The gospel of “the outside game”
We need to get better at explaining it
I was on a conference call last week with representatives from a set of organizations that are hosting a big meeting about the recent success and future of campaigns for 100 percent clean energy in states and cities. Environment America is responsible for a morning session on how to win these campaigns.
My colleagues and I explained that as part of our agenda, we’d have small groups talk about aspects of the campaign. Each table will have a focus: messaging and earned media, developing policy, coalition-building in Red and Purple states, coalition-building in Blue states, winning in the Capitol, and “outside game.” A former lobbyist on the call asked, “But what’s the difference between messaging/earned media and outside game? It seems like we could make that one table.”
And I remembered, we have to preach the gospel of the outside game.
The “outside game” is the work of persuading, identifying and mobilizing forces outside the halls of power to pressure people inside the halls of power to make the decisions that need to be made. In campaign after campaign, the battle comes down to this: insiders — lobbyists, legislative champs, coalition partners — look at each other and say, how do we move this particular legislator? Who can we reach out to in their district? When we at Environment America have done our work correctly, we are the people who have the contacts.
That’s how we won the 100% Clean Energy Law (SB 100) in California. Environment California’s director, Dan Jacobson, organized people in every one of the state’s 58 counties. He got them on the phone once a week. He sent updates. He ran trainings. He gave volunteers the information, skills and confidence to enable them to pass resolutions in town halls, hold successful editorial board meetings, and hold district meetings with decision-makers.
Messaging is important. Earned media is important. But winning often depends on having the right support in the right districts. We approach our campaigns from the outset thinking about winning the hearts and minds of the public, not just the support of politicians. Our campus organizers, student volunteers, canvassers and digital organizers work to build power and presence in key districts. Then, our state directors and field staff leverage this support into pressure.
Over the last couple of years, there’s been a lot of emphasis on protest as a way to be heard in the public square. But change in America doesn’t usually result from protest alone. It results from sustained vigilance, and proof of that vigilance. It’s great when people show up for a protest or rally. But the public interest demands that people show up again and again and again, not just at a protest, but by placing a phone call to a legislator, going to a district meeting, signing on to an op-ed, or writing a letter to the editor.
Being grounded in real people’s wants and needs is what elevates a campaign above the noisy, crowded field of pending legislation. The authentic voices of Americans calling for change can make all the difference.
But on that phone call, we still had to explain the outside game to a veteran advocate three times before the point was made.
So we need to get better at explaining it.
The outside game story isn’t the easiest to tell. Protests offer more drama. Lawsuits have a more familiar (though decidedly less democratic) plot. But the outside game is crucial to winning the change we want to see in the world.
We need to preach this gospel to more of our champions, allies and supporters, so they get behind it and join us in spreading it. Every issue campaign in America would be better off if people and advocates understood the outside game better.
