Slides from "Advanced Campaign Strategy" workshop I gave at Power Shift 2013 in Melbourne Australia. After an intro and some case studies - sorry I verballed them - it cover approaches to strategy and some tools and techniques, with frames/examples that we worked through.

1. “Advanced”
Campaign
Strategy

2. Who am I?

7. Who are you?

8. Strategy is turning the
resources you have into
the power you need to
win the change you
want.

9. Strategy is a verb.
No really.

10. Strategy:
Don’t do it alone.
Your “strategic capacity” is
measured by the diversity of
the experience of the people
who help make it.

11. Strategy Case Studies
Change.org: Boy Scouts
of America Campaign(s)
GetUp!: Mental Health

12. elements of strategy
Big picture
political analysis
Broad brush
strategy
Campaign
focus and
scope
Critical path
analysis
SMART
objectives
Tactics,
tactics criteria
Situational
analysis
(eg STEEPLI)
Theories &
mechanisms of
change (eg MAP)
Forcefield
analysis
Operational
considerations
(eg SWOT)
Cutting the
issue
Campaign
goals
Detailed
strategy
Power mapping:
targets, allies,
opponents,
constituents
Alliance building,
coalitions,
partnerships
Campaign
communication
Evaluation
Framing
Program logic,
success
indicators
Messages &
memes
Feedback
mechanisms
Roles and
responsibilities
Timeline and
budget
The Change Agency specialises in designing and facilitating campaign strategy workshops. Our Strategising
for Change resources can be downloaded from http://www.thechangeagency.org/01_cms/details.asp?ID=57

13. Some Strategy Tools
• Cutting the Issue
• Goals | Critical Path | Theory of
Change
• Power Mapping | Force Fields
• Message Boxing
• Strategy Planning Grids
• Data and Measurement

14. Cutting The Issue
• Consider how to cut this bigger
problem into smaller issues that have
traction with (or appeal to) different
targets, community groups and other
audiences.
• What are some ways that people
interpret, respond to or campaign
around the problem?

15. Cutting The Issue
• Consider how to cut this bigger
problem into smaller issues that
have traction with (or appeal to)
different targets, community groups
and other audiences.
• What are some ways that people
interpret, respond to or campaign
around the problem?

17. Campaign Goals
• SMART – what does a smart goal
look like in a campaign context
• Alinksy Paradox
• One decision, one decision
maker
• Campaign goals are wins on the
way to your vision.

18. Power Mapping
• Who can make the decision that
would win the change you want?
• Where do they stand?
• Who influences that person?
Where do they stand?
• Who else cares? Where do they
stand?

19. More power / influence

20. More Powerful | Influential
More Opposed
More Supportive
Less Powerful | Influential

21. Message Boxes
• One way to think about key
messages for your campaign
• Draw four boxes and fill them up
in this order:
1.
2.
3.
4.
Them on Them
Them on Us
Us on Them
Us on Us

