How NOT to Community Organise

These points come from reflecting on a piece of work that started out with masses of energy and excitement, yet deflated, despite the input of a lot of time, resource and thought. It’s slightly tongue in cheek, and written with a bit of distance, partly to maintain respect for those involved and partly to distance my emotions around the disappointment.

So in no particular order, my tips on how NOT to Community Organise…

1. Take your feet off the pedals too quickly

I love the driving analogy for the organising method. In driving lessons, the dual controls give both the learner and the instructor a lot of confidence. You might think that taking your feet off the pedals too early might cause a learner to crash. In organising I have found that it is more likely to cause them to come to a slow excruciating stop. I wonder if a crash & reset may be better? A crash may encourage them to ask for the dual pedals back, and to reconsider the route, whilst the slow stop seems to deflate energy and make them disregard our ability to use the pedals at all. They are just happy to be in control, wherever it takes them..

2. Let building social networks be a focus of the work

We find ourselves working with a disconnected community and a group of people defined by their otherness. A natural solution is to create social opportunities for people to connect and build networks. This is important but it’s not our purpose. Organising community activities is not the same as community organising. There is no target to pursue, no change to win.

Creating conditions for connection should be a method to nurture trust between people and to grow the work, but as a main purpose it is woolly. In many circumstances, it can take one person to set up a social activity, while the purpose of Organising is changing something that takes a collective to impact. If disconnection is the main priority, dig deeper, what systems or norms are in place that enable that disconnection to thrive? How can those be tackled as a collective? Those are the things we need to focus upon.

3. Aim to become friends with the people you are organising

This one feels sticky to consider as often I have had the pleasure of working with people who I feel are really cool and would like to get close to. Within organising we aim to develop genuine relationships so the boundaries between work and play can feel blurry, particularly when a team’s aims are ones that we feel passionate about. They become even more blurry when you move between spaces of working towards a cause and hanging out in the pub. We can lose our authority as professional Community Organisers. Yes, we always learn from the people we work with, but they also need to respect our knowledge and experience. If you are getting too friendly with your team they may stop listening to your insight.

4. Let wellbeing trump action

Again, this one feels sticky to write. Of course wellbeing is important and a team needs to look out for one another. I am encouraged when a team is discussing their needs and concerns openly and thinking about mutual support. It’s no good burning out for the cause. But what if a collective concern for wellbeing stops a team from taking any action? What if they put so many protections in place that they end up not doing anything at all?

Making change is inherently risky, we need to be the people to challenge the norms and this is not always comfortable. We need to build systems of care that enable us to expand our comfort zones and hold us before, during, and after taking positive risk, whatever the outcome.

5. Stop bringing in new people

You feel you have a strong core team and you are working hard to develop each of them. Team meetings feel warm and productive. An open meeting brings chaos, new people act in disruptive ways, not acknowledging nor caring particularly about the work that has been done — they don’t get it & they kind of irritate us… so we close the meeting doors and focus on the original team. The original team get demotivated. They lack new energy and new ideas. Not much happens…

We forgot that Organising is a live process — we need new people to shake things up and refocus the team on their mission.

6. Focus solely on individual leadership development

Developing leadership is at the heart of our work, but individuals need to have clear goals that will also develop the collective and get the team closer to winning the change they want to see. It is a balancing act. We need to focus on people over process, but it is easy to take that focus too far and step back from steering the process too soon. You do need to trust that developing leaders will take the helm, but if you step back and they don’t step forward, don’t leave it too long before stepping back in. You might end up stranded on a desert island.

7. Maintain a culture of ‘niceness’

We want our teams to get on with one another and have a good working relationship. Hell, it’s not too much to ask to have some fun in a meeting! We encourage fun as a way for people to enjoy the work and want to show up & support each other. We need to remember that good support doesn’t always look like being nice. Not allowing tension into the room is counterproductive. How can we challenge thinking and hold people to account whilst maintaining a culture of ‘niceness’? We need to move past this, to a place of trust, meaningful challenge and holding the difficulties together as a team, rather than enabling people to steer around or distance themselves from the harder stuff. When the pressure was put on, the team backed away from it rather than leaning in.

8. Wait for something to happen

If it’s not happening, it’s not happening. Reflect with the team — why isn’t it happening? If the whole team doesn’t show up to reflection meetings, give a limited amount of chances then bring things to a close. Trust that they have gotten what they need from the process, but don’t drag it out. It will not make any of you feel good.

9. Over Celebrate wins

My organising team is a positive bunch. Want a fanfare for a small win? We have got you covered! Celebrating small wins is important, in terms of developing people and maintaining energy. Don’t skip it, but don’t get stuck. Celebrating a win again and again without building on it is not moving forwards. Say, ‘that’s great, what next’, ‘what would have made it better’ or ‘what can be done differently next time’? Sound the alarm bells if the answer is ‘nothing’. We should be learning from every action, there is always room for improvement and change is our purpose. Change cannot stay the same.

So there you go. Whilst this reflection makes it sound like the piece of work was done terribly, I am being constructively critical in order to learn and to try not to make the same mistakes again. Many decisions were made strategically, and felt like the right ones at the time. There were joyful moments, and something was built, it just wasn’t the something that was anticipated. I also have to remind myself that whilst the Organiser plays a key role, we can also not take all of the responsibility. The team share the work and the wins and losses that come with it.

On that note, remember to take a step back, reflect and adapt when things are not moving! A bit of distance gives a better view, but too much and you get lost on the horizon.

Find out more about Connecting for Good and our organising journey at www.ConnectingForGoodCov.com