Strategy dreams

Hazelwood protest included ‘ordinary people’, not just guys in wombat suits

…tipping point?

‘Yesterday’s protest at Hazelwood power station was billed as a day of “community protest and non-violent mass civil disobedience,” and yet despite the small numbers, what was remarkable was the ‘ordinariness’ of the crowd.’ Check it.

Perhaps that’s an exaggeration. But outreach by the grassroots climate players is increasingly wrangling in ‘ordinary’ people from the local community.

A place for strategy in the household?

I was thinking just now that maybe people in sharehouses should do more strategic planning. You know what i mean; put aside some time and crank out a couple of house powermaps on issues that are important to them, do a stakeholder analysis of the  house, or develop mini-campaigns to get their housemates to do the washing up, stop having loud sex, clean a common area etc.

Most of us fail to change the behaviour of those around us without difficulty on our part. But perhaps a considered and strategic (and compassionate) housemate could iron out every potential tension with a touch of strategic planning.

Think of yourself. If a housemate was being irritating, most of us would bottle it up and eventually become passive agressive. A few of us (a bit more brash or confident by nature) might choose to confront it head on, ‘get it all out in the air’ - rather than let it fester as they say. Either way our reaction would probably lack a well thought through plan of how we could achieve the optimal outcome.

And thats how most of us also approach the things we don’t like in the world. Say you come across an injustice the chances are that you will ignore it, not recognise it,  want to change it and not know how or jump in head first and start ‘changing’ it. Very few people would map out what was already being done about the issue, understand the various stakeholders and how powerful they are, think critically about their personal ability to contribute and form a plan of action based on all that.

But perhaps more of us should have that reaction, both to our housemates and opportunities to further justice/social goods. I know i should.

p.s. I’d love to hear your examples of strategic planning in the household. Did it make you feel weird and alien to do it? Did it work>?

User journey planner?

I like the way this lady thinks and i think we could take it a few steps further, but i will explain later. See if you can understand what she is talking about:

“ In a campaign, we always give supporters next steps to take action. However, it’s sometimes hard to assure that after completing a certain stept, all the other actions are offered to the supporters.

A fresh party invite

I just received this party invite and loved it. It was different enough to stand out in a crowded inbox of goodies.

It reminds me of a campaigning tactic used in the US nominations race. During the height of an online fundraising push one candidate sent out a 2 sentence email to their supporters asking for urgent donations. The email was signed by the candidate personally and lacked any fancy HTML which gave it an intimate vibe.

It was very different from what was considered the ‘best practice’ of the time - a standard 3-5 paragraph email with repetition of a single action ask, HTLM design and text to convince you to do what they wanted.

The 2 sentence email was a huge success because it broke that formula - at least in its strucutre. A few days later lots of other candidates across the country also sent 2 sentence email, which were also successful.

The point im trying to make is that approaching online comms from a fresh angle can help capitvate a stagnating audience in an increasingly saturated space. It’s very basic really - im now going to a party i wouldn’t of otherwise attended.

——————————————————————————————————

Check it out:

date: Thu, Sep 17, 2009 at 1:04 AM

subject: This is a respectful party invitation

mailed-by gmail.comhide details 1:04 AM (9 hours ago)

dear goodly friends,

I apologise heartily for the disrespectfully, perhaps offensively, taciturn nature of the last word sent on the topic of the upcoming celebrations at the house of moblong. There was no poetry in my email of previous, there was no passion. It was a bland and colourless piece of writing, and demonstrated an unfair disregard for the sensitivities of you all, both as people and as potential guests. Despite its brevity, it also ventured into the territory of the inaccessible by ending with an obscure reference to somebody identified only as ‘April’.  To explain in brief, April is my dear housemate and I was childishly attempting to send my invitation before she sent hers.*

Let me now rally to assure you all that the inferiority of the original invite should in no way be understood to reflect the quality of the fast-approaching party. I expect it to be a grand shindig, most likely featuring a plethora of dips, much flowing of all manner of liquids, an array of music ranging from the dulcet to the clash, plenty of chatter, both pretentious and absurd, and world record attempts at numbers of persons in one bed. Fire, tree climbing, juggling, roof visits, enforced tea drinking and illegal swimming are also quite likely to make an appearance.

The illustrious house of Moblong is nearly 8 months old. It is home to aforementioned adversary april, mobile munching maria, raging bibliophile emma, tea faced clare, cheese harvesting alain, cat hugging chris and your humble narrator.** Please join us this friday the 18th of september to celebrate the joy of spring, the creation of playpens, the numbing of noses and the era of fruit flies. We would really love to see you all.

Themes are confusing affairs and this theme no less so than any other. If you are inspired by some kind of video clip in your approach to party attire then you are probably on the right track. If you are inspired by music generally you are doing just as well. Pants are optional, but certainly encouraged. Here is a rather nifty video clip which may provide encouragement: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EICkZWEzFGE

Moblong is situated……. . It is reached by walking down… If you are coming from stanmore station you just have to wander down cambridge st, turn right onto merchant at the park, then when merchant ends you cross over stanmore rd to walk down wemyss and turn right onto harrington… yep.

If anyone arrives between 8 and 9, or even before 10, we will love you forever.

Love(forever),

-#*#**

xxxxx

p.s. oh yes. The party is tomorrow.

p.p.s. It is important to note that not only is April aforementioned, she is also wonderful and great.

* I feel it is only fair to report that I was the champion of this contest, beating my commendable opponent by a slim 4 minutes.

** Let it be known that these names were not chose by those they were given to. They are not official titles or approved aliases. They were chosen by myself alone in a spirit of light-hearted frivolity, and I hope that they cause no offense.

——- PREVIOUS MESSAGE ——-

On Wed, Sep 9, 2009 at 9:58 PM, &$*$((#)# wrote:
In case you didn’t already know the moblong is having another party yay!!!

The date of the [party is the 18th of september. yup/  Moblong is #&#&#((. Come from whenever you want. Oh, ok 8

The theme is music clips or something like that. Or just music. Or music pants.

Come come come it will be fun fun fun…

I reckon I beat April yep

I love it..

I found a cool site today whilst hunting down well produced candidate portals. Check it: http://www.thompson2009.com/

I love the colours and simplicity. Although as one friend pointed out; its not very ‘movement’ orientated yet. I’ll be watching to see how/if that changes, given he just won pre-selection.

It was made by Blue State Digital, clearly very inspired by Obama’s site.

x

Strategy Stories

A while back i was in the US on a national study tour, trying to glean what i could from the remnants of the Obama campaign and general best practice organsising.

Through a friend of a cousin (or some other inconsequential distant relation..) we were intro’d to Michael Margolis - a larger than life New Yorker. Most of our meetings were organised with the usually politico strategists and typecast ‘innovative’ NGO’s, so it seemed odd to be meeting up with a high-flying business consultant. I assumed he must be into something special.

As the story usually goes, Michael didn’t live up to any of my expectations. He took us breakfast and overwhelmed me with magnetism, and a whole bunch of cool theories of changed grounded in a story approach.

In a nutshell Michael is a professional at developing stories that support organisations through internal change or to engage their constituents  - and he is very good at it.

I felt very chuffed when he asked me to review his up coming book. Although im yet to read much else on story based strategy (apart from smartmeme’s stuff) i think it’ll be a very valued contribution.

I’m especially keen to get my hands on the practical guides Michael has in the pipeline. Check him out: http://www.getstoried.com/