22. Them
on
Them
Them
on
Us
Us
on
Us
Us
on
Them

23. GRAND STRATEGY
1. Describe the key,
over-arching
problem
1. Opportunities
due to shifts in
power:
2. Long-term goal
(10 years)
When targets are
vulnerable (eg.
Scandal, weakening
person or company,
close elections),
change of frame
(eg. 9/11, oil,
security), new
political alignment
(eg. Ross Perot’s
group on trade,
Right/left alliance
on oil)
3. Platform: list the
core principles that
define any solution
you will seek.
4. Background of
issue: votes,
corporate stances,
previous work on
issue
5. Lay of the land of
political power
6. Solution: define
the specific
approach
necessary to
solving the
approach
6. Avenues of
Influence: Potential
sources of victory
A) Legislation
B) Litigation
C) Corporations
D) Persuasion
7. Critical Pathway
CAMPAIGN
GOALS &
PICKING A
CAMPAIGN
2. Scale of
environmental
impact
3. Widely felt
4. Deeply felt
5. Right size / real
6. Fits niche
7. Is appropriately
divisive
8. Is winnable
9. Serves
constituency
(geographic or
people)
10. Urgency
11. Meets long-term
organisational goals
12. It fits in the
critical pathway
13. Does it alter
power?
OBJECTIVES
1. Reiterate longterm goals from
your grand
strategy
2. Intermediate
goals not
necessarily
covered in this
campaign
3. Short term
objectives: What
constitutes victory
for this campaign?
How does this
help you address
intermediate and
long-term
objectives?
Make them
SMART:
•
•
•
•
•
Strategic
Measurable
Achievable
Realistic
Timeline
ORG.
CONSIDERATIONS /
GOALS
1. Does this
campaign fit within
your core
competencies?
2. List resources that
you bring to the
campaign (i.e.
money, # of staff,
facilities, reputation,
skills, relationships)
3. What is the budget
for the campaign?
4. What do you need
that you don’t have to
win?
5. How can this
campaign build your
organisation towards
your long-term
organisational goals?
Could be:
*Access to new
sources of money
*Build relationships
with key players
throughout country
*Access to new
reporters
*Build new
constituencies
*Compliment other
campaign efforts
5. What internal
problems must be
addressed in order to
achieve victory?
CONSTITUENTS
AND ALLIES
1. Constituents:
Who can you
mobilise on this
issue? Who cares
about it?
*Who cares?
*Who must deal
w/problem?
*What do they
achieve from
victory?
*What risks are they
taking by joining
you?
*What power do
they have over
who?
2. Allies
*What are your
allies’ “bottomlines”?
*How will you use
campaign to move
them in the right
direction?
*What resources
can they bring?
*What are your
allies doing now?
Who new can be
brought in?
OPPONENTS
AND
TARGETS
OBSTACLES
*What does your
victory cost
them?
*What will they
do/spend to
oppose you?
*How will they
respond?
*How strong are
they?
*What will they
support under
what
circumstances?
External
Obstacles:
*Legal issues or
threats
*Perception of
organisation
*Others…
1. Choose a person
(or a set of people),
not an institution
Who has the power
to give you victory?
What power do you
have over target?
What power can
you obtain during
campaign?
2. Power map target
What/who
influences this
person? What level
of influence do
these individuals/
institutions have
over your target?
Consider your
relationships with
those who influence
target. Consider
your opponents’
access and
influence.
If you can’t get to
the primary target
but you can get to a
secondary target
who has power over
the primary then
power map the
secondary target.
CAMPAIGN
MESSAGE
TACTICS
1. Message. What is
the one concise and
compelling phrase
you will repeat
throughout your
campaign? What
are the concise
supporting
arguments for your
message?
Tactics are what you do to
your targets to get your
goals
2. Story. What is the
story that will
convey the issue to
your targets? Who
are the victims,
villains and heroes?
How does your
campaign solve
this?
Tactics should be:
A. In context of
campaign/message
B. Flexible and creative
C. Directed at target
D. Within the experience
of participants and
constituents but outside
experience of the targets
E. Backed up by a specific
form of power
F. FUN!
G. Inspirational to people
viewing
H. If people participating,
is it efficiently replicated in
key areas?
3. Does this
message motivate
your constituencies,
allies and targets?
Framing – is your
message vulnerable
to reframing?
1.Consider targets, then
consider your
constituencies and allies.
What tactics best use
allies’ power in order to
influence targets?
Time-Line
Escalating
Tactics
Fixed dates and
times
Account for
outside events,
press hooks,
shared
resources,
contingency
planning
Planning
Make plans for
each section of
campaign
(media,
campaign,
outreach,
research,
actions,
lobbying, etc…)
and overlay
them to ensure
that it can all be
done
Demands are tactical
Target audiences
Full message
development plan
here – message
box, etc…
Plan backwards
Tactics can include:
• Media Events
• Direct actions
• Direct communications
• Public hearings
• Strikes
• Demos
• Petitions
• Boycotts
• Elections
• Lobbying
• Press releases
Media plan
Chart for picking,
prioritising tactics

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25. A quick note on Tactics
• You’re stuck in a room
• How to think of them (I use
power maps and Alinksy. Plus
did you see the climate
elephant?)
• Value and Effort

26. (1) Power is not only what you have
but what your enemy thinks you
have.
(2) Never go outside the experience
of your people.
(3) Wherever possible go outside
the experience of the enemy.

27. (4) Make your enemies live up to
their own book of rules.
(5) Ridicule is your most potent
weapon.
(6) A good tactic is one that your
people enjoy.

28. (7) A tactic that drags on too long becomes a
drag.
(8) Keep the pressure on.
(9) The threat is usually more terrifying than
the thing itself.
(10) The major premise for tactics is the
development of operations that will maintain
a constant pressure on the opposition.

29. (11) If you push a negative hard and
deep enough it will break through
to its counterside.
(12) The price of a successful attack
is a constructive alternative.
(13) Pick the target, freeze it,
personalize it, polarize it.

30. Resources (for these slides and for you)
• Saul Alinsky: Rules for Radicals
• Marshall Ganz: Why David Sometimes
Wins
• David Plouffe: The Audacity to Win
• NewOrganizing.com
• The Change Agency (James Whelan)
• There’s an amazing book on the
Montgomery Bus Strike.
• The Midwest Academy