Political Organizing Series: Public Narrative, Relationship Building, and 4C’s in Electoral Campaigns

Introduction

Learn about political organising in electoral campaigns from the Leading Change Network’s Political Organizing Series (monthly online learning sessions held from July to October in 2024).

Kick-off: People, Power, Politics

This is a year of elections around the world, and practicing democracy is now more critical than it has ever been before. In this series of learning sessions, we explored with over 200 participants what is often called political organizing, electoral organizing, or field organizing, which is organizing in political campaigns or campaigns to shape what our democracies look like.

We discussed how organizing can build effective campaigns, strengthen our democracies, and win elections, while also being in community with people who share values and interests.

Lacey opened the series with her story about how she learned about organizing during her journey as a political organizer.

To kick off the series, Olivia Chow and Nadine Tkatchevskaia from Canada, Anaru Ryall from New Zealand, and Raul Ramirez from Mexico, presented their experiences in political organizing, including their successes and challenges. After a panel discussion moderated by Lacey Connelly, participants joined group discussions and brought back discussed takeaways and remaining questions for panelists to respond to.

Building Relationships and Weaving Stories Throughout the Practice

When asked which of the five leadership frameworks was most transformational, the panelists answered: public narrative and relationship building.

They talked about the challenge of shifting people’s mindsets from sign waving to door knocking; while delivering flyers and waving signs on the side of the road seem like common tactics in electoral campaigns, direct voter contact and relationship building are key to building the relationships that sustain the organizing into the future. 

Nadine, who served as the Deputy Campaign Director on Olivia’s mayoral campaign, shared how her team identified specific immigrant communities to reach out to in Toronto, and met each community where they were at, because different communities have different ways of getting together, at homes, in faith-based or community-based organizations, through WhatsApp and WeChat groups, etc.

Building leaders requires building relationships. Building sustainable campaigns requires building relationships. – Anaru Ryall, Community Organiser at NZEI Te Riu Roa, New Zealand

Finding Hope through Finding our People

The panelists also discussed how to find hope through relationships even when the political climate is unstable or it does not seem possible to win. Connecting with people beyond campaigns and bonding through meaningful work can sustain political organizing – specifically, creating spaces for people to meet regularly in person and share their feelings on how things are going.

When asked how to find your people as a new campaigner or a candidate, the panelists advised to first connect with your immediate community – family, friends, colleagues, members from faith-based organizations, etc. Raul also shared his experiences of being under threats of violence for his political activities, and finding resilience and motivation for change in those threats, as they illustrated the exact issues that his people wanted to change through their political organizing.

Our public narrative was our only shelter. We kept telling people of the urgent need to protect our territory by changing the government. – Raul Ramirez, Sembradora, Mexico

Additionally, the panelists emphasized the importance of investing in the leadership development of the political organizers while securing their livelihood so they can continue doing their work without sacrificing their lives. As we learn that political organizers around the world are facing similar challenges, we are excited once again to kick off this series to address those challenges together in community over the next few sessions.

Skill Practices

Skill Practice #1: Public Narrative in Political Campaigns

You, as the organizer, are the protagonist in the story. You are the one that the voters are going to connect with. You are the one that is responsible for building this collective and moving them towards action. The candidate isn’t actually anywhere in this until we get to the Story of Now. – Lacey Connelly

Connecting with Voters through Shared Stories (Fishbowl)

As organizers and leaders, we are called to enable others to achieve shared purpose in times of uncertainty.

So as political organizers, Lacey explained, we can view our goal as enabling voters to create the world that they want to see by electing value-driven leaders who seek to enable their constituents. In order to do that, we organizers connect with voters through public narrative.

The Story of Self establishes the credibility between us as the organizer and the voter on an emotional level. The Story of Us builds the hopeful idea that we are stronger together when we act as a part of our community, as a part of our people who care about this. The Story of Now moves the collective to action.

The stories of Self, Us, and Now all have arcs of challenge, choice, and outcome, through which shared values are felt. Values drive emotions and emotions cause people to act – as opposed to issues, which are often described in facts and figures.

Political speeches are often seen as performances on a stage, but public narrative should also  be used in one-on-one conversations such as phone banking and canvassing, in small house parties, in team meetings, and in the everyday culture of the campaign or the organization. 

Watch how Mike, as an organizer, uses public narrative while knocking on Stephen’s (a potential voter) door. 

