community organizing remix
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21st Century Tools for Building Relationships and Meaning
Community Organizing Remix
Lianna Levine Reisner, Partner for Change
November 19, 2013
What’s on the Agenda? • Understanding different types of organizing • Theories of power • What’s in an organizer’s toolkit? • Take-‐home action steps throughout • Q&A
What is Community Organizing? Community organizing conjures different images • Through chat, share the first image or phrase you think of when you hear “community organizing”
What is Organizing?
• Not community building: developing relationships as social capital • Not activism: getting people to vote, lobby, promote a new idea
Community organizing: Enhancing welfare of disadvantaged
communities through collective influence
Labor organizing: Building trade unions for industry influence
Political organizing: Developing campaign loyalty,
educating on issues
Network organizing: Activating relationships to foster mutual benefit
• Gathering people into an organization (formal or informal) to seek tangible outcomes together
• Different kinds of organizing for different outcomes:
Common Denominators
Common across all forms of organizing: • Participation and connection at the “grassroots” • A set of shared values • Working toward some specific goal (“how” varies widely) • Creating different organizational structures
Our focus today: basic organizing principles for communities • A “remix” across organizing disciplines, with a focus on network organizing
Organizing is about attention to process: doing business differently • How we run our meetings, how we lead or delegate
Organizing also reveals what different business should be done • Listening and conversation as a starting point
Introduction to Networks
Building Smart Communities through Network Weaving © 2002-2006 Valdis Krebs and June Holley 14
Figure 3 – Multi-Hub Small World Network
The next step is to strengthen the appropriate loose ties in the network so they become strong
ties. This happens after turf issues have been handled. A multi-hub network may be difficult to
achieve if political and ‘turf’ issues are raging through the network. If two or more community
development organizations start battling over turf and control of the community then the result
may be two or more competing, single hub networks that ignore the larger community needs and
just focus on survival of their own network.
Source: Krebs and Holley, 2006
• Intricate web of relationships, with stronger and weaker links
• Networks facilitate spreading ideas, giving and getting information and resources
• Latent potential for “activation”
• Often, unexpected or spontaneous benefits
What is Network Organizing? Network organizing is about network activation • Creating strong and weak links among diverse people who are bound by shared values Mixture of connective and intensive strategies • Information and ideas travel freely in the web to create a marketplace of exchange; organizers give that marketplace inputs to keep it vibrant • Supports the emergence of collaborative self-‐organizing on issues of shared concern or passion
Different underlying assumptions than in traditional organizing • Starts from a place of abundance and opportunity, rather than fear: everyone has something to give, and everyone can take as needed (reciprocity) • Positional boundaries are diminished: reframes roles of the “volunteer” and “expert”
What is Network Organizing? Well-‐developed networks foster: • The feeling that we matter • Positive, collaborative action • “Third options” • Community resilience in times of crisis
Differences in Organizing Philosophy Traditional Organizing Network Organizing
Power Power is finite and can be taken away.
Power is infinite and can be shared and expanded.
“How can I help people with less power work together to have more power as a collective?”
“How can I cultivate power in individuals so that their power is magnified and activated through a network of relationships?”
Hierarchy Goal is to reduce the negative impact of hierarchy through collective influence
Goal is to flatten hierarchy through networked relationships
Change Confrontation and struggle are necessary for change.
Creativity and collaboration drive change.
Personal vs. Positional Power Power and authority are not the same. • Everyone has some sort of personal power. Some people exercise their
power more than others. Others don’t and need to be “empowered.” Personal power is strengths, talents, intuitive abilities, the types of work or subjects that
energize you
If we use our personal power too strongly, we can crowd out others’ sources of power!
• Authority is given to people who have specific credentials or positions: this is positional power that can be taken away, as it is artificial. The things that make us truly powerful cannot be taken away.
Personal vs. Positional Power Action step: Map or make an inventory of the personal power/talents of
your community members. If this is hard to do, develop a creative process for learning who your people are.
Reckoning with Positional Power Talk frankly about power in your congregational teams.
Action step: Answer the following questions as a team: • Where does positional power have its strongest hold in your
congregation? Is it held by clergy, staff, or long-‐time members? Is it built into your governance processes?
• In what aspects of congregational life do your congregants and staff exercise their personal power? Where are people showing up at their best? Why?
