to achieve a clear, measurable, accountable outcome. Winning is not only a matter of claims making. If you are doing collaborative work, winning can mean establishing a new charter school by a certain date, enrolling a certain number of students in your program, or successfully completing a three-month program (with specific objectives). Only by risking failure do we make the kind of commitments that make success possible. This is how we can hold ourselves accountable to the contract we make with those with whom we work. Resolving a campaign, however, means learning how to be successful at "winning" or at "losing". To succeed at winning you must realize when you have won. Alinsky says that organizers have to be well-integrated schizoids who know how to polarize to mobilize, but depolarize to settle. In the heat of a campaign it's very easy to confuse the "purity" of one's position with the interests of one's constituency. When the grape growers were finally ready to sign with the union, we had to compromise on issues that had been very important to us, but would have prolonged the battle much more. It took serious interpretive work to realize that even though we hadn't won everything, we had won. On the other hand, it is important to know how to lose. Never pretend a loss is really a win -- as in "well we didn't really win the election, but that doesn't really matter because it wasn't really important anyway." No one believes it, and it robs the commitment we put into the effort of its value. We need to acknowledge a loss as a loss, but put it into context, interpret what happened, accept responsibility, recognize those who contributed -- and prepare for what comes next. Win or lose, a campaign should always conclude with evaluation, celebration, and preparation. When we win, we are sometimes so interested in celebrating we forget to learn why we won, what we did right and what we did wrong, and recognize those who contributed. When we lose, even when we do evaluate, we may not celebrate the hard work, the commitment; the willingness to take risk and all that was achieved. The important thing about campaigns is there is a "next time" -- and it is important to prepare for it. Or, as many a Red Sox fan has been heard to remark, "Just wait 'till next season!"
Campaigns and Organizations
Successful campaigns contribute to the capacity of organizations that generate them -- it will leave the organization stronger, not drained of its resources. Similarly, successful organizations continue to "risk" campaigns as the price of renewal, growth, and continued development. (Chart #2). Of course, the firmer and broader the foundation, the more ambitious a mobilization it can support. Next week we will look at the dilemmas involved in creating this kind of an organization.