Introduction
This 350.org organising story telling presentation is about how to make the strategy planning process better.
The story is told via a presentation and shared as part of the Organising Story-telling Lab, a collection of different case studies and stories of organising and movements from across the globe collated and presented by 350.org.
The story telling lab weaves lessons from a range of stories and perspectives, including people close to the ground and nationally.
Each case draws out lessons from the people involved and concludes with broader generalisations. Whilst these case studies are focused on 350 and the climate movement the lessons learned and reflections are applicable to any campaign.
See the original slides on the 350.org Organising Story-telling lab. The Commons has also shared the presentation below and made minor formatting edits to the original such as adding headings and quotes.
Fiscal Year Planning Process: An Imperfect Process
The FY Planning Processes can feel like a rush – pressure to condense brilliance into boxes and written formats under quick time pressures.
The Europe Team, led by Nicolò, designed a process to address some of those problems:
- Excessive time pressure to write plans in weeks;
- Little time for open, loose thinking;
- Little space to reconsider what’s working and drop what’s not working – including little time to integrate feedback;
- Little time to consult networks and partners
Lessons
Lesson 1
Don’t start planning when the templates arrive – Start earlier.
Planning is a culture of constant reflection.
February 2016 Face-to-face meetings
We held a team meeting in February 2016. The goal wasn’t specific immediate outcomes – instead to reflect on where we are in the wider work in the region and head towards the work.
We were led by two main questions:
- To achieve 350’s vision: what does the MOVEMENT need to look and feel like?
- What is 350 Europe’s role in making that vision happen?
That got us thinking about our broader vision and strategy. It was useful for people to have in the back of their minds as they went into the 350 planning process.
Lesson 2
Create spaces for non-structured, random connections.
Planning needs space for spontaneous connections.
February 2016 Face-face meetings
Starting March Weekly Team Check-Ins
We held two calls weekly. On Mondays, we had a regular team agenda, including the latest about the planning process.
But on Tuesdays, we held informal “lunch conversations” that are just about stimulating things on different subjects. Topics included: our regional comms/digital strategy, trainings vision, or how to be true allies with Sámi.
These calls were big picture and generated ideas and food for thought about how we do our work differently.
Lesson 3
Make space for reflecting separation from figuring out what’s next.
Planning needs reflection on lessons from the past.
February 2016 Face-face meetings
Starting March Weekly Team Check-Ins
Before templates arrive Online Year Review Calls
Before the planning template, we held online calls to reflect on our work. The calls were detailed reflection to pull out lessons – what did we achieve last year? What were our leanings from it? I really held time for that reflection. On the call, I gave people 5 minutes to write down things before asking “who wants to share a reflection?”
Lesson 4
Give Boundaries before asking people to plan.
Planning Needs Boundaries
The LT set some boundaries for the team:
- 5% smaller budget than last year;
Nicolò set additional boundaries. A few examples:
- For the health of the team, plan for only 80% of your time (gives space for opportunities through the year);
- Reminders of previously set intentions for the movement and 350’s work; and
- Divestment still playing a big role in the work.
In many ways, those boundaries actually make it easier to plan.
One of Nicolò’s many slides to explain how the process would look.
80% of your time
PLAN WITH THAT IN MIND!
… regional plans’ roles, opportunities throughout the year, wellbeing …
Lesson 5
All the preparation saves time.
Planning flows when we set it up right
February 2016 – face-to-face meetings
Starting March – Weekly Team Check-ins
Before templates arrive – Online Year Review Calls
Planning templates arrive – Begin filling them out
When we got the planning templates, it was relatively straightforward. We already integrated lessons from before. People filled them in pretty quickly.
Lesson 6
Give time for feedback and clear criteria on what I’m giving feedback about.
Planning needs feedback, which is best received when we know what we’re going to get feedback on.
- I had people share plans. I knew they wouldn’t read the whole thing, but give each other general ideas;
- I asked people to submit the draft a few days before it was to be completed. This gave time for a final review call, plus feedback from training, digital, and other amplifier teams. If there were things that needed to be adjusted, then there was time to do so. This built some quality control in the plans.
- I had a check of things for people to follow as they did their plan. People knew what I was using as feedback when I was reading their plans.
Nicolò’s slides explaining what he was looking for in his criteria to make sure the plans were ready:
Checklist
Nicolò’s checklist [when reviewing plans]
- Is it following the planning template guidance (e.g. SMART objectives, all sections filled in, content in the right places)?
- Is it clear to read, and comprehensive of the thinking gone into it?
- Is it aligned with organisational frameworks (e.g. global divestment plan, organisational Theory of Change, organisational goals, LT organisational goals for FY17)?
- Does it have a logical, coherent, and impactful strategy?
- Does it build on FY16 reflections/work and other team discussions (e.g. “lunch” conversations)?
- Does it integrate trainings/digital comms/media comms input?
- Is it realistic within current+requested staff capacity and financial resources?
- Is it planned within 80% capacity?
Final Steps
In review
Planning is a series of Steps
February 2016 – face-to-face meetings
Starting March – Weekly Team Check-ins
Before templates arrive – Online Year Review Calls
Planning templates arrive – Begin filling them out
Mid-June? – Plans approved!
More Lessons?
What else can we review from this model?
Reflection Questions
- What supported creativity and new ideas?