• Where did you hear the story of us in Mike’s canvassing?
• Where did you hear Mike’s story of self?
• Where did you hear the story of now in Mike’s canvassing?

Leading with the Story of Us because “all we have is people”

In public narrative, you can start with any of the stories of Self, Us, and Now, but Lacey suggested that the most effective starter, in political campaigning, is the Story of Us: to start with the collective sense of why you are here in this community and what is special about this community that makes you want to talk with them, that shows you why they’re going to care about this issue, candidate, and campaign.

Then you can move onto the Story of Self – what draws you to where you are – and end with the Story of Now, asking them to vote for the candidate, donate, volunteer, etc.

After creating and sharing their own public narrative in breakout rooms, participants shared their reflections. In discussing why it might be effective to lead the public narrative in political campaigning with the Story of Us, we acknowledged that we, as people trying to change the system, do not have a lot of money or resources; all we have is people and each other.

We also noted that building people power is key, not only for the election day, but beyond the election; once we elect officials, we have to keep them accountable with our power.

Finally, Lacey summarized for us that in the midst of a lot of apathy, loneliness, and division occurring in various political situations around the world right now, public narrative can remind them that they are not alone based on the values that they share, that they can be part of this collective action.

It’s not about what you’re asking that single individual to do. It’s about what you’re asking them as part of their community, as part of people who care about this …because that feeling of solidarity and of hope in the whole is where the magic happens. It’s where one person showing up to vote for a candidate would be very sad and lonely, right? But having a packed house for a nomination meeting or a polling location is actually what builds that hope that we can do something to make a change. – Lacey Connelly

Crafting your Public Narrative (Worksheet)

You can use the worksheet here to create a powerful and motivating public narrative.

At the same time, please note that in phone banking or canvassing, you do not need a five-minute script completely ready – in fact, it will be more effective as a conversation where you ask questions to the other person to draw out their story and their connection with our community.

The structure of the public narrative helps you avoid complete improvisation, which is especially helpful if you are not a natural conversation starter; however, instead of having the stories completely set in place from the beginning, it is helpful to feel like you have a library of stories to pick from and fit in the structure as you speak.

Skill Practice #2: Relationship Building in Political Campaigns

Knowing your People

While social media allows us to reach more people across large distances, it has become much more difficult to actually meet and get to know people one-on-one.

According to the Honourable Thomas Mulcair, former Leader of the Opposition in the Parliament of Canada, door knocking is more important than ever, as it creates that first contact with the voter. He shared how his historically English Canadian party that did not have much presence in the majority-French-speaking province of Québec was able to increase the number of their elected members in the Parliament from 2 to 59 seats in a federal election, because they talked with people and related to them on issues that were important to them.

Mr. Mulcair noted that once the election is called it is too late for deep canvassing as by then votes and marks matter most. Deeper canvassing – building relationships – should be planned and done between elections, well before elections are called, as an ongoing use of organizing power built by engaging volunteers.

Amanda Harvey-Sánchez, Principal Coach and Program Development Specialist at the Climate Justice Organizing HUB in Canada, echoed this point and emphasized that the guiding and grounding question in all campaigns is “Who are my people?” 

Therefore, the pre- and post-canvass periods are also important. Before canvassing, we can create a sense of “we are going to do it together” by affirming each other, inspiring our teammates, and practicing canvassing. After canvassing, we can share with each other what we heard from voters, which can hopefully feed into the campaign strategy.

Designing relationship building into electoral campaigns

If you haven’t developed [relationships] beforehand, you’re not going to be able to do it during the campaign.
– The Honourable Thomas Mulcair, former Leader of the Opposition, Parliament of Canada

We often say that we need more relationships in politics, but once the writ drops and the election is called, it goes back to being all about the number of doors knocked on, with people hurrying from door to door. How can we design more relationship building into actual electoral campaign plans? 

Amanda drew from her experiences working with a climate organization that endorsed a candidate in the municipal election in Toronto, and explained how important it was for the members of the organization to share their fears and vulnerabilities with each other and also develop a relationship with this candidate through and beyond the campaign.

Although the candidate lost, she has kept organizing in her ward around housing rights, and the members have continued to show up in solidarity around the rent strikes in that area, because a real bond developed between them and the candidate.

