Storytelling Marshall Ganz

A C K N O W L E D G E M E N T S

We welcome your suggestions for improving this guide further for future trainings. We also
welcome you to use it and adapt it for your own trainings, subject to the restrictions below.
This workshop guide has been developed over the course of many trainings by Liz Pallatto, Joy
Cushman, Jake Waxman, Devon Anderson, Rachel Anderson, Adam Yalowitz, Kate Hilton,
Lenore Palladino, New Organizing Institute staff, MoveOn Organizers, Center for Community
Change staff, Jose Luis Marantes, Carlos Saavedra, Sean Thomas-‐Breitfeld, Shuya Ohno, Celina
Barrios-‐Ponce, Petra Falcon, Michele Rudy, Hope Wood, Kristen Dore, Vicki Kaplan, and many
others. Coaching as a Leadership Practice module is adapted from the working paper, ‘Toward a
framework for coaching,’ by Ruth Wageman, Harvard University, 2009.

R E S T R I C T I O N S O F U S E

The following work [this workshop guide] is provided to you pursuant to the following terms
and conditions. Your acceptance of the work constitutes your acceptance of these terms:

• You may reproduce and distribute the work to others for free, but you may not sell the
work to others.
• You may not remove the legends from the work that provide attribution as to source
(i.e., “originally adapted from the works of Marshall Ganz of Harvard University”).
• You may modify the work, provided that the attribution legends remain on the work,
and provided further that you send any significant modifications or updates to
[email protected] or Marshall Ganz, Hauser Center, Harvard Kennedy School,
79 JFK Street, Cambridge, MA 02138
• You hereby grant an irrevocable, royalty-‐free license to Marshall Ganz and New
Organizing Institute, and their successors, heirs, licensees and assigns, to reproduce,
distribute and modify the work as modified by you.
• You shall include a copy of these restrictions with all copies of the work that you
distribute and you shall inform everyone to whom you distribute the work that they are
subject to the restrictions and obligations set forth herein.

If you have any questions about these terms, please contact [email protected] or
Marshall Ganz, Hauser Center, Harvard Kennedy School, 79 JFK Street, Cambridge, MA 02138.

Originally adapted from the work of Marshall Ganz, Harvard University. Modified by the New Organizing Institute 1
T A B L E O F C O N T E N T S

Introduction to Engagement Organizing Trainings p. 3

Workshop Goals & Personal Goals p. 4

Glossary of Organizing Language p. 6

Story of Self: Why am I called and how will I lead? p. 9
Breakout Agenda & Worksheets p. 15

Story of Us: What are the values of this community? P. 21

Story of Now: What challenge and hope call us to action now? p. 31

Linking the Story of Self, Us and Now p. 39

Coaching Stories p. 43
Breakout Worksheet p. 51

Offline Narrative Applications: 1:1's & Group Meetings p. 53
Additional Resource: Organizing Meeting Agenda Sample p. 62
Additional Resource: Voter & Constituency Contact Tips p. 65
Additional Resource: House Meeting Campaign Toolkit p. 68

Online Narrative Applications: Email, Blogs & Social Media p. 80
Email Breakout Worksheet p. 88
Social Media Breakout Worksheet p. 92
Additional Resource: Blogs p. 84
Additional Resource: Create Your Online Calendar Worksheet p. 93
Additional Resource: Online Organizing Tips & Tricks p. 94

Taking It Home Plan p. 100

2 Originally adapted from the work of Marshall Ganz, Harvard University. Modified by the New Organizing Institute

E N G A G E M E N T O R G A N I Z I N G T R A I N I N G S
Learning and Teaching as Organizers
Some points on how we learn and teach.

1) Organizing is a practice – a way of doing things. It’s like learning to ride a bike. No matter
how many books you read about bike riding, they are of little use when it comes to getting on
the bike. And when you get on the first thing that will happen is that you will fall. And that’s
where the “heart” comes in. Either you give up and go home or you find the courage to get
back on.

2) The training and the content are designed to model what we teach. We begin with
explanation (up-‐front presentation), we observe models (role plays), we practice (small group
work), and then we reflect on our practice (debrief). We model leadership structure in our
training, for example, by distributing roles and by both confronting participants with new
challenges as well as support (coaching) to meet them. Our modeling of ‘reflective practice’
encourages participants to do so as well.

3) Organizing is a framework – a way of understanding ourselves as actors in the world. In
engagement trainings we treat everyday practices – forming a relationship, telling a story,
making a plan—as objects of mindful reflection.

4) Our workshop is also organized as a campaign -‐ a way of mobilizing time, resources, and
energy to achieve a specific outcome –It is an intense stream of activity that begins with a
foundational period, builds to a kick-‐off, builds to periodic peaks, and culminates in a final
peak, followed by a resolution. Our workshop will follow the same pattern, with each practice
building on what went before and creating a foundation for what comes next. It is structured in
leadership teams just like the infrastructure driving a campaign.

5) This workshop creates the opportunity for intense relationships with participants. We
need to respect these as “public relationships,” not “private relationships” – both close and
professional.

6) This workshop brings to the forefront “hot topics” such as political differences, ethnicity,
class, gender, sexuality, and religion on a fairly regular basis -‐ keeping in mind that your role is
not to problem solve those issues but to facilitate a learning discussion amongst the other
participants.

7) The evaluation of an effective workshop – as in effective campaigns – rests on three
measures: Did the individuals learn? Did their teams grow stronger? Were the outcomes
achieved?
W O R K S H O P G O A L S

Questions of what I am called to do, what is my community called to do, and what we are called
to do now are at least as old as the three questions posed by the first century Jerusalem sage,
Rabbi Hillel:
• If I am not for myself, who will be for me?
• When I am for myself alone, what am I?
• If not now, when?

This training offers participants an opportunity to develop their capacity to lead by asking
themselves these questions at a time in their lives when it really matters -‐ and learning how to
ask these questions of others.

Public Narrative is a system of crafting and telling your story, developed by Marshall Ganz and
honed over years in the field. It's the values-‐based practice of storytelling used in successful
organizing campaigns from Cesar Chavez and the United Farm Workers, to Barack Obama's
campaigns, to DREAMers and many others.

Goals for this workshop:
• Understand why public narrative (the story of self, us and now) is an essential leadership
skill.
• Learn how to tell your story, the story of your community, and the story of your
campaign/project to motivate people to action with you.
• Learn how to coach others in telling their story.
• Learn how to utilize your story on a variety of platforms, including in 1:1’s and group
meetings, in writing effective emails and developing social media content.
• Outline an action plan to use story in your leadership, advocacy and/or organizing
efforts beyond the training.

Personal Goals:
What are your hopes for this workshop for yourself, your organization, and your local work?

What skills are you interested in learning?

What can you help teach others?

G L O S S A R Y O F O R G A N I Z I N G L A N G U A G E

In organizing, common words are used in very specific ways, and some unusual words are used that we all need to
know...

anger: Not rage but outrage with injustice. Indignation. Constructive anger expresses the tension in
experience of “the world as it is” and “the world as it ought to be.” It can, when coupled with hope,
find resolution in action.

clear no (v fuzzy maybe): When tying to avoid a commitment we often find it hard to say ‘no’ and so say ‘maybe’
instead. An organizer prefers a clear ‘no’ now to a polite ‘maybe’ that later reveals itself to be really a
‘no.’ This means organizers request specific commitments so all will know if the commitment is
honored or not.

coaching: Coaching is a way to intervene with individuals or teams by offering specific feedback and asking
questions that can improve their practice. Coaching is motivational, strategic, or informational
depending on the nature of the problem. It often takes the form of asking ‘why?’ questions to elicit
understanding, rather than simply offering advice. Contrast with facilitation.

constituency: Constituents are the people whom we organize, whose leadership we develop and to whom we are
accountable. Constituents are people who associate on behalf of common interests, commit individual
resources to acting on those interests, and have a voice in deciding how we organize. In organizing, this
word is oriented toward action (VS political geography or affiliation). It is derived from “con stare” —
to stand together.

emotion: Emotions are how we experience the value we place on people, things, and experiences. They provide
us with the “moral” information we need to make choices, the “moral” energy to act on those choices,
and the principal means by which we can move others to act. In organizing, emotions are not a burden
to be hidden but a resource to be cultivated. As brain research shows, people who can’t experience
emotion can’t make choices because choices depend on value judgments for which emotional
information is crucial.

facilitation: Facilitation is the art of managing group interactions to achieve a specific outcome. It requires
boundary setting, eliciting participation, focusing attention, interpreting what is being said, probing,
and summarizing. Contrast with coaching.

leadership: taking responsibility to engage others in achieving shared purpose under conditions of uncertainty

organizing (v mobilizing): A process through which people with shared values and interests develop leadership,
establish strategy and structure, and mobilize their resources to generate the power they need to
achieve a goal they have set. All organizing involves mobilizing but not all mobilizing is organizing.

public narrative: A leadership skill for motivating others to join you in action. A person’s public narrative consists
of a linked story of self, us, and now — and it’s different for every audience the teller is trying to
motivate.

relationship: An exchange of interests and resources based on a commitment sustained over time. With ongoing
development and use, relationships eventually become resources themselves.

relational commitments: Organizing requires building relationships based on a shared commitment to collaborate.
Relationship building is not about my “extraction” of your resources nor your “extraction” of mine. It is
about making choices to work together on behalf of a common purpose.

resource: Anything we can use to achieve something else. Moral resources grow with use (e.g. relationships,
commitment, understanding). Economic resources diminish with use (e.g. money, materials). In
organizing, time is often our most precious resource. Whereas business pursues objectives with as few
people as possible because people are seen ‘costs’, organizing pursues objectives with as many people
as possible because people are seen as ‘resources.’

snowflake: A way of visualizing interdependent leadership (as distinct from the ‘dot-‐in-‐the-‐centre’ described
above) that develops the leadership capacity of all involved.

story of SELF: The element of public narrative that explains why you as an individual are called to a specific project,
campaign, vocation, or campaign. What stories can you tell of your life experience that can enable
others to understand the “moral sources” of your mission? It is not a biography, but requires enough
“framing” for the listener to understand its role in your journey to this point. It requires the courage to
risk the vulnerability that goes with transparency. It answers the question “why me.” It works if others
“get you.”

story of US: The element of a public narrative in which a story is told to evoke a shared experience of values that
motivate your “constituency.” A story of us is drawn from shared experiences, traditions, events. It
requires the courage to risk an empathetic interpretation of the experience of your constituency. It
answers the question “why us?” It works if others “get each other.”

story of NOW: The element of public narrative in which the story that is told occurs right now. It draws on stories
that can create the urgency of challenge, as well as the substance of hope. It focuses on the choice
required to act on the challenge in a spirit of hope. It requires the courage to risk confronting others
with the need to choose. It answers the question “why now.” It works if others commit to action.

training (v coaching and facilitation): As distinct from coaching and facilitation (described above), training is an
umbrella term for engaging a discrete group of people towards clear established learning objectives.
Good training recognizes the resources and agency of those receiving the training and often invites
them to become trainers to develop the particular leadership skills and practices in others.

value (v interest): The affective commitments that shape our lives and our campaigns. Examples are justice,
dignity, equality, cooperation, freedom, and harmony. Values animate interests (e.g., because I care
about dignity I pursue an interest in students having choices about their future education and careers).
Emotion is how we experience values.

vision (v outcome): Vision of the campaign is the “dream.” What will the world look like if the value the campaign
is trying to promote is upheld? An outcome is a smaller and more measurable goal. Many outcomes
combine together to make the vision; therefore each outcome should contribute a small part to the
vision. A campaign strategy is designed around multiple measurable outcomes that, when combined
together, make the vision.

First Draft July 2010 by Marshall Ganz, Chris Lawrence-‐Pietroni, Zac Willette, & Shivani Kumar | additions and refinements
welcome

T H E S T O R Y O F S E L F

P U B L I C N A R R A T I V E & S T O R Y O F S E L F
Why am I called?
OBJECTIVES:
• Learn the basics of how public narrative works: values, emotion & story structure
• Learn criteria for an effective story of self and coach others on improving their storytelling
• Practice and get coaching on your own story of self

EACH OF US HAS A COMPELLING STORY TO TELL

Each of us has a story that can move others to action. As you learn this skill, you will be
learning to tell a story about yourself, the community you organize with, and your strategy that
motivates others to join you in creating change. In addition, you will gain practice in listening,
and coaching others to tell a good story.
PUBLIC NARRATIVE IS A PRACTICE OF LEADERSHIP

Leadership is about accepting responsibility for enabling others to achieve shared purpose in
the face of uncertainty. Narrative is how we learn to make choices and construct our identities
and purpose—as individuals, as communities and organizations, and as nations.
What does public narrative have to do with this definition of leadership? You can’t ask others to
follow you if they don’t understand what your intentions are, and why you are called to lead.
THE HEAD & THE HEART

There are two ways we understand the
world: through our head (strategy &
analysis) and through our heart (story &
motivation). To enable others to achieve
shared purpose, public leaders must
employ BOTH the head and the heart of
their constituency in order to mobilize
others to act on behalf of shared values.
In other words, they engage people in
interpreting why they should change
their world (their motivation) and how
they can act to change it (their strategy).
Public narrative is the “why”—the art of
translating values into action through
stories.

VALUES INSPIRE ACTION THROUGH EMOTION

We don’t think our values; we feel our
values. Often we don’t realize what we
value in the world until we hear a story or
witness an injustice that stirs emotions
within us. Emotions inform us of what we
value in ourselves, in others, and in the
world, and they enable us to express the
motivational content of our values to
others. Because stories allow us to express
our values not as abstract principles, but
as lived experience, they have the power
to move others to action.