- What methods did Nicolò use to support experimentation?
- What processes helped use lessons from the past to design in the future?
- How did Nicolò’s processes build over time – not just a single event, but the series?
- How are those steps different from how you plan now?
Two Theoretical Models
The Experiential Cycle – “Brainstorming”
Nicolò had an organic flow: reflecting on what we’ve done in the past, coming up with general lessons for the future, and writing these lessons in to a plan.
This fits into a model 350 uses in its training work: the experiential cycle.
The four steps of the model of experiential education are:
- Experience;
- Reflection, reviewing into what happened with some depth to understand fully how it happened;
- Generalization, moving to the level of concepts and ideas; and finally;
- Application, in which you try out new learning through new behaviors.
This becomes a cycle because Application creates a new Experience to be reflected upon. A learning cycle!
Each step matters
Some groups only do one or two steps. Academics love Generalisation and most do no Application (Too bad!)
Like most activist groups. 350 prioritises Application (action!) We can get stuck giving too little time in Reflection (reviewing what happened in detail, not just our gut reactions) or Generalisation (where we observe patterns or test against theoretical models).
Nicolò’s design works to give space for all of the steps.
Read more about the Experiential Learning Cycle from our trainings website.
An Example of the Experiential Cycle
Each Organising Story-telling Lab is an example of the experiential cycle:
- It starts with telling a story (experience),
- And then draws immediately on what happened (reflection),
- Then each story-telling lab lays out lessons from that story but which are beyond the immediate story (generalise) – like giving this model is a generalisation;
- And then finally, there is encouragement to take it back to your group: application
Brainstorming
The idea of brainstorming is simple: without judgement, list every idea we can think of. The idea is groups need creativity and an open process to entertain all ideas.
The process for brainstorming is simple:
- Identify the problem to solve
- Generate ideas
- Pick the best ideas
The old “brainstorming” way of coming up with ideas.
Identify the problem to solve – Generate a lot of ideas (brainstorm) – Idea 1 Idea 2 Idea 3 Idea 4 – Evaluate the best ideas
Brainstorming Problems
One problem Nicolò has found:
Brainstorming calls can be a bit … artificial. I’ve seen people come up with creative things by being self-reflective on an on-going basis, but not because of a brainstorm.
Plus, even setting firm goals initially can shut-down free ideas and connections. “I find the best way to make sure our plans are no good is to make them SMART goals from the very beginning. There needs to be a process to create SMART goals at a later stage – but we need to give space to grow ideas first.”
In short, the problem is people don’t generate ideas one way. They need different methods to spur creativity.
So the old way isn’t sufficient.
Brainstorming Solutions
Nicolò’s interventions to support this included:
- Creating multiple kinds of spaces (informal group calls, formal group calls, one-on-one calls, and space between all those to generate ideas);
- Provide guiding questions (new research is showing people brainstorm better under tight circumstances – e.g. “come up with 3 ideas that …” or “generate a tactic you’ve never used before”);
- Encouraging constant self-reflection throughout the year – not just at planning time (“I really focused on getting people to be really explicit about what they’re learning, without passing judgement on their short-comings”).
Identify the problem to solve – Generate ideas one way with tight questions – Generate ideas another way OR Generate ideas a third way – The best ideas float to the top.
The new way of thinking about brainstorming – trying multiple options of opening creativity before selecting ideas.
Read related article on trainings website
An example of Brainstorming 2.0 Solutions
Here’s a sketch of a 4-hour strategic planning design using these lessons:
| Tool | Design Notes |
| Opening & go-around: what’s a tactic right now that others may not come up with? | Start creativity right off |
| Agenda Review and the “I don’t know enough” scream | This group worried they didn’t know enough to plan, so we made them repeat the mantra: “I don’t know everything, but I can plan anyway!” |
| Story-telling in groups of 3 on past tactics (review for lessons on tactical reflection, communications strategy) | Deep reflection |
| Reviewing target vulnerabilities, thinking from our opponent (pillars of support) | Moving into generalisations and focusing in “the problem” |
| Come up with criteria for next tactic: what are criteria for our next escalated arc of tactics (“what do we need to be doing to win”) | Sharpen our view |
| Action MadLibs – a cool tool where groups generate tactics based on 3 categories (we used “Location for the Action”, “Symbols” and “Target’s Vulnerabilities” from the previous list) | These tactics weren’t super high-quality, but afterwards people presented the best ideas |
| Small groups create plans of action | Yet another round of tactic generation |
| Strawpoll (dotocracy) on which plans excite us the most and closing |
Your turn
- What can you apply from these lessons?
Application Questions
- Where will you apply some of these lessons?
- Which specific strategies that Nicolò used will you try to use?
- Of the 4 steps in the experiential cycle, which do you do the least of? How will you plan differently knowing that?
- What else will you do differently?
Explore Further
- Organising Stories and Lessons from the 350 Organising Story Telling Lab
Collection of different case studies / stories of organising and movements from across the globe collated and presented by 350.org. - Campaign Accelerator Toolkit
A toolkit to accelerate the planning process so we can get campaigns out the door faster to create more effective people powered campaigns. - 5 Tools to plan your Campaign Strategy
5 tools to help you plan your campaign strategy including templates on calls to action, ladder of engagement, timelines, team culture, campaign canvas.