I think there’s a natural dichotomy that I see emerge in campaigning …between doing and being. The doing part is the numbers, the goals, the metrics. But the being – that’s being in relationship with people and that’s the foundation of everything we do. – Amanda Harvey-Sánchez, Principal Coach and Program Development Specialist, the Climate Justice Organizing HUB; PhD candidate, University of Toronto

Relationship building among our campaign team members and volunteers is also critical in many ways. This point is often overlooked or forgotten.

Amanda emphasized that people are a resource and can actually be depleted if you burn people out; they are not going to come back if they had a negative experience. And when that happens, you are losing the power of relationships, intergenerational knowledge and mentorship, which is extremely valuable in movements.

Additionally, having built the relationships to the level where people feel like they belong and are valued helps create a healthy environment for addressing conflicts, which happen naturally in every part of life, including politics.

Building Transformational Relationships into the Future (Fishbowl)

As humans we are relational beings. Building relationships builds capacity, resources, creativity, and power. Relationships have spirit and hope – moving us from the poverty of transactions into transformational change. – Mike Perry, Executive Director, Institute for Change Leaders (ICL)

How can we purposefully and intentionally build a relationship with someone, especially in a political context where a name might have just come up off a list?

Mike explained how the five steps of relationship building:

1. Attention
2. Interest
3. Exploration
4. Exchange, and
5. Commitment

can guide us through one-on-one conversations – sharing each other’s values and interests, exchanging resources, and exploring whether there are enough shared values to choose to invest time in building this relationship and our capacity towards our shared purpose.

Watch how Stephen uses the five steps of relationship building to talk with Lacey as a follow-up to a house meeting, and get a commitment from her to join the campaign team meeting.

Debrief the relationship building through the fishbowl:

• How did Stephen explore Lacey’s values and share his values?
• How did Stephen explore Lacey’s interests?
• How did Stephen explore Lacey’s resources (experiences, skills, etc.)?

*We discussed how the opening question used in the fishbowl regarding accents and where they are from could be potentially triggering for people with a history of immigration. We acknowledged the consequences of such an introduction and suggested that any other ways to start conversations with a friend or a friend-to-be is a good way to break the ice.”

Finally, relationship building is not just about having a one-on-one conversation using the five steps mentioned above. The steps are a helpful guide especially if meeting one-on-one with people doesn’t seem like our superpower! But relationship building can also be about celebrating small wins and bringing joy to the campaign, like eating together or going to the pool together.

As we see the diminishing of public spaces for people to get together and socialize, people are longing for a sense of community and belonging. Political campaigns can be that community.

Developing quality relationships can thus not only help win your campaigns, but also create such communities where people support one another and enjoy being in company with each other and learn and have fun together.

Skill Practice #3: Mobilizing Resources into Action in Political Campaigns

Growing our Resources Through Actions

Electoral campaigns can often include text banking, tabling, even yard signs – but are they really effective?

Stephen says a successful action program has three outcomes:

1. reaching a clear and concise goal,
2. increasing organizational capacity, and
3. facilitating learning for each individual involved.

And through each action, we can grow our resources through mobilizing and deploying the resources with commitment at heart, and through the mobilization circle, in which we recruit, confirm three times, carry out the action, evaluate, celebrate, and do a thank-you after the action.

Planning is key in hitting our recruitment goals. Stephen introduced the rule of halves, a formula to calculate, for example, that we need to dial 80 people to talk to 40 people to get 20 yeses to have 10 people show up at the event.

We also discussed the importance of getting commitments and enabling others to act on their values, especially when we don’t have the budget to pay people to participate.

We can overcome the fear of rejections and of imbalance of power (feeling like we are asking favors) by understanding the recruitment as creating opportunities for people to take action on something they want to change but did not have the tools for previously.

Using 4C’s to get Deeper Commitments (Fishbowls)

Watch how Mike uses the 4C’s (Connect, Context, Commitment, and Catapult) to get a commitment from Lacey to do volunteer door knocking.

Debrief the 4C’s through the fishbowls:

• Connect (story of self): How did Mike initiate the conversation? How did he find out what was important to Lacey?
• Context (story of us, now): How did Mike illustrate the urgency?
• Commitment (story of now): What asks did Mike make?
• Catapult (story of now): How did Mike make sure Lacey can come to the canvassing?

After practicing the 4C’s in breakout rooms, participants shared their reflections. One of the takeaways was the importance of the first step of the 4C’s – Connection.

