There’s People in Your Data: The Work of Relational Organizing
Sometimes we have to laugh to keep from crying. This is something I heard growing up, and to me it means finding the joy among hardship in order to keep pushing forward. My family was a part of the Great Migration of black people who moved to northern states from the south in the early part of the last century. They, like many others, worked hard to not only survive Jim Crow but to provide opportunities for family coming after them to thrive.
The ability to participate as a worker and to be compensated appropriately was — and continues to be — a precarious situation for black and brown people in the United States. As worker protections have waned over the last several decades and wages have stagnated, it’s evident that working people have been doing more and earning significantly less for far too long. When we’re existing in survival mode, it’s almost impossible to think about anything other than averting the next crisis. I find it hard to believe that this isn’t by design, as it gives a clear advantage to interests who profit off of stealing one of our most precious resources: our time!
It takes time to build and maintain relationships, but building authentic relationships is one of the single best investments we can make. As progressives, we know that low engagement from folks in our communities has impacted our ability to enact the policies and impart the change that lifts us all up. We have had our big wins, where we’ve successfully leveraged data to do outreach alongside traditional methods of organizing, but at the same time, it’s critical to understand what we’re up against. Our steadfast movement leaders are also people who work, go to school, care for their families, and volunteer in their communities, and there is an obvious risk of burnout. The key to scalable and sustainable progressive movement work is taking our time back to focus on better knowing our people, understanding the issues we all face, and identifying our future leaders.
Organizers know that cultivating and strengthening relationships with and between people is the best way to help people shift their view of themselves relative to their work and community. Right now, there is renewed attention on the effectiveness of old school methods of organizing. It’s clear that the time-tested action of building relationships between folks to leverage them into collective power works. As efficient as it is to post a message to social media and reach an audience of thousands, this practice alone cannot create or replicate the personal bonds required to generate trust.
While we also know that digital tools and analytics are essential to organizing, equally important are the people, and their stories, behind those data points. Because when we’re weary, it’s people power, it’s soul power, and it is the strength of our relationships that will not only help us win campaigns but will sustain and uplift us in the hard work of organizing as well. This is why established programs and new programs alike are incorporating “old school” analog organizing practices that hinge on building relationships alongside digital tactics, which facilitate messaging, mobilizing, analyzing, and strategizing at scale.
When we’re weary, it’s people power, it’s soul power, and it is the strength of our relationships that will not only help us win campaigns but will sustain and uplift us in the hard work of organizing.
If your team is curious about implementing the tried-and-true methods that organizers have used for decades, a good place to start is to meet with people individually. These meetings are more commonly referred to as “one-on-ones” and have a long history in both the civil rights movement and labor organizing. Deeply interpersonal interactions, like one-on-ones, give people time and space to uncover and process that the challenges they experience in their own lives are often shared with others. This is no doubt a resource- and time-heavy activity, but the impact of an in-person meeting is undeniable. By implementing this practice into your program, you will begin cultivating the culture of relationship-building that research shows works best to move people toward action.
Also, done right, technology can support this work. Action Builder was created for, by, and with organizers who use our toolset to facilitate relational organizing that builds progressive power. Learn about how our new digital toolset for the progressive movement was developed and how its unique features bring people front and center.