SOME EMOTIONS INHIBIT ACTION, OTHERS MOTIVATE ACTION

Public leaders often encounter individuals or
groups where mindful action is inhibited by
inertia, apathy, fear, isolation, and self-‐doubt.
The job of a leader is not to tell people to stop
feeling this way but rather use storytelling to
move people from feelings of stagnation to
feelings of motivation -‐ urgency, anger, hope,
solidarity, and YCMAD (you can make a
difference). The language of emotion is the
language of movement—they actually share the
same root word. Stories mobilize emotions of
action to overcome emotions that inhibit us from
mindful action.
PUBLIC NARRATIVE COMBINES A STORY OF SELF, US AND NOW

STORY OF SELF

By telling a “story of self” you can communicate the values that move you to lead. Public
leaders face the challenge of enabling others to “get” the values that move them to lead.
Effective communication of motivating values can establish grounds for trust, empathy, and
understanding. In its absence, people will infer our motivations, often in ways that can be very
counterproductive. Telling our story of self can help establish firm ground for leadership,
collaboration and discovering common purpose.

Every one of us has a compelling story of self to tell. We
all have people in our lives (parents, grandparents,
teachers, friends, colleagues) or characters we love,
whose stories influence our own values. And we all have
made choices in response to our own challenges that
shape our life’s path—confrontations with pain, moments
of hope, calls to action.

The key focus is on our choices, those moments in our
lives when our values moved us to act in the face of
challenge. When did you first care about being heard?
When did you feel you had to act? Why did you feel you
could act? What were the circumstances, the place, the
colors, sounds? What did it look like? The power in your
story of self is to reveal something of those moments that
were deeply meaningful to you in shaping your life—not
your deepest private secrets, but the events that shaped your public life. Learning to tell a good
story of self demands the courage of introspection, and of sharing some of what you find.

STORY OF US
By telling a “story of us” you can communicate values that can inspire others to act together by
identifying with each other, not only with you.
Just as with a story of self, key choice points in the life of a community—its founding, crises it
has faced, or other events that everyone remembers—are moments that express the values
shared. Consider stories that members of your group have shared, especially those that held
similar meaning for all of you. The key is to focus on telling a specific story about specific
people at a specific time that can remind everyone – or call to everyone’s attention – values
that you share. Telling a good story of us requires the courage of empathy – to consider the
experience of others deeply enough to take a chance at articulating that experience.

STORY OF NOW

By telling a “story of now” you can communicate an urgent challenge we are called upon to
face, the hope that we can face it and the hopeful outcome we can create together, and the
choice we must make to act now.
A story of now requires telling stories that bring the urgency of the challenge alive: urgency
because of a need for change that cannot be denied, urgency because of a moment of
opportunity that may not return. A story of now also offers hope—not make-‐believe hope, but
real, plausible hope, often grounded in what others are already achieving, grounded in the
courage of others’ actions, and in the strategic vision of what we can achieve together. At the
intersection of the urgency and the promise of hope is a choice that must be made – to act, or
not to act, to act in this way, or in that. Telling a good story of now requires the courage of
imagination, or as Walter Brueggemann named it, a prophetic imagination, in which you call
attention both to the pain of the world and also to the possibility for a better future.
STORY STRUCTURE: CHALLENGE, CHOICE, OUTCOME
Every human story has a plot. A plot begins with a challenge that confronts a character with an
urgent need to pay attention, to make a choice for which s/he is unprepared. The choice yields
an outcome, and the outcome teaches a moral.
A good story allows the listener to empathetically identify with the character and “feel” the
moral. We hear “about” someone’s courage; we are also inspired by it.
The story of the character and his or her choices encourages listeners to think about their own
values and challenges, and inspires them with new ways of thinking about how to make choices
in their own lives.
Incorporating Challenge, Choice, and Outcome in Your Own Story

There are some key questions you need to answer as you consider the choices you have made
in your life and the path you have taken that brought you to this point in time as a leader.
Once you identify the specific relevant choice, dig deeper by answering the following questions.

Challenge: Why did you feel it was a challenge? What was so challenging about it? Why was it
your challenge? Choice: Why did you make the choice you did? Where did you get the courage
(or not)? Where did you get the hope (or not)? Did your parents or grandparents’ life stories
teach you in any way how to act in that moment? How did it feel? Where is the hope?

Outcome: How did the outcome feel? Why did it feel that way? What did it teach you? What do
you want to teach us? How do you want us to feel? Where is the hope?

A word about challenge. Sometimes people see the word challenge and think it means
describing the worst misfortunes of our lives. Sometimes those are the moments that most
shaped us. But keep in mind that a struggle might also be one of your own choosing – a high
mountain you decided to climb as much as a valley you managed to climb out of. Many things
may have been a challenge to you and can be the source of a good story to inspire others.

VIDEO REVIEW
STORY OF SELF, US, AND NOW

We'll be watching a story of Self, Us and Now. While you watch it, think about the elements of
SELF – US – NOW that you hear in this story.

SELF US NOW
• What experiences and • Who is the “us” that the • What urgent challenge does
values call this person to speaker identifies? this speaker identify?
leadership? • What are the common • How does he or she make
• What choice points does values the speaker that challenge real?
the speaker include to appeals to? How? • What gives us real hope
show, rather than tell us • What challenges and that we can do something?
his or her values? hopes does this “us” or • What is the first step that
community share? each person can take to be
part of the solution?

0. What was the speaker’s purpose in telling these stories? What was s/he moving people
to do?

1. What values did this story convey? How? By telling or showing?

2. What details or images in particular reflected those values?

3. What were the challenges, choices and outcomes in each part of his story? What morals
do the outcomes teach?

SAMPLE STORY OF SELF: Lilian Molina
As told at Powershift 2011: a gathering of 10,000 U.S. climate activists.

Greetings. My name is Lilian Maria Molina and I am the Environmental Justice
Director at Energy Action Coalition. I am part Mayas-‐Chorti, Lenca and
Palestinian, was born in Honduras, Central America and moved to the United
States at the age of 5 with my mother. For the first couple years my mom
and I would take an hour-‐long ride on a two-‐floor train; I would always rush
to the top floor, look out the window, and envision what I would do at our
destination. I would imagine the cartoons I would watch, salivate over the
Kudos and Pringles I would be able to eat, and think about all the great toys I
would play with. Then one day, as I was playing with a fully equipped Barbie Mansion, my mom reached over
and handed me a bottle of Windex and paper towels; at that moment I realized that our hour-‐long train ride
wasn’t a field trip, it was a commute to work. My mom and I were there to clean houses not to play.

From that moment on I started to notice that things looked very different in different parts of town. I
wondered why some families lived in three floor homes, while I lived in a one-‐bedroom basement apartment
with two families. I wondered why the park equipment in my neighborhood was always broken, but was
fancy and new on the other side of town. I wondered if people in the neighborhood where my mom and I
cleaned houses had to worry about La Migra coming to their jobs or their homes. I wondered if the kids at
these houses ever had to miss school to translate for their parents. I wondered why the police didn’t arrest
kids around these houses for standing on the corner but my friends back in the neighborhood were arrested
all the time. I slowly started to understand that these were two separate worlds.

As I got older, I would refuse to take the hour-‐long train ride with my mom, instead I would hang out with my
friends in the neighborhood. When I was 12, my mom noticed that I was starting to get involved in some
risky activities. She decided to send me to Honduras for the summer to spend time with Mi Abuelita
(grandma). That summer Mi Abuelita, a Natural Healer and Master Gardener, helped me connect to my
ancestral roots and taught me how to love nature through gardening. I learned about all the different plants
that she used to help heal people and deliver babies -‐ it was an eye-‐opening experience. That summer I also
realized that some of the people that looked like my family and I wore suits to work and lived in houses
rather than apartments.

When I came back to the U.S, I returned to hanging out with my friends; but when I was 16, I decided I was
done watching my friends get beat up, get beat by the cops, or arrested. My friends and I started hosting
different activities to keep our friends from joining street gangs. Throughout high school we organized
different events, from parties, to walkouts to bring awareness to the violence in our communities. Around
this time I remembered how the garden that Mi Abuelita introduced me to helped me to heal, and started
wondering if a garden in our community could have the same impact for other young people. I got super
excited and started looking for plots of land around the school. But in my search I learned that most of the
land in Little Village was contaminated with industrial pollution. I thought to myself, “You have to be kidding
me, on top of all of the issues I was aware of, our land is also polluted? We have poor education, gang
violence, police brutality, immigration raids, militarization of schools and we also have contamination in our
community? What the heck else could be wrong?” I learned that what my community was experiencing is
called Environmental Racism and what we need is Environmental Justice before we can plant gardens here in
Little Village…and that is what brought me to the work that I am doing now.

Now I am here at Power Shift with Front-‐line Community Members and our Allies, working with the
leadership of front-‐line communities and helping them create a trans-‐local movement to oppose corporate
power is where there is strategic need for youth leadership.


GOALS
TEAM BREAKOUT SESSION
STORY OF SELF
• Practice telling your Story of Self and get constructive feedback
• Learn to draw out and coach the stories of others
AGENDA
Total time: 60 min
1. Gather in your team. Choose a timekeeper. Do quick introductions (name and 10 min
hometown). Articulate group agreements for how you’ll work together during this
training.

Have your coach tell their 2-‐minute story of self as an example.

2. Take some time as individuals to silently develop your “Story of Self.” 5 min
Use the worksheet that follows.

Remember: please review the “Coaching Tips” to prepare to coach others’ stories

3. Share with a partner. 10 min
For each person:
-‐2 minutes to tell your story
-‐3 minutes to coach your partner
* What values did the storyteller convey? How specifically?
* What is the Challenge, Choice, and Outcome in the story? Write them
in the boxes on the worksheet that follows.
* Were there sections of the story that had especially good details or
images (sights, sounds, smells, or emotions of the moment)?
How did those details make you feel?
* What could the story teller do to more effectively convey why they are
called to leadership in this campaign?

4. As a team go around the group and tell your story one by one. 30 min
For each person:
-‐2 minutes to tell your story
-‐3 minutes to get coaching from the group. Make sure everyone in your group has an
opportunity to give feedback.

*Make sure your timekeeper cuts you off. This encourages focus and makes sure everyone has a
chance to tell their story. Remember, the purpose here isn’t to tell a perfect story, it’s to practice
narrative as part of the work of leadership.
5. Return to the plenary space. 5 min

 WORKSHEET
DEVELOPING YOUR STORY OF SELF

Before you decide what part of your story to tell, think about these questions:

o What will I be calling on others to do?
o What values move me to take action and might also inspire others to similar action?
o What stories can I tell from my own life about specific people or events that would show
(rather than tell) how I learned or acted on those values?

What are the experiences in your life that have shaped the values that call you to leadership
in this campaign?

FAMILY & CHILDHOOD LIFE CHOICES ORGANIZING EXPERIENCES
Parents/Family School First Experience of organizing
Growing Up Career Connection to key books or
Your Community Partner/Family people
Role Models Hobbies/Interests/Talents Role Models
School Faith
Overcoming Challenge

Think about the challenge, choice and outcome in your story. The outcome might be what you
learned, in addition to what happened. A story doesn’t have to be dramatic to be effective!

Try drawing pictures here instead of words. Powerful stories leave your listeners with detailed
images in their minds that shape their understanding of you and your calling.

CHALLENGE CHOICE OUTCOME

COACHING TIPS:
STORY OF SELF

Remember to balance both positive and constructively critical coaching. The purpose of
coaching is to listen to the way stories are told and think of ways that the storytelling could
be improved.

DON’T simply offer vague “feel good” comments. (“That was a really great story!”)
DO coach each other on the following points:

• THE CHALLENGE: What were the specific challenges the storyteller faced? Did the
storyteller paint a vivid picture of those challenges?
“When you described ________, I got a clear picture of the challenge.”
“I understood the challenge to be ________. Is that what you intended?”

• THE CHOICE: Was there a clear choice that was made in response to each challenge?
How did the choice make you feel? (Hopeful? Angry?)
“To me, the choice you made was _______, and it made me feel _______.”
“It would be helpful if you focused on the moment you made a choice.”

• THE OUTCOME: What was the specific outcome that resulted from each choice?
What does that outcome teach us?
“I understood the outcome was _______, and it teaches me _______. But how does
it relate to your work now?”

• THE VALUES: Could you identify what this person’s values are and where they came
from? How? How did the story make you feel?
“Your story made me feel ________ because _________.”
“It’s clear from your story that you value _______; but it could be even clearer if
you told a story about where that value comes from.”

• DETAILS: Were there sections of the story that had especially good details or images
(e.g. sights, sounds, smells, or emotions of the moment)?
“The image of ________ really helped me identify with what you were feeling.”
“Try telling more details about _______ so we can imagine what you were
experiencing.”

Record Feedback/Comments from Your Team Members Here:

Coaching Your Team's “Story of Self” As you hear each other's stories, keeping track of the
details of each person’s story will help you to provide feedback and remember details about
people on your team later. Use the grid below to track your team's stories in words or images.

NAME VALUES CHALLENGE CHOICE OUTCOME

ADDITIONAL RESOURCES:
Videos:
• Barack Obama, Keynote Address, “The Audacity of Hope”, Democratic National Convention, July
27, 2004, Boston, Massachusetts (first 7 minutes).
• NOI Video resource center: Story of Self

Readings:
• Jerome Bruner, “Two Modes of Thought”, Chapter 2 in Actual Minds, Possible Worlds
(Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1986), p.11 – 25.
• Martha Nussbaum, “Emotions and Judgments of Value”, Chapter 1 in Upheavals of Thought: The
Intelligence of Emotions, (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2001), (pp. 19-‐33).
• George Marcus, The Sentimental Citizen: Emotion in Democratic Politics, (University Park: Penn
State University Press, 2002), Chapter 4, “Becoming Reacquainted with Emotion” (pp.49-‐78)

T H E S T O R Y O F U S

PUBLIC NARRATIVE: STORY OF US
“What are the values of this community?”

Goals for this session:

* To learn how to tell the story of this community in a way that reflects our values
* Each participant practices telling a story of us and gets feedback on her story
* To learn how to provide effective coaching to other’s Story of Us

Linking Story of Self to the Story of Us

A story of self tells people who you are
and why you are called to do the work that
you are doing. On its own, the story of self
is insufficient to engage others in action.
Ultimately the question is, what calling do
you share with others, a calling that will
require action?

Our story of self is interwoven with
stories we share with others.