If we can open up about our own stories, stay curious about each other, and make personal connections, the rest of the steps will flow.

One of the participants commented that 4C’s bring the public narrative to an even more practical, on-the-ground level, translating it to action: sharing our story of self in making the Connection, creating a story of us in creating the context, and illustrating the nightmare of what could happen if we don’t act now, plus the dream of what could happen if we do, in getting the Commitment.

We also reflected on how it is helpful to have a pocket list of multiple asks and catapult options and be ready to be flexible, so that we can provide options that are comfortable for each person; for example, a child caretaker might not be able to go to an in-person door knocking, but might be able to participate in remote phone banking.

[Someone once said] ‘I’m motivated about my community, and I want to create change. But I thought politics was an elite, exclusive club for people, and I didn’t realize that as an ordinary citizen that I could actually participate in that.’ And the only reason they got involved was because a field organizer recruited them and called them up. – Stephen Donnelly

Preparing for 4C’s (Worksheet)

Finally, the biggest takeaway of the session was to be prepared! 

Think in advance how this is important to you – your story of self.

• How will you then explore the other person’s story and make a connection?
• How will you explain the urgency and create the context?
• How will you ask for the commitment and strengthen the commitment through catapult?

You can think through these questions using this worksheet.

About the Facilitator Team

Lacey Connelly

Lacey has worked on American political campaigns since starting as an intern during the 2004 IL Senate primary, where her boss lost to a little known State Senator named Barack Obama. Since then, she has been an Organizer, Compliance Manager, and Campaign Manager for various campaigns, as well as Training Director for the Progressive Change Campaign Committee and Caucus Director for the WV House Democratic Legislative Committee. She left the Caucus in 2021 to start working with Marshall Ganz at Harvard’s Center for Public Leadership, where she now practices her leadership skills as a Teaching Fellow for Leadership, Organizing, and Action and the Head Teaching Fellow for Public Narrative. When she’s not facilitating the learning of amazing community organizers, you might find Lacey taking a yoga class, reading with a cat or dog on her lap, listening to K-pop, or camping with friends in the hills of her home state.

Mike Perry

A lawyer and social worker by profession, Mike Perry is currently executive director of the Institute for Change Leaders (ICL) in Canada. He has also been a teaching fellow for the Leadership, Organizing, and Change course at the Harvard Kennedy School. In his past lives, Mike served as Legal Advisor to the Métis National Council, was executive director of the Kawartha Lakes Family Health Team, and coordinated Canada’s campaign for the International Criminal Court. He has delivered ICL’s people, power, and change programs across Canada including to students, union workers, survivors of sexual abuse, and minority women seeking to run for office. In 2023, Mike was elected City Councillor in his home municipality of Kawartha Lakes. He is a proud citizen of the Métis Nation of Ontario and lives in Fenelon Falls with his young children: Gabe & Abigail.

Stephen Donnelly

Stephen is an Australian based community organizer and founder of Dunn Street – a campaign house driving social change by embracing the Ganz model of community organizing, leadership development and power building. Taking what he learned from volunteering for the Obama campaign in 2008, he founded an unprecedented grassroots movement – the Community Action Network – and organized over 10,000 volunteers to mobilize and hold millions of values-based persuasion conversations with targeted voters that was crucial in the election of Dan Andrews as Premier of Victoria in 2014 and then the re-election of his Labor government in 2018. Stephen has in the past been part of the teaching team for the Harvard Kennedy School online course Leadership, Organizing and Action: Leading Change.

For More

Watch out for more information and sessions by visiting the Leading Change Network LCN and subscribing to LCN’s newsletter. More resources on public narrative, relationship building, and mobilizing resources into action can be found at our Resource Center, which you can access through a membership. Please feel free to reach out to [email protected] for any questions or support.

Explore Further

• Deciding Whether To Do Electoral Organizing
• Engaging in Elections and Building Community Power
• Building Organising Leadership During Election Mobilisation
• Deep Canvassing to Shift Hearts, Mind and Votes
• Tools for Canvassing and Door Knocking
• Persuasive Conversation Campaigns Guide
• The Power of Story: The Story of Self, Us and Now
• Story of Now: How to Make a Compelling and Strategic Ask
• Guide to Public Narrative from the Leading Change Network
• Marshall Ganz Quotes and Wisdom about Leadership, Hope, Organizing and Narrative
• Organising: Start Here