Organizational Development

This resource delves into the critical role of power in achieving social change, highlighting the necessity of understanding, challenging, and transforming power dynamics. It outlines various forms of power, including "power over," "power within," "power with," and "power to," discussing their implications in movement building. Power within: to dream, believe in oneself, hope, create and solve problems. Without it, we do not speak out and step up. Sometimes we believe this is the most unstoppable form of power. Power with: finding common ground with others, building solidarity on reciprocity and love, knowing, and respecting differences, and working together for a common purpose and ideals. Power to: make change, change lives, and make a difference in the world one step at a time; even the power to think, imagine, be silent, and resist the status quo. Power for: the combined vision, values and demands that orient our work and hold the seeds of the world we seek to create. The framework underscores the importance of recognizing and addressing visible, hidden, and invisible power structures to create equitable societies. JASS provides tools and methodologies for activists to build and mobilize power effectively in their advocacy efforts.

This resource can equip activists with the skills necessary to map and comprehend power structures effectively. The training emphasizes visualizing relationships among stakeholders, identifying key influencers, and developing strategic approaches to engage them. Participants learn to clearly define their campaign goals and navigate complex power dynamics, which is crucial for effective advocacy. This structured approach to power analysis aims to enhance the impact and success of social change initiatives. Power mapping is a method which visualizes how power is exercised across the whole playing field, allowing you to target key players and forward plan tactics for maximum impact. Determine who is anchoring decision-makers against you, how you can weaken this hold to sustain the change you are working to achieve.

Here is a comprehensive framework for understanding power dynamics through "power analysis." It introduces concepts such as "power over," "power within," "power with," and "power to," elucidating various facets of power in societal contexts. The analysis emphasizes the necessity of recognizing visible, hidden, and invisible forms of power to effectively address social inequalities. This resource serves as a vital tool for activists and policymakers, enabling them to strategize interventions that promote equity and inclusion by transforming existing power structures. The first step in creating a power map is to define the goal, vision, or interest that you are going to focus on in your analysis. After placing individuals and organizations on the map, you might be able to see some patterns and relationships. Power mapping can enhance your group’s understanding of the political context and your ability to think strategically. It can also build trust and shared understanding between participants in the group as they work together to develop each step of the research, discussion, and mapping process.

Fossil fuel interests are working with climate denial think tanks and community groups to obstruct offshore wind projects. These community groups have made national headlines for their opposition to projects in Rhode Island, Massachusetts, and New Jersey. They appear to be new organizations that operate organically and independently, but they often share legal support, personnel, talking points, and financial resources with major organizations that have been blocking climate policy for the last several decades. This resource shows how think tanks in the anti-offshore wind movement have received donations from six fossil fuel-interested donors between 2017 and 2021. Of these donations, $16,278,401 has gone to members of a grassroots-appearing coalition at the center of the movement. As public relations and obstruction specialists actively engage local groups to block offshore wind projects, the climate and environmental justice consequences are dire.

A strategy for a social change campaign can be as simple or complex as you and your group determine. It should communicate your theory of change, the political context you are working in, the problems and solutions, your goals, power analysis, tactics and timeline. ‘Cut the issue’ to narrow down bigger picture problems into more manageable parts. What part of the problem or bigger issue do you intend to work on? It might be helpful to frame it as a solution or partial solution. Name the problem, identify issues and justify which one/s you plan to tackle. The campaign focus might include a ‘problem statement’ that defines the social or environmental justice that your group is most concerned with. The ‘cutting the issue’ exercise can help you define your goals. How do you want things to be? If this issue or problem is resolved, how will the situation have changed? How will justice be achieved? Goals should be discrete and directly linked to the scope. It is generally best to focus on one campaign goal or limit to two or three. If your goals are sufficiently different, it may be worthwhile developing separate campaign plans. This guide also covers: vision, situational analysis, critical path analysis, organizational considerations, allies, constituents, targets, objectives, tactics, evaluation, and success indicators.

Here are the four simple questions that could transform your advocacy strategy and increase your impact. Campaigners and advocates try to influence change and make a difference on the issues, and for the people, that they care about. However, processes of change are complex and unpredictable, so it is often difficult to decide exactly what to do. Faced with this complexity or messiness, when planning campaign strategies, advocates often try to simplify by: identifying a problem and a solution; producing campaign messaging, policy proposals and research which supports the analysis; and communicating core messages to as many people as possible using multiple channels (media, lobbying, social media, supporter mobilization, etc.). Developing a theory of change can help you to: “zoom out” and better understand your role in the context of the broader processes of change; reflect on and theorize about how change might unfold and what role you can play in it; build a common understanding within your team and strengthen critical or evaluative thinking which is vital for effective advocacy and campaigning; remain focused on the change you are working towards and how what you do makes a difference, so when the context changes you don’t lose your way; strengthen your understanding of your progress and results and your contribution to change; and develop a framework for measuring your learning and effectiveness.

A theory of change can help guide campaigners, their teams and communities. A well-crafted theory of change helps align the available energy, keeping your team focused and clear-headed about the change you plan to make and how. To influence people and institutions to veer from the status quo or the path most frequently taken – such as deciding to reject a development application or to prioritize programs that put health, the environment and education first – we need to understand what makes them tick. Community campaigners often craft theories of change that rely heavily on awareness-raising. A theory of change created to explain how we’ll influence one or more political decisions this year is unlikely to provide a compelling explanation about how people who share our values and concerns will bring about a better world over decades or generations. The theory of change for a campaign we aim to win this year will be based on this year’s political realities and incorporate fine-grained information about what will influence specific decision-makers. Here’s an example: IF workers and community members refuse to provide labor and services for the construction of a new coal mine THEN the mine’s development will be slowed and costs will increase, possibly resulting in the mine not going ahead BECAUSE the company relies entirely on local labor and community resources.

Lay a solid foundation for a campaign by working backwards from long-term goals to identify the conditions that must be in place in order to achieve those goals, and why. This is a campaign planning methodology that forces participants to get specific about how social change happens. Participants start with the long-term goal of the campaign, and then work backwards to identify all the conditions needed to achieve that goal. Next, get specific about what actions participants can take to create those conditions. Developing a theory of change can be particularly helpful during the early stages of campaign planning. It guides participants to choose the right tactics to most efficiently achieve those outcomes, and helps avoid the common mistake of jumping immediately into action without connecting today’s tactics with tomorrow’s strategy. This also includes a training guide to lead participants through an exercise to devise their theory of change.

One-on-ones are how to invite people into organizing work, encourage people to step into leadership, uncover barriers to campaigns, and so much more. To build the power needed to stop unending war, climate chaos, and inequality across race, class, and gender, it’s critical that new people come into movement organizations, are given meaningful roles, and ultimately stick around—instead of marshaling the same, small group of people who already know and agree. One-on-ones are a key vehicle for how that happens. Here’s a 6-step model to use to help plan one-on-one conversations. Whether following this model, adapt it, or use a different one, having a clear sequence of steps to learn and practice helps prepare and meet goals in your organizing conversations. Here are the 6 steps of a one-on-one: introduction, issues and stake, agitation, educate and plan to win, the ask, and next steps.

Winning climate campaigns requires understanding the public to make strategic, data-driven decisions and capture the public narrative. This training is for advocates who understand the basics of public opinion research but want more concrete guidance on how to work with polling researchers to inform your campaigns and communications.