One way a group of people establishes an
“us” – a shared identity – is through telling
of shared stories, stories through which
they can articulate the values they have in
common, as well as the particularities that
make them an “us.” These include stories of our family, community, faith tradition, school,
profession, movements, organizations, nations and, perhaps world. It is through shared
stories that we establish the identities and express the values of the communities in which
we participate (family, faith, nation) and of emergent communities we are forming (new
movements, new organizations, new constituencies). These stories of how people came
together, the challenges they faced, the obstacles they overcame and the successes they had
are the way we experience the values that make us who we are. They are the stories that
we share around the campfire, when someone says, “remember that time when…”

The character in the story of us is those of us in the room with you – in other words, your
constituency.

Telling a "story of us" requires learning how to put into narrative form the specific experiences
that the “us” in the room share with each other. It is a way to engage a community – this
community – in acting together, based on values that we share. When we tell stories that
reflect in images the challenges we have faced and what we’ve achieved together in detail, we
begin to build new community and new organization around values rather than just issues or
interests alone. Telling a Story of Us requires learning how to put into narrative form the
specific experiences that the “us” in the room share with each other.

Stories help us shift power by building new community and new capacity.

Often after we’ve heard others’ Stories of Self and we’ve started building relationships
together, we discover that we face similar challenges that are rooted in very deep systems of
power inequality. Learning to tell these Stories of Us is a way to join our stories together and
acknowledge those shared challenges and the roots of the problem and sources of hope as a
community. However a good Story of Us doesn’t just convey the root of our challenges, but
also lifts up our heroes and stories of even small successes. Those stories give us hope that, if
we come together and take action as a community, we can uproot some of the underlying
causes of our suffering.

Narrative Structure: Challenge, Choice, Outcome

Remember the story structure we introduced in telling your Story of Self?

Just like in your Story of Self, your Story of Us has a clear challenge, choice and outcome:

The Urgent Challenge: The challenges our community has faced in the past, or faces now.
What experiences has this community shared that articulate the challenges it has overcome?
How were those challenges like the current one you will call on them to face (made real with
stories, images, and details, not statistics)?

The Hopeful Outcome: Stories with vivid images and detail that remind this community of what
we’ve already achieved together up to this point. What outcomes has this community
experienced that articulate its sources of hope? What are its particular strengths?

The Strategic Choice: A specific, actionable, strategic choice that others in the room have made
that reflects our values. (Like giving time to be here, or going outside our comfort zone, or
working together on a teammate’s leadership challenge.) What choices was this community
called upon to make in the past in response to these challenges?
It is through the shared values in these stories that you will identify a unique reason for
believing that this community has the capacity to join you in confronting an urgent
challenge.


GOALS

TEAM BREAKOUT SESSION:
STORY OF US PRACTICE

• Develop a story with an identifiable “us” by using clear, specific examples of the
challenges, choices, and outcomes of this community, the roots that provide strength.
• Practice telling this community’s story in a way that starts to join individual stories in a
collective narrative.
• Coach others’ stories by listening carefully, offering feedback, asking questions.

Agenda
TOTAL TIME: 50 min.

1. Review the goals and agenda. Pick a timekeeper. 5 min.

2. Take 5 minutes as a team to brainstorm some of the shared 15 min.
experiences from today that make you an “us”.
-‐What values do you all share?
-‐Why were participants called to lead in their movements? Called to this
training? How can you tell a story that connects all of your stories?
-‐What were some of the challenges and sacrifices made to come to this
training? What are some of the common challenges we have all
endured?
-‐What are folks hoping to learn and take back to their organization?

Then take 10 minutes individually to silently develop your “Story of
Us.” Use the worksheet below.

TIP: start with no more than 1 or 2 sentences of self to begin to get a
sense of how the pieces fit together.

3. Each member of the group will tell your Story of Us one by one. Each 25 min.
person has 2 minutes to tell his/her story and 3 minutes for coaching.

NOTE: You have 2 minutes to tell your story. Stick to this limit. Make
sure the timekeeper cuts you off. It encourages focus and ensures
everyone has a chance.

4. Return to the plenary space for debrief. 5 min.

If you have time, Identify elements of stories that really brought the Us alive.
What did you learn about what worked? What kind of coaching helped improve your
story telling?

 WORKSHEET:
DEVELOPING YOUR STORY OF US

The purpose of the story of us is to create a sense of community among individuals who may or
may not yet see themselves as a community and to give them hope that they can make a
difference. It builds on shared experiences and outcomes of previous actions to establish the
context in which to take future action. Your goal here is to tell a story that evokes our shared
values as your audience, and shows why we in particular are called to take responsibility for
action now.

Your story of us may be a story of what we’ve already done together, challenges we’ve already
faced and outcomes we’ve achieved. Or it may be a story of some of our shared heroes,
challenges they faced and outcomes they’ve achieved. Hearing how we’ve met challenges in
the past gives us hope that we can face new challenges together.

Below: Paint a vivid picture of what this community is like –the ‘us’ that we are building in
the room that you could be asking others to join right now. Remember to include specific
anecdotes with vivid detail.

US CHALLENGE CHOICE OUTCOME
What values do we What challenges do we Where have we seen Where do we see hope
and our people share? What moments people in our in our community?
share? or experiences reflect communities acting
those challenges? on those values?
Where have we seen
people acting with

courage and dignity in
the face of challenge?

COACHING TIPS:
STORY OF US

Remember to balance both positive and constructively critical feedback.


INTERWEAVING SELF AND US (think back to the story of self the person shared
earlier): Did the story of self relate to the story of us? If so, what was the common
thread?

THE US: Who is the “us” in the story? Do you feel included in the “us”?
“Could you focus more on the experiences we as a small group shared today that
reflect our values? For instance, .”

THE CHALLENGE: What were the specific challenges the storyteller’s community faced?
How were those challenges made vivid?
“I understood the challenge to be ________. Is that what you intended?”

THE CHOICE: Was there a clear choice that was made in response to each challenge?
How did the choice make you feel? (Hopeful? Angry?)
“To me, the choice you made was _______, and it made us feel _______.”

THE OUTCOME: What was the specific outcome that resulted from each choice? What
does that outcome teach us?
“I understood the outcome to be _______, and it taught us _______.”

THE VALUES: Could you identify what this community’s values are and how this
community has acted on those values in the past? How?
“Your story made see that we value ________ because _________.”

DETAILS: Were there sections of the story that had especially good details or images
(e.g. sights, sounds, smells, or emotions of the moment)?
“The image of ________ really helped us feel what you were feeling.”

 WORKSHEET:
COACHING YOUR TEAMMATES’ STORIES OF US

Record Feedback/Comments from Your Team Members On Your Story Here:

Coaching Your Team's “Story of Us”
As you hear each other's stories, keeping track of the details of each person’s story will help you
to provide feedback and remember details about people on your team later. Use the grid below
to track your team's stories.

Name Values? Clear Us? Challenge Choice Outcome

A STORY OF US (and NOW!): TIM HARLIN-‐MARKS, SIERRA STUDENT COALITION

Tim was a Lead Trainer at Power Shift 2011 and told this story
at the first training for trainers.

I’ve spent the past two years working in environmental
nonprofits and during that time that I’ve spent a fair share of
early Saturday mornings in bland conference rooms full of flip
chart paper and middle-‐aged, middle-‐class, white people
wearing earth tones and talking quietly about their vacations.

And then I arrive in Washington, DC and I come to this room,
and I look around and think this looks unlike any community of
environmentalists I’ve ever been a part of. But I realize there’s
a reason for that – and the reason is that we’re not
environmentalists. We’re not, let’s face it, we’re not, because
we know environmentalists. We’re people from disparate
regions, and movements, and backgrounds – who give a damn.

We pay attention enough to know that the difficult realities of
our time are placing people from all ways of life at risk. But
while many of us went to elementary schools or places that celebrated Black History Month,
put up bulletin boards in December with pictures of Menorahs next to Crosses, we still haven’t
been taught to work together. We still haven’t been taught to see our struggles as common.

We come with different stories, different needs, many of us speak different languages, yet the
prospect of climate disaster, climate and environmental disaster compels all of us to work
together. We dream of a future without borders, without vast class differences, where we may
all live full, long lives, in happy, healthy communities. And this may sound daunting, and it is,
but I do not think it’s impossible. Anybody who walked in here on Friday into a room scattered
with you’s and I’s and stuck around long enough to be present in this room that’s brimming
with US knows that it’s not only possible but it’s absolutely necessary…

Necessary that we learn and buy into the skills of grassroots organizing and power building, and
we go out into communities across the U.S. and we train others. We teach them how to build
power in their communities, we invite them to join us in Washington DC and build a movement
of more than 10,000 people. We’ll take this back to our communities, we’ll run grassroots
campaigns, and we’ll build a future that we want to live in, that we want our children, our
grandchildren, and their children to live in.

Will you join me?


ADDITIONAL RESOURCES

Videos:
• Christopher, Susan. 2007. Story of Us, Camp Obama, Burbank, CA, July 2007.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z-‐WEM-‐taoG8
• NOI Video Resource Center: http://noitoolbox.mirocommunity.org/category/story-‐of-‐us

Readings:
1. George Marcus, The Sentimental Citizen: Emotion in Democratic Politics, (University Park: Penn State
University Press, 2002), Chapter 4, “Becoming Reacquainted with Emotion” (pp.49-78)
2. Martha Nussbaum, “Emotions and Judgments of Value”, Chapter 1 in Upheavals of Thought: The
Intelligence of Emotions, (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2001), (pp. 19-33).
T H E S T O R Y O F N O W
T H E S T O R Y O F N O W
P U B L I C N A R R A T I V E : S T O R Y O F N O W
“What challenge and hope call us to action now?”

MOTIVATING PURPOSE

Now we know why you’ve been called to a particular mission, we know something of who it is
you want to call upon to join you in that mission, and you’ve chosen a goal on which to focus,
so what action does that mission require of you right here, right now, in this place?

A “story of now” is urgent, it requires dropping other things and paying attention, it is rooted in
the values you celebrated in your story of self and us, and requires action.

FIERCE URGENCY OF NOW

In Washington DC, August 23, 1963, Dr. Martin
Luther King told a story of what he called the
“fierce urgency of now.” Although we all recall his
vision of what America could be, his dream, we
often forget that action was urgent because of the
“nightmare” of racial oppression, the result of
white America’s failure to make good on its
“promissory note” to African Americans. This debt,
he argued, could no longer be postponed. If we did
not act now, we could never realize the dream.

In a story of now, story and strategy overlap
because a key element in hope is a strategy – a
credible vision of how to get from here to there.
The “choice” we offer must be more than “we must
all choose to be better people” or “we must all
choose to do any one of this list of 53 things”
(which makes each of them trivial). A meaningful
choice requires action we can take now, action we
can take together, and an outcome we can achieve.

THE CHALLENGE, CHOICE AND OUTCOME

Remember the story structure we introduced in telling your Story of Self and Story of Us? Just
like those stories, a Story of Now has a clear challenge, choice and outcome. The story
describes an urgent challenge facing your community, a hopeful vision of what life could be,
and a specific choice others can make that will move us towards that vision…NOW.

Challenge: What urgent challenges does your community—your Us—face now (make the
challenges real with specific stories, images, and details, not statistics or generalizations). Why
haven’t these challenges been resolved yet? Is there anyone who has a stake in keeping things
the way they are?

The Hopeful Outcome: What is the hopeful vision of how things could be better that can inspire
us to risk action? What makes that hope real and plausible and not just dream-‐like? Perhaps
stories of people organizing to take action together elsewhere? Or hopeful outcomes you’ve
already achieved together as a community in the past?

The Choice: What’s the strategic choice you’re asking others to make right now, this minute, to
join you in action? Part of what makes a vision credible is a strategy to reach it. What’s the
path that you might take to realize your vision? “If each one of us does X, we can achieve Y,
which will lead us to Z” This specific choice should be informed by the theory of change and
tactics you developed in your strategy. What is the specific commitment you are asking each
person to make, and why we must work together to achieve it? “Will you join me in
___________________?”

A Story of Now is urgent; it requires dropping other things and paying attention; it is rooted in
the values you’ve discovered you share through relationship building. The choice we’re called
on to make is a choice to commit to strategic action now. Leaders who only describe problems,
but fail to identify a way to act and bring others together to address the problem aren’t very
good leaders. If you are called to address a real challenge, a challenge so urgent you have
motivated us to face it as well, then you also have a responsibility to invite us to join you in
action that has some chance of success—not certain success, but plausible success. A Story of
Now is not simply a call to make a choice to act – it is a call to hopeful collective action—action
with a clear strategy behind it that helps us see how we can make a difference if we act
together.



GOAL
STORY OF NOW PRACTICE

• Develop a story of now with a clear and urgent challenge, a detailed vision for the
future, and specific choice point for your audience to make.

• Learn how to focus on a choice to act with others to achieve strategic purpose.

NOTE: It’s more than an “ask.” It’s a choice about whether someone’s going to stay on the
sidelines or dive in. It’s an opportunity for them to join with you.
AGENDA
TOTAL TIME: 50 min.

1. Review the agenda and goals. Pick a timekeeper. 5 min.

2.
Take some time as individuals to silently develop your “Story of
Now.” Use the worksheet that follows. 10 min.

3. Each member of the group will tell your Story of Now one by one. 30 min.
Each person has 2 minutes to tell his/her story and 3 minutes for
coaching.

NOTE: You have 2 minutes to tell your story. Stick to this limit. Make
sure the timekeeper cuts you off. It encourages focus and ensures
everyone has a chance.

4. Return to the plenary space for debrief. 5 min.

If you have time, as a group, identify the elements of the individual Stories of Now
that resonate with the group. Who’s challenge was most vivid? Which path and
choice most compelling? Which elements evoked hope?



WORKSHEET:
DEVELOPING YOUR STORY OF NOW

The story of now should be about your campaign, work or issue. Your challenge is to get this
new community (the US) to care about your issue and commit to taking action with you today.

Why is it urgent to act now on your issue? What stories can you tell to make the challenge real for
your listeners? Visualize specific detailed experiences that you’ve seen or heard that reveal the
challenges you face together—specific moments, events, sights, smells, sounds. Make the challenge
concrete rather than abstract.

What’s the outcome you want to achieve? How could the future look different if you take action
now? Why is this outcome hopeful and plausible (what about this moment makes action hopeful?)?
What specific people or events in your own community or beyond give you hope that this outcome
can be achieved?