Putting Boundaries on Empowerment You can and should say “no,” but not too quickly. Action step: Develop a set of “operating principles” that reference your
boundaries: “This is how we work together,” “Working in this way contributes to our mission and values”
Action step: Make a prioritized wish-‐list based on what you hear from your congregants but cannot achieve with staff resources: “We can’t do this, but we’d love for others to step up and make it happen – and here’s what we can offer to support you…”
Questions?
Organizer’s Toolbox
1. One-‐on-‐ones/“door-‐knocks”: listen and get to know people
3. Participatory meetings: voices are heard
2. Small group gatherings: house meetings, socials, forums
for exchange
4. Story-‐telling: genuine sharing of experiences
Organizer’s Toolbox (continued)
5. People working as relationship builders: “network weaver,” “union organizer”
7. Constant eye to developing leaders/personal power
6. People working to facilitate
collaboration: “technical assistance
provider,” “resource partner,” “network facilitator”
8. Seeking partnerships with other
organizations
Using the Toolkit Action step: Analyze whether and how your congregation
dedicates attention to each of these eight practices. Pick one area you’d like to improve in and develop a project around it. Examples could be: • One-‐on-‐ones: Deploy your team to conduct one-‐on-‐ones with congregants: ask 2 personal questions and 2 synagogue questions, but mostly just listen
• Small gatherings: Host small “parties with a purpose” at 5 of your members’ homes, using the same open format for conversation and connection. Aim for an action step from each.
• Participatory meetings: Develop 3-‐5 things each member of your team will do when leading meetings to make them more participatory. Experiment first, and then train others in them.
Re-‐envision “Programs” as a Network Organizer
Action step: Instead of having staff or a lay committee design all your “programs” on predetermined content, experiment with facilitating open formats for meetings that encourage things like: • Lightly-‐facilitated conversation on a topic • Airing and acting on ideas for enhancing the congregation and the community
• Exploration of health or family needs
As Jews, we need to do more to move from cerebral to experiential, from talking to doing, from objective to subjective. (Sometimes) let go of “curriculum” with adults to give them the space to hash out topics as human beings
• Bring in Jewish wisdom for reference or guidance, but not necessarily as the leading frame
New Skills and Roles for Organizing • Brokering connections – and developing new awareness to see
connections at all times • Turning complaints into opportunities for positive change • Facilitating vs. teaching/speaking • Taking more time to promote others’ participation: do less, better • Creating interpersonal atmospheres and physical set-‐ups in your
events/meetings that mirror your values • Moving a group back and forth between thinking and doing • Putting together diverse teams • Leveraging personal power for the community • Downplaying positional power as the source of authority and
action
New Skills and Roles for Organizing Action step: Rework your congregation’s structure, governance,
or staff roles through the prism of these organizing skills. Start small with one person’s job description, or with one committee’s set of responsibilities. How does this change each person’s role in the congregation?
What are better titles for staff and board positions and committees that incorporate organizing philosophies?
Concluding Thoughts • This is culture change: Good organizers model new cultures to
get others on board. • The practice of organizing doesn’t need to feel “Jewish,” but
organizing in a Jewish context can be rich and meaningful. • We can often learn more by going out and doing something
we’ve never done before. Think it out, then take a risk.
Questions?
Further Reading On Power: • The Nibble Theory and the Kernel of Power by Kaleel Jamison (Paulist Press, rev. 2004) On Networks: • Intro to building networks by Valdis Krebs and June Holley:
http://www.networkweaver.com/wp-‐content/uploads/2011/12/BuildingNetworks.pdf On Network Organizing: • Seminal article by Bill Traynor, “Building Community in Place”:
http://www.mainenetworkpartners.org/documents/building-‐community-‐in-‐place.pdf • Trusted Space Partners’ overview to Community Network Building (especially the
embedded videos): http://trustedspacepartners.com/community-‐network-‐building/ On Community: • The Abundant Community: Awakening the Power of Families and Neighborhoods by
John McKnight and Peter Block (Berrett-‐Koehler, 2010)
With gratitude to IMPACT Silver Spring… …whose diverse network and staff – especially Frankie Blackburn and Winta Teferi – taught me tremendous lessons in organizing and in life, including some of the concepts and examples shared today.
Let’s Keep up the Conversation
1. Look for responses to your additional questions on BaseCamp, and join in a follow-‐up discussion.
2. Contact Lianna separately: [email protected] or 804-‐380-‐5963