What specific, strategic, actionable choice are you asking people to make now? (it should be
something that participants can actually do)

COACHING TIPS:
PUBLIC NARRATIVE


THE CHALLENGE: What is the specific challenge we face now? Did the storyteller paint
a vivid and urgent picture of it? What details might make it even more vivid and
urgent?
“The challenge wasn’t urgent enough. Why not mention ________?”

THE OUTCOME: What is the specific outcome if we act together? Is there a clear and
hopeful vision of how the future can be different if we act now?
“The outcome could be even more hopeful if you described _______.”

THE CHOICE: Is there a clear choice that we are being asked to make in response to the
challenge? How did the choice make you feel? (Hopeful?)
“What exactly are you asking us to do? When should we do it? Where?”

VALUES: What values do you share with the storyteller? Does the story of now appeal
to those values?
“Instead of telling us to care, it would be more effective if you showed us the choice
to be made by illustrating the way in which you value .”

DETAILS: Were there sections of the story that had especially vivid details or images
(e.g. sights, sounds, smells, or emotions)?
“The image of ________ really helped me feel what you were feeling.”
“Try telling more details about _______ so we can relate to this shared experience.”

INTERWEAVING SELF, US AND NOW (for future linking of stories): Did the story of self
and the story of us relate to the story of now? If so, what was the common thread?
If not, what thread could the storyteller use to rethink the connections between
self, us and now?


WORKSHEET:

COACHING YOUR TEAMMATES’ STORIES OF NOW
Record Feedback/Comments from Your Team Members On Your Story Here:

Coaching Your Team's “Story of Now”
As you hear each other's stories, keeping track of the details of each person’s story will help you
to provide feedback and remember details about people on your team later. Use the grid below
to track your team's stories.

W H A T ’ S T H E W H A T ’ S M Y
W H A T ’ S O U R
N A M E H O P E F U L S T R A T E G I C
C H A L L E N G E ?
O U T C O M E ? C H O I C E ?


Videos:
• Ben Kingsley as Mahatma Gandhi in the film Gandhi, non-‐violence speech.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e3tjIiWIkAQ
• NOI Video Resource Center: http://noitoolbox.mirocommunity.org/category/story-‐of-‐now

Readings:
3. George Marcus, The Sentimental Citizen: Emotion in Democratic Politics, (University Park: Penn State
University Press, 2002), Chapter 4, “Becoming Reacquainted with Emotion” (pp.49-78)
4. Martha Nussbaum, “Emotions and Judgments of Value”, Chapter 1 in Upheavals of Thought: The
Intelligence of Emotions, (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2001), (pp. 19-33).
LINKING THE STORY OF
SELF, US & NO W
P U T T I N G I T A L L T O G E T H E R :
L I N K I N G S E L F , U S & N O W
Tying together all of the pieces into a compelling public narrative

If I am not for myself, who will be for me?
When I am only for myself, what am I?
If not now, when?
—Hillel, 1st century Jerusalem sage

As Rabbi Hillel’s powerful words suggest, to
stand for yourself is the first step, but
insufficient on its own. You must also find or
create a community to stand with, and that
community must begin acting now. To
combine the stories of self, us and now, you
have to find the link between why you are
called to this mission, why we as a community
are called to this mission, and what our
mission calls on us to do now.
That linking may require you to continually
rethink the stories of self, us, and now that
you are working on.

Storytelling is a dynamic, non-‐linear process.
Each time you tell your story you will adapt it
— to make yourself clearer, to adjust to a different audience, to locate yourself in a different
context. As you develop a story of us, you may find you want to alter your story of self,
especially as you begin to see the relationship between the two more clearly. Similarly, as you
develop a story of now, you may find it affects what went before. And, as you go back to
reconsider what went before, you may find it alters your story of now.

Storytelling takes practice.
Our goal is not to leave with a final “script” of your public narrative that you will use over and
over again. The goal is to help you learn a process and framework by which you can generate
your narrative over and over and over again, when, where, and how you need to in order to
motivate yourself and others to specific, strategic action.



GOAL
L i n k i n g s e l f , u s & n o w

 Practice telling a public narrative in which self, us, and now are strategically and
motivationally linked.
 Practice telling a public narrative to ask for a specific commitment from others to join in
collective action.

AGENDA

TOTAL TIME: 25 min

1. Review your notes and feedback from the 3 previous modules from the 5 min
training.

2. Take some time as individuals to silently develop your “Public Narrative.” 20 min
Link your story of now with a story of self and story of us. Use the
worksheet that follows.

Workshop with a partner if you want some extra practice.


S E L F
WORKSHEET:
l i n k s e l f – u s – n o w & a s k f o r c o m m i t m e n t
U S
What experiences and values call What values and experiences do Why is it urgent to find ways to
you to take leadership? you share with the people you support one another now? What’s
will be speaking to? (* remember your source of hope? What is the
this is the people sitting in the first choice each person must make
room with you now!) to join you? Is it specific?

CHALLENGE (urgency)

CHALLENGE
CHALLENGE

OUTCOME (nightmare/dream)

CHOICE
CHOICE

*HINT: It helps to start here

CHOICE (action now)
and work backwards.

OUTCOME
OUTCOME

C O A C H ING ST O R IES
C O A C H I N G P U B L I C N A R R A T I V E

What is Coaching and Why Do We Need It?

Coaching is a way to support an individual or team in improving their effectiveness at any given
task. In the context of public narrative, it means coaching for the effective articulation of values
through story, linking a story of self, us and now; and increasing the likelihood these values can
be translated into action.

A good narrative coach is: A good narrative coach is not:
Someone who creates a respectful A therapist. Public narrative sessions can be
environment and supports sharing of key therapeutic but it is not your job to be a
moments of our lives in a way that is deep and counselor but guide and individual or group to
trusting the key learnings of strategic storytelling
Re-‐teaches concepts of public narrative One who gives general comments, judges
concepts briefly as needed content and is chit-‐chatty.
Helps individuals dive deep into the practice One who tries to tell your story for you
and ‘fall off the bike’
Models listening, asking good & relevant One who avoids critical feedback because they
questions, synthesizes and creates teaching don’t want to hurt your feelings
moments
Willing to interrupt to ensure that learning
happens in a group or individual setting. This
means confronting uncomfortable situations
where you feel rude but need to get the
conversation back on track

General tips on narrative:
-‐ When you hear the story-‐ decide if you are coaching the storyteller or facilitating the
group to coach? If you decide to coach start by saying “I am going to model coaching-‐
and I am going to especially focus on x”
-‐ This is not a communication skills exercise-‐ it is not about public speaking skills. It’s
about “the glow from within, not the gloss from without.”
-‐ This is not a trauma/therapy session-‐ the point is not to direct stories to private intimate
details but to support public narrative for organizing
-‐ Because the ‘us’ is different with every group a person shares a public narrative with, no
one ever tells the same linked story of self-‐us-‐now twice. That’s why this is not about
polishing a script but rather about developing a leadership skill.

Three Coaching Challenges: Motivational, Educational, Strategic Challenges

• Motivational: challenge of effort/heart. The practitioner is inhibited by fear, needs more
courage to take risks, needs to work at developing competence more persistently, etc.

• Informational: challenge of knowledge and skills/hands. The practitioner doesn’t know
what makes a “good story”, what is meant by “self, us, and now”, the role of choice
points, etc.

• Strategic: challenge of strategy/head. The practitioner has a hard time putting these
tools to work in this particular context (as in the “story of us” for example), has a hard
time choosing which stories to tell to achieve what kind of effect, etc.

5 Step Coaching Process
Coaching involves a five stage process beginning with observation of what’s going on,
diagnosing the nature of the problem, intervening strategically, debriefing the coachee’s
understanding of the intervention, and monitoring subsequent performance.

1. Observe: What do I See and Hear?

Begin by listening very carefully, observing body language, and asking very focused probing
questions to satisfy yourself that you “get” the problem. It may take time to get the facts
straight. But if you don’t get the problem, you can’t help solve it. Don’t be shy about asking
specific “stubborn” questions. This process can help the coachee articulate just what the
problem is in a way they may not have before. So it’s not only “getting information.”

Look for the key components of Narrative:

SELF US NOW
What are the experiences What are the experiences Why is it urgent to respond to
and values that call you to and values of the “us” – or the challenge? Where is the
assume leadership in people in the room that hope? What do you want to call
mission? Does the will call them to join you on the people here to join you in
storyteller share an in action on mission? Do doing? What is the outcome? Do
authentic experience? Do you feel the US in the you know why the storyteller
you ‘get’ them? Did you narrative? Did you hear a cares about this? Did you hear a
hear a challenge, choice challenge, choice and challenge, choice and outcome?
and outcome? outcome?

2. Diagnose: Which one of the three dimensions is the student struggling with?

o Motivational (effort/heart)
Is the individual struggling because s/he is not putting forth enough effort? Is she not
trying hard enough because she’s embarrassed? Is he quitting too soon because of
frustration or fear? Are they afraid of making themselves vulnerable? Is the relevant
experience too painful? Do they not really care about the “now”? Do they have a hard
time feeling their “us” is real?

o Informational (knowledge and skills/hands)
Is the individual struggling because of not being able to understand the skills necessary
for narrative? Is he getting interference from other habits and behaviors (e.g., someone
well-‐versed in marketing speak may not know how to tell an authentic story)? Certain
thing just need more practice? Are they clear about the challenge, choice, outcome
structure? Do they understand the difference between a story of us, a story of self, and
a story of now.

o Strategic (performance strategy/head)
Is the individual struggling because of not thinking about or approaching the task
appropriately? Does she understand the principles underlying that leadership practice
(e.g. why a reason for hope is a key part of a story of self)? Is he forgetting or
misinterpreting key elements of the task? Where might that misinterpretation come
from, given your knowledge of the individual?


3. Intervene

Interventions are “correctional” or “developmental”. Correctional interventions involve
showing, telling, teaching the person how to do it. . . . and are most useful with informational
challenges. Developmental interventions usually take the form of questions. . . and are most
useful in encouraging the person to locate their sources of motivation or to figure out how to
solve the problem.

If your diagnosis is that the individual If your diagnosis is that the If your diagnosis is that the individual
needs to put in more intense effort, individual is not understanding lacks execution skill, choose an
choose a motivational intervention, – the focal practice adequately, or educational intervention – for
for example: thinking about it appropriately, example:
choose a strategic intervention –
for example:
• Model the behavior and invite • Work through a specific example
• Encourage and exhortation—you the coachee to imitate you to with the person, asking
can do it! get the “feel” of the activity questions to guide the strategic
• Offer a kick in the pants (with • Focus on specifics. Focus on process. Then reflect on the
love) choice points, etc. process itself, asking them to
• Help the person understand and • Break it down into small parts describe how it worked?
confront his or her fear, and invite the individual to try • Ask good questions about how
embarrassment, or other one at a time the individual is thinking about
emotions that may get in the • Offer three or four different the practice (“Why did you
way of their ability to risk acting, practice exercises and observe choose that tactic?”)
persevering, trying new things. which ones “take” for that • Offer your observations, asking
Communicate with empathy, person. how the person might think
hope, and affirmation of the • Suggest others with whom the about it differently (“At that
coachee’s self-‐worth. Reward and person can practice. point, were there other options?
praise courage • Suggest ways to figure out What might they have been?
• Model courage and emotional where to find the missing Why did you choose the one you
maturity in your own behavior, information. did?)
confess fear and explain how you • Offer feedback on what you are
move toward it rather than away hearing, asking if that describes
from it. the situation, at the same time,
offering possible reframing of it.
• Use silent reflection and self-‐
diagnosis (“Why don’t you take a
moment to think through what
you believe is working and not
working and let’s talk about
that?).

4. Debrief: Ensure information was communicated clearly.

Helpful Debrief Questions
1. What are your main takeaways from this session?
2. What did you learn about your narrative today?

3. What will you do next to modify your narrative?

4. When can we check-‐in to see how this is progressing?


How to Coach Story of Self?

The purpose of sharing our story of self is for us to connect on values. To understand why
people are called to leadership and to organizing. By focusing on the challenge and the choice
and the outcome we are communicating that we own our lives and we exercise choice. The
story is not supposed to reflect our heroism or show that we are unique human beings but
rather the opposite-‐ that we are human like everyone else, vulnerable and despite the
challenge we exercise choice. We have hope and we share our source of hope to inspire action.
Finally, the story of Self is the story of a choice — everyone (when they think about it) has
thousands of choices they could tell a story of, so the key is selecting one that (succinctly)
reveals why they are called to leadership for this particular issue. It doesn’t have to be
dramatic but it does have to reveal the values they hold and want to put into action.

Asking questions vs. giving direct feedback
Asking Questions to Elicit Feedback Giving Direct Feedback

• What in that story resonated for you? • Ask the teller to identify the challenge,
• What were the particularly vivid images or choice and outcome.
details that you remember? • Identify particularly strong choice points.
• What were you still curious about? Was there • Ask questions about the intended audience
a gap? and the desired action or response.
• Did you hear a challenge? What was the • Ask questions to connect the dots.
choice? What was the outcome? • Identify themes and ask for confirmation.
• What kind of emotions did you feel when you • Identify particularly strong images or visuals
heard the story – motivate to action or inhibit that worked.
action? • Indicate where you saw evidence of the
• What would you have liked more of? kinds of emotions that motivate people to
• What were the choice points? take action or fall into inaction.

Common Challenges in Story of Self:
1. No challenge, choice, outcome
2. “I don’t have a story” (usually means ‘a story I think is good enough’)
3. Gives resume
4. Issue focused – like a speech on a topic (not personal)
5. Good story, but not public narrative
6. Someone becomes emotional
7. Vague feedback
8. Story sceptic (this does not fit this culture)

COACHING A GOOD STORY – WHAT TO DO IF YOUR STORYTELLER …
States that he/she doesn’t HAVE a story – Avoids telling his/her OWN story – ask for
everyone has a story! Work to find one by gently more direct experience of self, rather than a
asking questions – what matters to this person, story of another person.
why? When did that happen? Why… get them into
their story using questions. The challenge doesn’t
have to be tragic – just an important choice in their
life.
Avoids telling a PERSONAL story – shift focus back Is lost in the abstract – try to minimize abstract
to personal away from “general problems” etc. theory and focus on specifics of self, us and the
now through stories of key moments and
choices
Unwinds a long biography –reminder that the Now Settles into rant mode – the challenges are
is the lens or focus point he/she should use to help great and anger and emotions can spill over –
identify good elements of Self and Us story. Try to ask for teller to limit description of the
pick one choice point only. challenge and work to include hope. Trust one
specific moment to paint a vivid picture!

How to Coach Story of US?

The purpose of sharing our story of us is to create a community from the group in the room and
from your small group. By focusing on the values that are in common among them and by
focusing on the challenge and the choice and the outcome that joins them together, this
community starts taking shape. This story draws on shared experiences (very often quoting
stories of self shared earlier) to reveal shared values. As such, it is told in the past tense, like
the story of Self. Importantly, it communicates also why we are hopeful and powerful together.
It sets the ground for calling people to action in the story of now. Because it focuses on the
common values it transcends issue silos. So instead of saying we connect on ending suffering vs.
we connect on finding ways to cut costs – we facilitate a story of us that says we come together
around the values of human dignity and stewardship of resources. The particulars of how we
work on that and achieve it is for the story of now and the strategy.

Common Questions:
-‐ Who is the us you want us to develop a story about?
It is a challenge for the participants-‐ they ask things like: do you mean us in this small
group, us in the big group, us in at work, or should I imagine I am using narrative to
recruit and the us is the targeted recruits?

-‐ Is this story about the past or the present?
It is challenging for the participants to know whether it is a value based us (especially
when the group just came together in this workshop) or if it is an experiential based us
where they can go to the history of their relationships and draw on it. In the second case
the challenge, choice and outcome of the story is often in the past. Of course they can
say and now our challenge is…and our choice is….and this way they are preparing the
ground for the story of now. If it is a value us then it can go either way. The story could
be 1. Clear from our stories we faced the same challenge which is X in A’s story and Y in
B’s story and we had similar choices which are this or that and we chose and the
outcome was X and why.

Common Challenges:
(1) Restates story of self
(2) Not us in the room
(3) Can’t find any specific shared experiences of us or shared values those
experiences reveal
(4) Bad dynamics: no us, but everyone says there is. “I relate to that because I also
grew up in a city.”
(5) No challenge, choice, or outcome

How to Coach Story of Now?

Purpose of story of now:
-‐ To create urgency and to articulate the specific action I’m calling others to take now.
-‐ To contrast what would happen if I act AND if I don’t act
-‐ To instill hope that the action I am being asked to take will make a meaningful contribution to
bringing about change.

Common Challenges:
(1) The ask is vague or abstract: “let’s all do what we can to improve the quality of
services in the NHS”
(2) The ask is not a collective action: “let’s commit as individuals to doing what we
can to improve quality for each patient”
(3) The ask is a laundry list of possible actions: “here are 53 things you could do to
improve services”
(4) The ask is not achievable by group: “we need more Government funding for the
NHS”
(5) There is no hope in the story of now: “things are really bad so we need to act”
(6) There is no vision of what the world would be like if we chose to act
(7) The story of now is not connected to the story of self and us



WORKSHEET:
COACHING NARRATIVE
Use the worksheet to record your observations, diagnosis and type of intervention you would
like to use as your practice buddy goes through their role-‐play.

Observations Diagnosis Intervention
(Symptoms)
Motivational
(Heart)

Strategic
(Head)

Skill Based
(Hands)


O F F L INE NA R R A T IV E
APPLICATIONS:
B U I L D I N G R E L A T I O N S H I P S
T H R O U G H
1 : 1 ’ S & G R O U P M E E T I N G S

B U I L D I N G R E L A T I O N S H I P S
T H R O U G H
1 : 1 ’ S & G R O U P M E E T I N G S
“To whom am I committed?”
OBJECTIVES:
By the end of this training, you will…

• Learn how to use your story to build relationships to develop leadership, community, and power.
• Practice building intentional relationships through the skill of one-‐to-‐one organizing
conversations.
• Identify common values and interests, and unique skills and resources of others in this
community.

RELATIONSHIPS BUILD COMMITMENT, THE GLUE OF AN ORGANIZATION

Leadership begins with understanding yourself: your values, your motivation, and your story.
But leadership is about enabling others to achieve purpose in the face of uncertainty. The
foundation of this kind of leadership is the relationships we build with others, most especially,
others with whom we can share leadership.

Identifying, Recruiting, and Developing
Leadership: We build relationships with
potential collaborators to explore values, learn
about resources, discern common purpose, and
find others with whom leadership responsibility
can be shared.

Building Community: Leaders, in turn,
continually reach out to others, form
relationships with them, expand the circle of
support, grow more resources that they can
organize, and recruit people who, in turn, can become leaders themselves.

Turning Community Resources into Power: Relationship building doesn’t end when action
starts. Commitment is one of your greatest resources in organizing, particularly when your
campaign starts to come up against competition, internal conflict, or external obstacles.
Commitment is developed and sustained through relationships, which must be constantly,
intentionally nurtured. The more that volunteers or members find purpose in the intentional
community you are building, the more they will commit resources that you may never have
known they had.

COERCION OR COMMITMENT?
As organizers and leaders we have an important choice to make about how we lead our
organizations and campaigns. Will the glue that holds our campaign together be a command
and control model fueled by coercion? Or will the glue be voluntary commitment? If we decide
that our long-‐term power and potential for growth comes more from voluntary commitment,
then we need to invest significant time and intentionality in building the relationships that
generate that commitment—commitment to each other and to the goals that bring us
together. That requires having transparent, open and mindful interaction, not closed, reactive
or manipulating conversations.


SO WHAT ARE RELATIONSHIPS?

Relationships are rooted in shared values
We can identify values that we share by learning each other’s stories, especially ‘choice points’
in our life journeys. The key is asking “why?” to understand the choices we’ve made separately
and together.

Relationships grow out of exchanges
Your resources can address my interests; my resources can address your interests. The key is
identifying our interests and resources. This means that relationships are driven as much by
difference as by commonality. Our common purpose may be as narrow as supporting each
other in pursuit of our individual interests, providing they are not in conflict. Or we may
discover a broader purpose on which to work together. Organizing relationships are not simply
transactional. We’re not simply looking for someone to meet our “ask” at the end of a one-‐to-‐
one meeting or house meeting. We’re looking for leaders to join with us in long-‐term
relationships of learning, growth and action.

Relationships are created by commitment
An exchange becomes a relationship only when each party commits a portion of their most
valuable resource to it: time. A commitment of time to the relationship gives it a future. And
because we can all learn, grow, and change, the purposes that led us to form the relationship
may change as well, offering possibilities for enriched exchange. In fact the relationship itself
may become a valued resource – what Robert Putnam calls “social capital.”

Relationships generate shared learning and growth
Like any human relationship organizing relationships
require constant attention and work. When nurtured
over time, relationships become an important source
of continual learning and development for the
individuals and communities that make up your
campaign or organization. They are also our primary
source for sustaining motivation and inspiration.

Sometimes simply knowing that we are not fighting
alone gives us the energy to continue the work. For
example, the relationship between Cesar Chavez and
his mentor, Fred Ross, Sr. was a long-‐term relationship
built through one-‐to-‐ones and shared action. Their
relationship helped spawn the United Farm Workers’
movement and provided a source of learning and
growth, not just for them as individuals, but also for
the movement.


HOW DO WE BUILD RELATIONSHIPS?

We build relationships for organizing the same way we build relationships in other parts of our
lives, striving always to do so in an intentional and transparent way. Here are some of the
relational tactics we can use to constantly grow our campaigns and organizations.

One-‐to-‐Ones
One to one meetings are good for identifying
leaders and recruiting them into leadership
teams. Regular one to ones are also critical for
building and sustaining strong relationships in
which both partners grow and learn together
over time.

House Meetings
You can use house meetings to build
community and commitment around the core
leadership team. Once we have a team of
leaders who are committed, that leadership
has to reach out to engage their community
deeply, and sometimes to create new community where it doesn’t yet exist. In a house meeting
campaign, leaders recruit and engage their own social networks in building a broader, deeper
community of others willing to commit to create change together. House meetings were a key
part of how Cesar Chavez built the Farm Workers movement, and it’s how many candidates
running for office for the first time build their base of support and leadership.

Organizational Meetings
Organizational meetings help us launch a new idea or a plan, strategize around a problem,
invite new members to the team or get team members recommitted to our cause and our
campaign. Organizational meetings are like house meetings, but may take place at work, in our
places of worship, at community centers, or anywhere where you can gather people of
common cause together in one place.

Team Meetings
Another way to build and sustain relationships is in team meetings. Often when groups of
people who are working together have constant confusion, lack of communication and conflict,
it’s because they are not spending enough time connecting with each other as people, trying to
understand each other’s interests and finding ways to learn together. Team meetings are
important for decision-‐making, strategizing and accountability, but also for maintaining strong
committed relationships among leaders.


BUILDING INTENTIONAL RELATIONSHIPS: THE ONE-‐TO-‐ONE MEETING

One of the best ways to initiate intentional relationships is by use of the one-‐to-‐one meeting, a
technique developed and refined by organizers over many years.

Before the one-‐to-‐one:
We have to get another person’s attention to conduct a one on one meeting. Don’t be coy. Be
as up front as you can be about what your interest is in the meeting, but that first, you’d like
take a few moments to get better acquainted.

There must be a purpose or a goal in setting up a one on one meeting. It could range from, “I’m
starting a new network and thought you might be interested” to “I’m struggling with a problem
and I think you could help” or “I know you have an interest in X so I’d like to discuss that with
you.” Be transparent about your purpose.

During the one-‐to-‐one:

CONNECTION– Most of the one on one is devoted to exploration by sharing stories and
asking probing questions to learn the other person’s values, purposes, and resources. It is also
important to share your own values, purposes, and resources so that it can be a two way street.

We exchange resources in the meeting such as information, support, and insight. This creates
the foundation for future exchanges.

CONTEXT– Explain why the work you are asking them to engage in is important (build off
your story of us & now). Be specific about the challenges we face, but also the opportunities
and hopes. Instead of making statements, ask questions that help the person locate their own
sense of anger and hope around the challenge.

CHOICE– After exchange of ideas and information happens and both parties are clear about
intentions there needs to be a choice. During a one to one you have to make a choice to move
forward with the relationship or not, and commit to further exchange of knowledge and
resources in the future or not. This should be a specific conversation during your one to one.

COMMITMENT– If you choose to continue building a relationship, a successful one to one
meeting ends with a clear commitment, most likely to meet again and to engage in action
together. By scheduling a specific time for this meeting or action together, you make it a real
commitment. The goal of the one to one is not just to get someone to make a pledge, to give
money, to commit a vote. It’s to build commitment to continuing the relationship in service of
a shared purpose and desire for change.

CATAPULT–Make a plan of action together. Explore your individual resources and how you
can each bring those resources to bear in this relationship and on behalf of the campaign you’re
preparing together. You can ask for recommendations for other people to have one to ones
with, or even ask this person if they will do one-‐to-‐ones with their own friends, family and
neighbors etc.

O n e -‐ t o -‐ O n e D o s a n d D o n ’ t s
D O D O N ’ T
Schedule a time to have this conversation Be unclear about purpose and length of conversation
(usually 30 -‐ 60 minutes)
Ask questions and plan to listen Try to persuade rather than listen
Follow the steps of the conversation above Chit chat about private interests
Share experiences and deep motivations Skip stories to “get to the point”
Share a vision that articulates a shared set of interests Miss the opportunity to share ideas about how things
for change can change
Be clear about the ‘when and what’ of your next step End the conversation without a clear plan for the
together next steps



BREAKOUT SESSION
PRACTICE 1:1s

GOALS
• Practice using your Public Narrative in two 1-‐to-‐1s.
• Connect with two of your fellow participants and identify points of collaboration and
diverse skills and resources.
AGENDA
Total time: 50 min
1. Find a partner. Review the worksheet individually and identify the 5 min.
purpose of you 1:1 and which stories would be most relevant.

2. Complete your first 1:1. Identify and write down on the worksheet 12 min.
what your “Share” “Listen” “Reflect” and “Act” elements. Write down
your names and your action steps on a post-‐it.

3. Find your second partner. Review the worksheet individually and 5 min
identify the purpose of your 1:1 and which stories would be most
relevant.

4. Complete your first 1:1. Identify and write down on the worksheet 12 min
what your “Share” “Listen” “Reflect” and “Act” elements. Write down
your names and your action steps on a post-‐it.

5. Turn in your Action Item Post-‐its, fill in the “Follow-‐up” box on your 6 min
worksheet, and then individually reflect through the following
questions.

1) What new opportunities for collaboration did you identify? Did anything surprise you?

2) What was the most challenging?

3) Who are two people you want to invite to have a 1x1 in your own work after this
training?


 WORKSHEET
1:1’s PRACTICE REFLECTIONS
We'll be watching a model one-‐to-‐one, and then you will have a chance to practice.

Model 1:1 First 1:1 Second 1:1
PREPARE:
Who are you meeting
with? What are you
hoping to accomplish?

SHARE:
What stories can you
tell to connect? What
values do you share?

LISTEN:
What values and
interests do you hear
from them? What
stories are they
telling?

REFLECT: What points
of connection or
solidarity have you
discovered? What
skills and resources
have you uncovered?

ACT:
What is your ask?
What action steps are
you taking?

FOLLOW-‐UP:
How do you plan to
continue the
conversation? Don’t
forget to say thank
you!

 WORKSHEET
PRACTICE RELATIONSHIP BUILDING

ONE-‐TO-‐ONE PRACTICE (30 min)
Choose a partner you don’t know (or would like to know more about). Learn about why she has
been called to do this work and what she is challenged by and excited about within the work.
Probe with “why?” questions to get to choice points and specific experiences that shaped her
life. Share your story. Listen to your partner’s story for the motivations and the resources she
could bring to this learning community (leadership skills, a following, action skills, etc.). Be
specific. Below are some areas you might explore together, but this is not a scripted
conversation. Be present. Close by making a concrete commitment to each other.

Avoid talking about issues like immigration, education, or the economy in an abstract and
detached way. Talk about why YOU in particular care about a issue based on your own life
experiences or the specific experiences of people you care about. What values were you taught
that make you care about this? How were you taught those values?

Hope: What motivates you to
act to organize now? What’s
Story:
What’s your family your vision of how things could
story? What in your life be different if we work
brought you here today? together?
______________________
_____________________ ______________________

_____________________ ______________________
_____________________
______________________
_____________________

Challenges: What keeps you Leadership Qualities: What
from action? What do you skills do you have? What do
fear? What would you want you want to improve in your
to learn? What are our leadership?
learning challenges?

_____________________
_____________________
_____________________ ______________________

_____________________

What values do we share?
What interests can we act on together?
What skills, hopes and concerns do we each bring to this work?
What specific commitments can we make to continue this relationship?

ADDITIONAL RESOURCES:

As mentioned before, one-‐to-‐ones are just one example of relational tactics that give you an
opportunity to use your story to engage others to act with you. In the following pages, you will
find additional resources on Organizational Meetings, House meetings and Voter/Constituency
Contact.
The Organizational (or Organizing) Meeting
Although bringing new people into the political process is a core goal of a capacity-‐building
program, members, or activists who have already shown support online or through other
channels will be your easiest source of early house meeting hosts or volunteer leaders for
future actions. They are also much more comfortable attending large group meetings and
committing to action than others.

SAMPLE
ORGANIZING MEETING AGENDA

Relationship building is the constant non-‐stop work of organizing. One way of building
relationships with new people and helping them build relationships with each other is to
host organizing or recruitment meetings. These are distinct from your campaign strategy
meetings in that the purpose is to recruit and bring together new supporters, motivate
them through story work and relationship building, orient them to your strategy and
invite them to join you in action.

The ask is the same for everyone: Get involved in the next volunteer team activity in your
area, or if there is no team yet in your area, gather with others here now to schedule one
meeting & an outreach action. (First commitment is to action.)

0:00 INTRODUCTION
Leader tells her story, welcomes and thanks people for attending and introduces the
organizer.

ORGANIZER’S STORY
Tell your brief 2-‐minute story. Attendees want to know who you are, where you
came from, what choices you’ve made in your life that led you to this work.

PARTICIPANTS’ STORIES
Participants share their stories (if a small group). What are you experiencing now that
brings you to care about this issue? If it’s a large group they can pair up for 10-‐minute
one-‐ to-‐ones to share stories.

DISCUSSION: WHAT DO OUR STORIES SHOW US WE HAVE IN COMMON?

0:25 CAMPAIGN STORY AND STRATEGY
Tell the story of this campaign and state and our role in national and local
campaigns. Incorporate local heroes and stories about what people before us in
this community have done, or in communities like ours.

Explain the strategy of our campaign—what the challenge is we face, what we’re trying
to win, and our specific goals, including the goals.

Give a clear picture of how many people we have reached, how many people are
volunteering, and how we’ve found supporters in this area. Also clearly lay out
the challenge ahead. Good visuals are key. Help people understand where they
as individuals fit into your campaign’s structure and strategy. Be transparent
about goals so others feel motivated to help achieve them.

0:40 DESCRIBE AND ROLE PLAY THE TYPES OF ACTIVITIES TEAMS DO TO MEET GOALS
Explain phone bank and canvassing, what it is, why it is important and how it helps
to reach our goals. Ask people who have been volunteering with you to talk about
their experience getting into action on this campaign. Prep them to role play a
supporter contact conversation to show how easy and fun it is.

0.50 CALL TO ACTION
Invite others to join you NOW! Lay out the challenges we face, the possibilities if
we win, and the path to winning, which includes taking action now.

Ask participants to make the choice to take responsibility for the change they want to
see by joining an upcoming volunteer team activity if one exists, or scheduling one if
one doesn’t exist . Your team together can choose which activity you will do (phone
bank, canvass, etc). Convey urgency—how many days left? (Avoid the temptation to
give people a checklist of things to do—it can be overwhelming, and undermines the
value of any one choice).

Invite participants to make the choice now. Have sign up sheets for each activity ready
and available. If there are people from a place where there is no team g ive them time
to schedule a meeting. Write all appointments and meetings on a large calendar that
everyone can see.

0:00 CELEBRATE COMMITMENTS & CLOSING REFLECTION

Voter and Constituency Contact

Read the rest of Jake Waxman’s blog at:
http://neworganizing.com/2011/02/01/beyond-voting-building-change-with-
meaningful-engagement/
HOUSE MEETING
CAMPAIGN TOOLKIT

67 New Organizing Institute

H O U S E M E E T I N G S

OBJECTIVES:
By the end of this training, you should…

• Identify the basic elements of an effective house meeting.
• Determine why house meetings are a useful tactic in an engagement organizing campaign.
• Learn how to structure and facilitate a house meeting.
• Practice the skills of organizing a house meeting (e.g. host recruitment calls, a one-‐to-‐one host
preparation meeting, Host check-‐in call, facilitate a discussion at the house meeting).

HOUSE MEETINGS – A RELATIONAL TACTIC THAT BUILDS POWER

House meetings persuade, organize, motivate and activate supporters. This tactic utilizes the
power of social networks in energizing supporters and persuading those who might be
interested to become more engaged. However, they must be run properly to be successful.
You must be focused completely on motivating people through values and moving them to
action—not debating issues or specific policies.

WHY A HOUSE MEETING CAMPAIGN?

The purpose of a house meeting campaign is to create a committed community and generate
shared action.

A house meeting is a chance to develop leadership and move others into action. It is not a
dinner party, a house party, or any sort of party at all. It is a working meeting.
One tactic for recruiting and developing volunteer leadership is house meetings. Building a
house meeting requires that a host invite his or her social network to participate in a discussion
about our community, the challenge we face, and our place in the solution.

House meetings are a powerful way to build community. They often engage infrequent voters
and undecided voters, because participants get to know other people and have conversations
about their own stories and values and our shared values as Americans. These informal
meetings engage the social networks of hosts and bring in new people we might not find
otherwise, and are a great way to energize supporters and provide a venue for generating
shared commitment.

House meetings lay out our overall campaign and challenge participants to take specific
action now. The organizer presents this information and asks for commitment to steps that will
help the campaign build capacity to win.
House meetings are also a good testing opportunity for volunteer leadership, because anyone
who succeeds at turning out 20 people to a single meeting is someone capable of organizing
New Organizing Institute 68
other volunteers. House meetings challenge hosts to take a larger role in a campaign, and take
part in recruitment of others to build the campaign.

As organizers it is your job to find volunteers willing to host House Meetings. Making these
meetings successful takes a great deal of work and follow through.

THE ART OF ORGANIZING A HOUSE MEETING CAMPAIGN –

House Meeting ORGANIZER GUIDE –
Lessons from the Field

1. Everyone active in the campaign/organization is expected to host a house meeting.
2. A successful house meeting should result in two new house meetings in the next two
weeks.
3. Hosts should invite their entire social network (i.e. everyone they would invite to a
wedding or a big party) to the meeting, except those who are opposed to our campaign
4. Each host should invite approximately 50 people. These invitations may be the most
valuable contact the organization can have with its supporters.
5. You should create a house meeting tracking form and keep a record of:
o Name of host
o Names of invitees
o Invitees attendance, and
o Support status of all attendees.
6. You should include regular check-‐in calls (to confirm invitation, attendance, and
reminders) into their schedule. Remember, recruit-‐confirm-‐confirm-‐confirm!
7. All attendees must sign in so that you have their contact information.
8. The first ask should be a public request for house meetings in the next two weeks. The
second ask should be a public request for some form of action in the next two weeks.
9. Organizers should be able to identify those who are supporters by the end of the
meeting and enter their support status into the data system.


HOUSE MEETING PRACTICE
GOALS
• Brainstorm and debrief effective and ineffective facilitation as a group
• Use those techniques to role play a house meeting
• Debrief on your role play and share key lessons

Agenda
TOTAL TIME: 60 minutes

1. Gather in your team. Review agenda. Nominate timekeeper. 5 min.
• Nominate a “Host.” Nominate an “Organizer”

2. Role play house meeting 45 min
• As a team, read through the agenda for the role play (5 min)
• Host reviews agenda, tells 2 minute Story of Self, and
introduces Organizer (5 min)
• Organizer proposes 3 Norms, asks group if they agree and
whether they’d like to add something, tells Story of Self, Us
and Now, asks participants to “pair and share” (6 min)
• Participants exchange Stories of Self (5 min)
• Organizer facilitates group discussion (10 min)
• Organizer shares campaign strategy (6 min)
• Host testimonial and Organizer makes ACTION ASK (5 min)
• Host thanks group (3 min)

3. Debrief the Role Play 10 min
• What was effective? What can be improved? Where did we
get off track?
• What questions do you have?

Write down key lessons learned.

WORKSHEET:
House Meeting Facilitation

The main difference between a productive house meeting and a disaster is effective
facilitation. A well-‐prepared, well-‐trained facilitator can leverage a meeting for maximum
commitment, whereas a poorly prepared or untrained facilitator will likely be unsuccessful and
may actually turn potential supporters away.

Use the space below after your house meeting role-‐play to identify and record effective and
ineffective elements of facilitation.

What are elements of effective facilitation? What tools might aid a facilitator? What have you
seen so far that helped create structure and can be used at a house meeting?

What types of facilitation are counterproductive? What might cause a facilitator to miss
important points? Have you seen any examples of unproductive or disorganized facilitation?

What are the key takeaways from the role play? What tricks did the facilitator use effectively?
Where do you see yourself struggling as a facilitator?

What questions do you have about house meetings?


House Meeting Host Guide

Preparing for the meeting

 Recruit Online:
Advertise your event through e-‐mail, over twitter, on Facebook and/or any other social
networking sites that you are a member of.

 Invite your friends and neighbors:
Use the “House Meeting Planner” to brainstorm fifty people you can invite to your event. Think
about friends, family, coworkers, neighbors and acquaintances who might be interested in
learning more about the program. Aim to invite at least 50 people to ensure you have 10-‐15
people in attendance.

 Get your materials in order:
There are some things you should have ready before your house meeting. The “House Meeting
Planner,” sign-‐in sheets and flyers printed, any videos you might want to show, the agenda
charted, and voter registration forms available. You may want to provide snacks and beverages
for your guests.

 Practice your story.
Use the “Public Narrative Practice Worksheet” to help you get ready to share your story at your
house meeting. Do not worry about preparing a formal speech, but instead speak use the
practice worksheet to help you with structure, and then speak from the heart at the meeting.

During the Meeting

 Follow the House Meeting Agenda (copied below)
o Be prepared to give a short explanation of why you became involved/what inspired
you
o Introduce the Organizer

After the Meeting

 Capture Information:
Enter your sign-‐in sheets in the campaign database.

 Thank your guests:
Send individual thank you emails to all of your guests. Follow up with those who committed to
participate in the next action. For those who didn't sign up to volunteer, thank them for coming
and make sure to let them know about your next event.


House Meeting Planner

Our goal for a successful house meeting on _______ is to have 20 people attend your meeting. To actually
have 20 people there, however, will mean inviting at least 50 of your friends, family and acquaintances. Use
this brainstorm sheet to think of those you want to invite ________, including who are likely to ________.

Name Phone # Invited Committed Confirmed Notes
(Y/N) (Y/N) (Y/N)
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.
11.
12.
13.
14.
15.
16.
17.
18.
19.
20.
21.
22.
23.
24.
25.
26.
27.
28.
29.

30.
31.
32.
33.
34.
35.
36.
37.
38.
39.
40.
41.
42.
43.
44.
45.
46.
47.
48.
49.
50.

Name: Please print the invitee’s full name.

Invite: Please mark yes, no, maybe or left message (LM). This will help you track who you need to contact and
who you should be calling for confirmation. The only real invitations are when you speak with someone
directly.

Commit: Please mark yes, no or maybe.

Confirm: Please mark yes, no or left message (LM). You’ll need to call every invitee who said yes or maybe,
and every invitee who only got a left message. Please do not assume that anybody will come without a
confirmation the day before your meeting. It can’t hurt to give people a quick reminder, and we need to know
how many people will be at a meeting to make that meeting as effective and enjoyable as possible.

Notes: If the invitee cannot come to your house meeting, please write why.


Recruiting for your House Meeting
Sample Call Scripts for Host
Call No. 1
The purpose of this call is to invite friends/family to your event. This script is not meant to be
followed verbatim – feel free to take liberties with it, this is merely a conversation between you
and your friends.
Make sure that you have the “House Meeting Planner” handy so you can jot notes down during
each call.
Hi ___________, it’s ___________, how are you?
I’m calling you because I’ve committed to hosting a House Meeting for the _________
campaign. The _________ campaign is committed to ________________________ in our
community. Are you interested in participating in the ________ campaign?
o If yes, write “yes” in the “Support” column
o If no, write “no” in the “Support” column
If Yes
Great! I’d love to tell you more about the project and the types of events we’ll be hosting to meet
our campaign goals. I’m hosting a house meeting to bring our neighbors together and plan how
we’ll make sure the voices in our community are heard.
Next week, I’ll be hosting a house meeting at me home. It’s going to be on

(day/date) at (time) , at (location) . Can I count on you to be there?
o Mark “Y” that you invited them in the “Invited” column
o Mark “Y” or “N” in the “Committed” column
Well, thanks again for your time – Please let me know if you have any questions and I’m
looking forward to seeing you next week.

Call No. 2
The second call should be made no later than the day before the house meeting.
Hi, is __________ there?
Hi __________, it’s ___________. How are you?
Great. I’m calling to remind you about the ______________ campaign event I’m hosting
tomorrow. You’re still coming, right?
(Please record answer in “House Meeting Planner” spreadsheet, under “Confirmed” column)
If Yes:
Ok, great – thanks a lot for your time, I look forward to seeing you tomorrow!
If No:
That’s too bad. There’s nothing I can do to convince you to come? It won’t last long,
and I’m committed to making a difference for this project. We can make a bigger
difference if we do this together.
(If still no…) Well, I understand, it’s okay. Thanks for your support .


House Meeting Agenda
0:00 Welcome & Introductions (host leads, 5 min)
0:05 Host’s Story (5 min)
o Why did you take leadership in this campaign? Where do you come from,
what one or two experiences in your life led you to decide to take
responsibility?
o Why are you hosting this meeting?
o Introduction of the Organizer
0:10 Organizer’s Story of Self, Campaign Story of Us and Now (5 min)
o Organizer shares personal Story of Self (2 min)

o Organizer shares the campaign Story of Us and Now (3 min)
0:15 Pair and Share (organizer and host facilitate, 10 min)
o Have participants break into pairs or groups of 3 and share their stories and
reasons for coming to the meeting
0:25 Group Discussion (host and organizer facilitate, 20 min)
Why are you involved in civic action? How have you been active in your
community or our democracy? What inspired you to act and take responsibility
on this campaign now?
0:45 Call to Action (host or organizer, 5 min)
o Sign up for a volunteer training

o Sign up for our next action
o Host a house meeting
0:50 Evaluation and Debrief (host or organizer, 5 min)
0:55 Thank you and Next Steps reminder (host, 5 min)
1:00 End meeting
77

Videos:
• Obama Campaign, South Carolina House Meeting Video. July,
2007. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iF5jqtM-‐EkI
• NOI Video Resource Center: Building Relationships

Readings:
• Malcolm Gladwell, “Six Degrees of Lois Weisberg,” in The New Yorker, January 11, 1999 (pp.52-‐
63).
• Ian Simmons, “On One-‐to-‐Ones,” in The Next Steps of Organizing: Putting Theory into Action,
Sociology 91r Seminar, 1998, (pp.12-‐15).
• Hanna Rosin, “People-‐Powered: In New Hampshire, Howard Dean's Campaign Has Energized
Voters,” Washington Post, Tuesday, December 9, 2003, p.C01.

78

O F F L INE NA R R A T IV E
AP P L IC A T IO NS:
E M A I L , B L O G S & S O C I A L M E D I A

79

O N L I N E A P P L I C A T I O N S :
E M A I L S , B L O G S & S O C I A L M E D I A
“How do you tell your story online?”
OBJECTIVES:
• Learn how to apply your narrative skills in your online program
• Practice the basics of writing an effective story-‐based email to engage your
constituents to action online.
• Practice drafting story-‐based content for your social media outlets.
•

WHAT IS ONLINE ORGANIZING?

Online organizing allows you to scale your actions, connect with people that you couldn’t visit in
person, engage new audiences, and empower supporters to take action in their own community. In
an age when we are all publishers and content creators, it’s easier than ever to engage others in
online organizing.

New Media should be integrated into every corner of your organization because it complements and
improves your overall communication, recruitment, field work and fundraising efforts. Online
organizing only goes so far though, so it should be closely tied to all of the work you are doing offline.
(Remember, nothing magically goes “viral.”)

People respond to online calls to action because you’re tapping into something they’re already
interested in. The best way to connect with them is visually – by using pictures and video. Your
online program is essentially constantly telling your story of Us and Now, creating feelings of urgency
and feelings of hope by explaining the meaningful change supporters can create by getting involved
and taking action.

The core components of your online program:

• Email campaigns
• Website
• Blogs
• Social Media (Twitter, Facebook, etc.)
• Video

 New Organizing Institute 80

EMAIL: THE HEART OF YOUR ONLINE PROGRAM

While there are many tips and tricks for online
work, the core of a strong online program is still a
strong email campaign. Social media and ads can
augment your email campaign, but your core focus
should always be building an email list and leading
strong email campaigns that move supporters to
action. Here are a few things to keep in mind when
you’re drafting your emails.

• Find your moment: Your email should be timely and relevant to events in your campaign and in the
news in order for people to feel a sense of urgency to take action.
• Theory of Change: In every communication you make, spoken or written, you must always tell
people how taking this action will help them create the change you want to see.
• The Ask: This is important – you can only have ONE ask per email. Readers can be easily
overwhelmed in an email if you ask for too much. Remember, you can create an entire narrative arc
and message calendar to ask for other things later.
• Story and Tone: Just like when you’re telling your Story of Self, Us & Now, you should use a
personal voice that draws people into the emotions, values and action you’re asking them to take.
Convey in detail the challenge, the choice, and the potential outcome.
• Dynamic Content: While you don’t want to overwhelm your email with too many graphics, having a
simple image from an event, a graphic about an upcoming action, or a still frame from a video can
draw in people’s attention. Just make sure the same image or video appears on the landing page on
your website.
• “From” lines: Readers often become very familiar and connected with these “characters” from
your organization, and they will be ones who communicate with your supporters on a regular basis.
So pick 1-‐2 people who will be the “voice” of your organization in the “From” line.
• Subject Lines: You have less than 2 seconds to catch someone’s attention so they’ll open your
email. Make sure your subject line should is short, engaging, action-‐oriented, relevant, and specific.
• Be Bold: Literally. Make sure to put one or two key lines in bold text in your email. It will help draw
the reader’s eye through your message.
• Be Courageous: The best emails are direct and drive home a strong call to action. Avoid being
wishy-‐washy or wonky.
81  New Organizing Institute

SAMPLE EMAILS

Courage Campaign, Phone call recruitment email: Tells a clear story about the urgency and need for
the more phone bank volunteers, clear call to action repeated 3x’s (once in the image, two in text),
and very clear story about how it’s easy and fun!


GetEQUAL.org, Offline Recruitment Email: Personal tone, clear call to action, graphic that helps tell
Robin’s story,


DRAFTING A BLOG POST

As a first step after sending an email blast, you may want to write a blog post that is relevant to the
content of your email. A blog post allows you to:

• Reiterate the content from the email on a webpage that can be easily linked to from
websites, blogs, social media sites and other platforms
• Expand upon the content of the email with more information
• Insert an opinionated voice into the debate
• Link to other blogger’s posts and engage a conversation across the blogosphere
• Offer a forum for public conversation (via comments) around your email content
• Enrich the email content with engaging media like photos and video

By creating your own blog posts you can become actively involved in the debates happening in blog
communities as well enhance your organization’s reputation as an expert and authoritative voice
on your issue. Blogs are also effective tools for engaging your supporters in your work and narrating
the story of your organization and campaign on an ongoing basis. A frequently updated blog will
help to drive traffic to your site, and strengthen a community around your campaign content.

Good blog posts are written in a conversational tone with a strong voice. They offer an opinion,
and can sometimes be controversial. They are the opposite of dry and boring. Here are some tips
to consider when crafting your post:

• Title: a clever, concise, and compelling title goes a long way. Just as you spend time
considering an effective email subject line, consider what makes sense for a blog post title.
Sometimes it can be the same as the email subject, but other times it makes more sense to
create something unique for the web. Use your judgment.

• Links: the ethos of the interconnected web encourages networked conversations. Blog
posts are not web stories. They are your contribution to a wider conversation, one that’s
happening across many sites. You should participate in that conversation by referencing,
rebutting, reinforcing or otherwise acknowledging other voices on the issue via hyperlinks
within your post. You are also welcome (and encouraged!) to link to previous posts that
you or other contributors have authored.

• Images: blocks of text are boring. Did we mention blog posts shouldn’t be boring? Make
your post visually interesting by inserting a graphic or photo. If you don’t have an image for
your post, do a quick image search on http://images.google.com or on Flickr. You may need
to get permission if the image you select isn’t Creative Commons licensed. Be sure to give
credit where credit is due.


• Video: supersize your post with some serious storytelling. The greatest amount of time
spent online is spent watching video content. If there’s a relevant video online – a news clip
or something else on YouTube, embed it in your post. Or consider taking a few minutes to
produce original content for your post. A little Flip cam costs less than $200 and has a USB
stick that you can plug straight into your computer. Interview your colleagues, your friends,
yourself and add a short clip to your post.

• Length: don’t feel like you need to write an academic essay. Posts can be brief (200
words), or they could be longer if you have more to say. Mix it up. If you’re more likely to
write a blog post if it’s shorter then do it. Something brief is better than nothing at all.

• Second pair of eyes: as with any writing, run it past a second pair of eyes before you hit
publish.

• Comments: once you’ve published your post and promoted it through various channels,
check back in on it to see if people have commented. A conversation between the blog
author and the readers plays out on the page, between the posts and the comments.
Commenting on others’ comments will grow the conversation and add more value to your
posts

Reach out to Bloggers

With the decline of the print news more and more people are turning to blogs to get their news
and analysis. Blogs have become powerful tools for getting ideas out into society and turning a
large number of eyes toward an issue. Blogs have become a core place where civic issues are
debated and policy consensus is formed as well as a powerful tool for getting stories into the
mainstream media.

While not everyone can get their issue featured on the front page of powerful liberal blogs such as
the Huffington Post, Common Dreams or the Daily Kos, getting featured in blogs with small
audiences that are read by a targeted group of people central to your issue can be very useful for
your campaign.

Here are some steps to help you get coverage on blogs:

1. Determine if you have blog-‐worthy content. Is it newsworthy, timely, humorous, or
controversial?

2. Search for blogs that are already covering the issue or are likely candidates

• Search Technorati
• Search blogs.google.com
• Search BlogHer (if relevant)
• Search the blog rolls of relevant blogs

• Peruse the blog to determine if it’s worth contacting the author
• Is it relevant to the issue you want to raise?
• Is the readership active (commenting)?
• Check the sitemeter for the number of hits to their site. Then reach out to the
bloggers by email or post comments on the blog.

3. Email relevant bloggers. Take the time to customize the intros for top blogs you’d really like
coverage in. Be sure to note why you feel this content is relevant to the topic of the blog
and the readership. Consider asking the blogger if you can post a guest blog if they do that
sort of thing.

4. Post comments on relevant blogs. Make your comments thoughtful and
relevant. Reference what stood out to you in the post or in other people’s comments. Your
goal is to add value to the conversation. If you are able to include a link to your content be
sure is directly addresses the topic at hand. The more you post comments and engage with a
blog, the more valued your contributions will be. This will help you develop a relationship
with the blog author and will increase your chances of getting coverage or a guest post in the
future.

5. Follow-‐up. If you emailed blog authors, be sure to check Technorati to see if anyone has
covered your issue. Post comments on blogs that do cover it.

Post on Listservs
Listservs are a more personal way than blogs to reach out directly to potential members. Listserv
traffic goes straight to most people’s inboxes, so listserv moderators are generally very protective of
the group to ensure that they don’t get spammed. This means that posts to the listserv promoting a
specific organization are almost always a big no-‐no. Therefore, it’s really important to determine
whether you have a true personal stake in the listserv and can genuinely participate as an individual,
then find opportunities to raise your issue as it seems appropriate.

Sharing info about your issue will certainly be a good service for most of the listserv members, but
it’s a matter of very carefully finding the right moment and the right words. Timing and language
are everything.

Track Your Progress!
After all of this hard work, don’t forget to track your progress on the Email Reporting sheet, collect
the number of blog posts written about your campaign, take screenshots of posts and key pages, and

tell the rest of your team (and the public) about how well you’re doing. Your bosses, funders and the
public will respond to both anecdotes as well as hard numbers from your campaign


After You Hit Send
Promoting Your Actions on Blogs and Social Networks

CHECKLIST

____ 1.Blog Post
• Post to your own blog, if you have one
• Respond to comments
• Email and Tweet the link to allies

____ 2.Twitter
• Post Tweet that includes a link to the action (not just the blog post).
• Use www.bit.lyto shorten the URL.
• Monitor and respond to @replies
• Include the hashtag #[YOUR_HASHTAG] (and #[TOPIC_HASHTAG] if you have room)

____ 3.Facebook:Organizational
• Post a link to your Facebook Group, Page, or Cause
• Post a link on related Facebook Pages

____ 4.Facebook:Personal
• Status update
• Share action on Wall

____ 5.Blogger Outreach
• Search blogs for posts on related topics
• Email relevant bloggers
• Post comments (if appropriate) on relevant blogs

____ 6. Listservs
• Appropriate for publicizing local events
• Post a personal message, respectful and appropriate to the list

 WORKSHEET
DRAFT AN EMAIL
Outline Your Email (10 minutes)

MOMENT:
What is this "moment" in your campaign?

CHALLENGE (PROBLEM):
What is the problem or challenge that you face on a larger scale? What about In this moment?

OUTCOME (SOLUTION):
What is the solution to your problem or the goal you need to reach? Where is the hope?

CHOICE (YOUR ASK):
What are you asking people to do? How can taking this action contribute to achieving your goal?
What’s your strategy (theory of change)?

THE DETAILS:
What else do people need to know? What details could you provide to bring your story and your
ask to life?

Draft Your Email (20 minutes)
Draft your own email as an individual using the outline you created above. Make sure to fill in the
information below.

Date email will be sent: ____________________________________________

Name of Sender: _________________________________________________

Subject Line: ____________________________________________________

Dear friend,

Share Your Email (15 minutes)
Share your email with your group. Each small group will choose 1 email to share during the whole
group debrief. As you listen, consider the following questions:
-‐ Which email best captures the "moment" now?
-‐ Which email tells the story of the campaign in vivid imagery and real people’s stories?
-‐ Which email has a clear, compelling ask?
-‐ Is there any information that people still need to know?

SOCIAL MEDIA

Social media are no substitute for strong email and offline campaigns. However, when you have
strong campaigns in the work social media can help augment recruitment, tell the minute-‐to-‐minute
story, and engage supporters one on one. One of the biggest advantages of social media is that
compared to a regular website, social networking sites allow for two-‐way communication and
collaboration. Another advantage of social networks is that each person has their own network of
friends that you can engage, allowing you to exponentially grow your volunteer base. Make sure you
let people know how they can get involved in every post, and be super-‐responsive to questions that
are posted.

Two examples of organizations using social networking sites effectively are: (1) charity: water on
Facebook and (2) DREAM Activist on Twitter.

Both organizations are posting content that is relevant and they are engaging their supporters with
questions and answers. They also use pictures very well to help tell their story.

Dream Activist Twitter Page: http://twitter.com/dreamact

Charity
Water
Facebook
Page:

http://www.facebook.com/charitywate


STORYTELLING FOR SOCIAL MEDIA

Think about the use of stories throughout your work. By the end of this session you’ll understand
how stories can be used to enhance your overall digital program.

GOALS
• Understand how you can enhance your organization’s message through the use of social
media
• Practice drafting a visual story of ‘us’ to spread the message of your organization on social
media platforms
• Get feedback your drafted social media post/visual story of ‘us’
.
AGENDA
You have 30 minutes to complete this exercise.

1. Take a few minutes to brainstorm who your members are. Use the attached 4 min.
worksheet and questions below to describe your ‘us’.
-‐ Why are they involved? Why do they care?
-‐ What are you collectively working towards?
-‐ What are their values?

2. Think about 2 stories you could tell that will illustrate the values of your “us”.
Sketch out two visuals that your organization could use to share stories on your
social presence. What type of visuals can convey that message? A few things to 15 min.
keep in mind as you’re sketching:
-‐ What specific platform will these be shared on (e.g. Facebook, Twitter, etc)?
-‐ What do you consider powerful visuals that are connected to your mission?
What would other people in your constituency connect with?
*Keep in mind that if you are going to share a story on Facebook your visual
should be square, not rectangular.

3. Find a partner. Take a few moments to share what each of you came up with
and provide feedback. A few questions to think about as you share with your 6 min.
partner
-‐ Do you think the visual matches the story?
-‐ What are some other visuals that could be used to evoke the same message,
values and emotions?
5 min.
4. Take a moment to revisit your description of your “Us”. What are some other
issues your audience might care about? How to you continue to build your base?
What other organizations might be allies for you to cross-‐post? Make a list of
potential partners for you to work with in the digital space.

 WORKSHEET
CREATE YOUR ONLINE CALENDAR
A single email, Tweet or Facebook post rarely makes a dent in your effort to win concrete change.
The best online efforts are campaigns that integrate various tactics toward a common end over a
defined period of time. A campaign might last a few days, a week, or a few weeks.

Use this grid to map out your online campaign to support an offline event (for example, the two
weeks leading up to your campaign launch). What’s the narrative arc over time? How will you
reinforce the same story across multiple channels over time? Look for areas of synergy. And
remember your campaign doesn’t end until you report back on what happened!

Dates
Emails
Video, Photos
Social
Networking
Twitter, Facebook,
etc.
Blogs
Events
Rally, vigil, house
parties, lobby day,
press conf.
Field
Phones, canvass,
volunteers, training

TIPS AND TRICKS
FROM THE NEW ORGANIZING INSTITUTE COMMUNITY

Be More Like George Takei
While the technical tricks for increasing Facebook influence by boosting Edge Rank and Affinity can
give you a boost, it's also important to remember that content is still king. And some of the best
lessons in curating content on Facebook come from an unexpected source: George Takei.
Best known for his seminal role on Star Trek, Takei is an
actor and activist who has become one of Facebook's
most dominant forces. His content is everywhere, and for
good reason. Facebook knows content from Takei will
spread like wildfire, so they make sure it lands at the top
of his fans' newsfeeds. But his content doesn't spread just
because Facebook's algorithm likes it. The real key to his
success is great content management.
So what separates Takei from others? Here are a few

things:
• Let your personality come through. You probably do this on your personal page without
thinking about it, but it's important for your org or campaign to have a distinct personality,
too. Reading George's page, you feel like you actually know him.
• Focus on high quality content that's interactive. Takei posts a lot of multimedia, especially
pictures that have a riddle or puzzle included. Photos and videos are super shareable (and
Facebook is more likely to show them to fans/friends than a status update or link).
• The internet talks back. George Takei often posts content sent to him by fans. Give your fans
have a way to contribute, whether by highlighting things they submit, or encouraging
comments and discussion.
• It's not all about the same thing. George Takei is a tireless crusader for many progressive
issues, like LGBT and immigrant rights, but his posts aren't always about activism. More often,
it's just fun or intriguing stuff he found or created. But his audience is so engaged that, when
he does post a petition or make an ask, people are primed, ready, and eager to act and share.
We should all be so lucky.
Melissa Ryan and Evan Sutton run New Media and Communications for NOI (respectively). They spend
far too much time on Facebook, and almost as much time arguing about whether Star Wars or Star
Trek is better. (George Takei has called for a united front of all sci-‐fi fans against Twilight.)

Give your email personality
Email is a very personal communication medium, and the emails people look forward to getting are
most likely from family and friends. So when you're writing an
email, it's important not to sound like a newsletter or legal brief.
Here are a few things to think about:
• How do you sound in an email to your coworkers?
Chances are you're not swearing, but you're not writing
a formal letter either. That's generally the tone you want
to convey with your supporters: professional, legitimate,
and conversational, but not stuffy.
• If the topic and subject of your email calls for it, be
funny or snarky. It will break up the monotony of the boring emails people often receive. Just
make sure you have someone who knows how to write funny or snarky emails, because you
don't want to confuse or offend your list.
• Use voices and personalities in your email. People don't want to receive emails from faceless
organizations; they want to talk with real people.
• Not every email needs to come from the same person. During the Obama campaign in 2008,
you received emails from a small cast of characters: Barack Obama, Michelle Obama, Joe
Biden and David Plouffe. Each had their own role and voice. Real people talking about real
things gives an authenticity people believe in.
People want to feel like they're interacting with a real person. Make sure your emails provide a
human side in addition to the serious business of your organization.
Lauren Miller is Director of Online Communications at Blue State Digital, and an NOI trainer and
community member
Photo from Flickr user garryknight, shared under Creative Commons license

Create engaging campaign follow up

Asking your supporters to take action is a great way to get them involved with your organization's
goals and objectives. But, once someone has taken the time to sign your petition or write a letter to
their representative, the ball is in your court.
• Make sure you have a follow-‐up action planned. Follow-‐up is an important part of every
online campaign. For every action your supporters take, show how they helped accomplish
something. This will make them more likely to support your next campaign, and invite their
friends to take action, too.
• Think outside the box and be creative in your follow-‐up. Delivering a petition to the target
legislator or organization is great, but ask yourself if there's a creative, engaging way to make
the action come to life.
Here's an example from one of my favorite campaign follow-‐ups:
Slow Food USA recently completed a campaign aimed

at raising awareness for Colony Collapse Disorder
(CCD), an issue affecting honeybee colonies, which are
critical to our nation's food supply. The campaign
gathered nearly 50,000 signatures on a petition asking
the FDA to investigate and eliminate the causes of CCD.
Slow Food USA then hand-‐crafted paper bees -‐ 1 for
every 100 signatures on the petition -‐ and "swarmed"
the FDA with the delivery of hundreds of these bright
and colorful paper bees. Photographs of people
crafting these bees were used in follow up emails to
show current and potential signees the progress on the
campaign.
Campaigns should be a two-‐way conversation. We should reciprocate supporters' actions with an
action of our own. A creative and well-‐executed campaign finale can act as an exclamation point to
your message, and helps drive supporter involvement in future campaigns.
Matt Burge is a Project Manager at EchoDitto, and an NOI community member
Photo from rittyrats, via Creative Commons

Use kicker emails to boost action rate
Sometimes even your most ardent supporters need a reminder to take action on an email you sent
them. That's why you should strap on your boots and send a
follow up email called a kicker.
Here are a few key considerations for your kickers, as well
as an example from a campaign I helped run.
• Send a kicker 3-‐5 days after you sent the initial

email.
• The kicker should be short, to the point and have a
somewhat more urgent message.
• Reinforce your theory of change and why it's critical that the reader takes action.
• Send the kicker email from a different person within your organization.
Here's an example of an email campaign including kickers that we ran at Freedom to Marry.
In September, we surveyed our supporter base as we began setting our priorities for 2012. The
response was decent, but we wanted to hear from more of our supporters.
After tabulating the initial results, we sent two follow up emails. We sent one email to supporters
who had taken the survey and a second email to supporters who had not taken the survey. Both
emails reported back what areas our supporters told us they want us to focus on next year. The email
to survey takers asked them to share the survey with family and friends to get more people to take
the survey. The email to non-‐survey takers encouraged them to add their voices to the feedback we'd
already gotten.
From the kicker email to non-‐survey takers alone, we more than doubled the number of people who
took action simply by sending a follow up.
Simple kicker emails can dramatically increase your email action rates and increase the effectiveness
of your campaigns.
Michael Crawford is Director of Online Programs for Freedom to Marry.
Photo from sam metal xvx, via Creative Commons

Focus on conversion rates for fundraising:
I've seen many organizations myopically focused on open rate for their key
email metric. It is a number that is easy to find, simple to interpret and
accessible as a metric for people who aren't new media gurus.
But for fundraising (and most action-‐based emails), conversion rates are
the most important metric. Not open rates, not click-‐through rates, but
what percentage of your audience saw your email and donated money. It sounds simple, but your
goal should be to raise money when you are sending a fundraising email. Focusing on conversions will
help you run a better program, too!
• It forces you to look holistically at the path the donor takes. A good subject line should lead
to a good ask, which hopefully leads to a good contribution form. An enticing subject line may
boost your open rate, but without a dynamite ask and an easy contribution form your
conversion rate will be poor.
• You won't be as tempted to write gimmicky or misleading subject lines. Sure, they might
boost your open rate. But what matters is the entire donor experience. Open rates don't tell
you if the donor felt misled after opening and reading your email. The subject line "Baby
Lemur sneezing" might get a high open rate. But will those people donate, or unsubscribe?
• It focuses you on action takers. If you only tracked how much money an ask raised, you run
the risk of believing an email was awesome because of one or two abnormally large
contributions. Conversion rates are a much steadier metric to measure over time. Focusing
only on the money raised can lead you to make incorrect assumptions later.
Nate Thames is Political Director at ActBlue and an NOI trainer and community member
Photo from Flickr user RambergMediaImages, shared under Creative Commons license


DOING IT YOURSELF

NOI’s Tips of the day-‐ From taking care of yourself as a worker, to how to sort data in excel, NOI’s Tips
of the day email list offers morsels of advice relevant to every walk of life in organizing. Sign up at
www.neworganizing.com

NOI’s Online Toolbox-‐ information for on the ground organizing as well as best practices for online
organizing. http://neworganizing.com/toolbox/organizing-‐

Online Politics 101: The Tools and Tactics of Online Political Advocacy . gathers the e.politics how-‐to
articles into one conveniently packaged (and free) publication. Each chapter contains a link to the live
version on epolitics.com with updates and related materials. http://www.epolitics.com/download-‐
online-‐politics-‐101/

10 Tips for Better Emails-‐ by Lauren Miller, one of the best email writers out there. Lauren Miller is
New Media Director for Elizabeth Warren, a member of the NOI Community, and one of the best
trainers ever! http://www.bluestatedigital.com/blog/entry/10-‐tips-‐for-‐better-‐emails/

The Netroots Foundation New Media Blog-‐ Tips and tricks for the best practices of social media.
http://www.netrootsfoundation.org/blog/



GOALS
•
TEAM BREAKOUT SESSION
TAKING IT HOME PLAN

Brainstorm various ways to use story to engage others to action after you leave the training.
• Draft a plan to outline ways in which you will use tools you’ve learned.

AGENDA
Total time: 30 min

1. Gather in your groups. Choose a timekeeper and a scribe. 10 min.

As a group, brainstorm various ways in which you can use public narrative
once you leave the training. When do you need to engage others to action
with you?

Brainstorm various ways in which you would “coach” others to use public
narrative once you leave the training in your professional or personal lives.

2. Take some time as individuals to silently develop the way in which you will use 10 min.
public narrative after the training.

Develop a strategy to reach your goals over the next 3 months.

Use the worksheet on the next page for your plan.

3. Share your goal and strategy with a partner. 10 min
For each person:
-‐3 minutes to tell your goal and strategy.
-‐2 minutes for feedback from your partner.
* Was there a specific goal?
* Were there specific tactics (strategy) to reach the goal?
* Do you have any suggestions to help your group member reach their
goal?


 PUBLIC NARRATIVE APPLICATIONS
Taking It Home Worksheet

What are the outcomes I want to see by July 2013?

Goal 1: Goal 2: Goal 3:

What will I do in April to begin on my outcomes?

What will I do in May to continue working towards my outcomes?

What will I do in June to ensure I meet my outcomes?

Notes:


Notes:

Notes:

Notes:

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A C K N O W L E D G E M E N T S

EACH OF US HAS A COMPELLING STORY TO TELL

PUBLIC NARRATIVE IS A PRACTICE OF LEADERSHIP

THE HEAD & THE HEART

PUBLIC NARRATIVE COMBINES A STORY OF SELF, US AND NOW

STORY OF SELF

STORY OF NOW

Incorporating Challenge, Choice, and Outcome in Your Own Story

TOTAL TIME: 25 min

*HINT: It helps to start here

CHOICE (action now)

and work backwards.

Asking Questions to Elicit Feedback Giving Direct Feedback

The Organizational (or Organizing) Meeting

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House Meeting Host Guide

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Sample Call Scripts for Host

Hi ___________, it’s ___________, how are you?

o If yes, write “yes” in the “Support” column

o If no, write “no” in the “Support” column

Next week, I’ll be hosting a house meeting at me home. It’s going to be on

o Mark “Y” that you invited them in the “Invited” column

o Mark “Y” or “N” in the “Committed” column

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Hi, is __________ there?

Hi __________, it’s ___________. How are you?

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0:05 Host’s Story (5 min)

o Organizer shares personal Story of Self (2 min)

0:25 Group Discussion (host and organizer facilitate, 20 min)

0:45 Call to Action (host or organizer, 5 min)

o Sign up for a volunteer training

0:50 Evaluation and Debrief (host or organizer, 5 min)

0:55 Thank you and Next Steps reminder (host, 5 min)

1:00 End meeting

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Outline Your Email (10 minutes)

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So what separates Takei from others? Here are a few

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Here are a few things to think about:

Slow Food USA recently completed a campaign aimed

Photo from rittyrats, via Creative Commons

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Hi _, it’s _, how are you?

Hi , it’s _. How are you?

• Send a kicker 3-‐5 days after you sent the initial