GCCM Team Building and Advocacy Guide
Uploaded by
Zanetta JansenGCCM Team Building and Advocacy Guide
Uploaded by
Zanetta JansenGCCM Team Building and Advocacy Guide
Table of Contents
Welcome
What makes a good leader and activist
Actively recruiting and developing leaders.
Recruiting Leaders
Recruitment
Tips for Leadership Development
Building your team
Communicating within your network.
Storytelling
Story of self
Story of us
Story of now
Key elements of Storytelling Structure
4Cs of communication
Setting achievable goals and believing in those.
S.M.A.R.T. goals
Develops strategies and tactics, and differentiates both.
Strategizing & Campaign Planning
Make your plan and timeline
Useful tactics
Power Mapping
Is creative with marketing.
Managing Marketing
Media
Share your story, and lead by example
Welcome
Thank you for responding to Pope Francis' call to care for our common home! Thank you for
your commitment to care for God's imperiled Creation, the poor and future generations.
The fact that you want to continue learning about leadership and advocacy is a sign of hope in
these times of mounting ecological crisis and climate emergency. You are warmly welcome to
our global family, made of thousands of leaders like you who are leading the mission of the
Global Catholic Climate Movement in their local communities all over the globe. We are grateful
for your decision to put your talents and involvement at the service of our movement and God’s
Creation, and we pray for the Holy Spirit to guide you in this journey.
Louis Allen defines organizing as the process of identifying and grouping activities to be
performed, delegating defined responsibilities and establishing relationships to enable people to
work together to achieve a common goal. Taking this into consideration, being a good organizer
and leader, means building a base of people who are ready to be active. We hope this manual
provides you with the tools to create your own base of people and to activate them at the local,
regional or national level.
What makes a good leader and activist
As good leader and activities you should be:
1. Actively recruiting and developing leaders
2. Communicating within your network
3. Setting achievable goals and believing in those
4. Developing strategies and tactics, and differentiating both
5. Creative with marketing
6. Share your story, and lead by example
In the coming sections we will deepen on each of these characteristics.
1. Actively recruiting and developing leaders.
Recruiting Leaders
Having strong leaders will ensure your campaign gets what it needs to succeed. We
recommend taking a particular approach when structuring leadership, a structure that will
enable you to develop the leadership of others, even as we exercise your own. Sharing
responsibility with your group will help you delegate all the work you need to get done
and will also create a sense of pride and responsibility. Also helping someone realize the
potential they’ve got for becoming leaders themselves is really rewarding and will help
you achieve your goals.
Sometimes we think leadership is about
being the person that everyone goes to:
How does it feel to be the dot in the middle
of all those arrows? How does it feel to be
one of the arrows that can't even get
through? And what happens if the "dot" in
the middle should disappear? Sometimes
we think we don't need leadership at all
because "we're all leaders", but that looks
like this:
Who's responsible for coordinating
everyone? And who's responsible for
focusing on the good of the whole, not just
one particular part? With whom does the
"buck stop"? Another way to practice
leadership is like this "snowflake":
leadership practices by developing other
leaders who, in turn, develop other leaders,
all the way "down". Although you may be the
"dot" in the middle, your success depends
on developing the leadership of others.
Recruitment
Most people join a group because someone has invited them personally, and not
because they see a flyer or a Facebook post. Keeping this in mind, here are some ways
you can find more members to join your group:
● The quickest way to build a group is through friends and family: talk to people in
your church, neighborhood, overall community and invite them to take part.
● Show up at events from people outside your group so you can meet others.
● Always try for new tactics that might appeal to new audiences as people want to
join groups with fresh ideas.
● Do community-based projects so you can get in touch with others that are
working, or are keen on working, towards the same goal.
You can find more information about recruitment at this resource from 350.org -
Recruiting outside your social circle.
Tips for Leadership Development
● Get to know people: Learn what motivates people, what they like and what they
don’t. If people in your group feel good about what they are doing they will want
to stay. Find something that interests them and make the work relevant for them.
● Listen: ideally more than talking. Listening is the basis of any solid relationship.
● Open ended questions: Asking open ended questions invites the other person to
reflect on their motivations.
● Have a plan: think what you would like individuals to do, then have a couple of
options for your group and see what they are interested in doing. Be clear and
inspiring in how you describe how to get engaged in this work.
● Delegate: when you give people responsibilities you help them turn their interest
into commitment. Keep in mind that people won’t stay if they feel useless.
● Give context: When asking someone to do more, be specific about what you are
asking. Let them know how their contribution will help to the general plans and
objectives. Make sure you and your team are on the same page. Show how their
engagement is connected to their values and how it helps accomplish our goals
● Maintain relationships: Follow up, give feedback and thank people for the work
they are doing.
Building your team
A well organized team is a power you should not underestimate. That’s why you want to
create a network based on the strengths of all your leaders. Your team should be
centered on trust, passion and a common objective, this will not only allow you to best
execute your plans but also to create the big strategy to accomplish your goals.
One way of building your team is through one-on-ones. Using this technique you can
understand where your leaders are coming from, what their interests are and can assign
specific tasks accordingly. Keep in mind that one-on-ones are not scripted meetings and
sometimes there are unexpected outcomes. Finally, you should take notes or document
somehow your meeting and follow-up timely if you agree to do so. Be sure to spend time
building a connection during your one-on-ones, you could share your story of self during
these meetings to motivate your team.You can find more on how one-on-ones can help
you build a base here.
350.org has also developed another resource on how to build your team using the menu
of tasks. In this technique you are invited to identify the essential tasks you need to
complete in order for an event to be successful. You should write the tasks that are
necessary on the left side of your paper and tasks that are helpful, but not necessary on
the right. Then you should circle items that can help with leadership development and
start assigning these tasks to your team. You can read 350.org's complete resource
here.
2. Communicating within your network.
Storytelling
Storytelling is a practice of leadership. Your story is the reason behind why you are
organizing. It’s translating your values and principles into actions through stories. By
using storytelling, you’ll learn the power of emotion and what drives you and your team
to take action. Remember that emotions move people to action. Learning the power of
storytelling as a leader will allow you to use everyone’s narratives to the success of your
campaign. This is because we internalize stories better than facts.
Stories have the capacity to build bridges and create relationships between people.
350.org mentions that in order to create meaningful and long-lasting climate action, we
must tell complete climate stories. This means, not focus only on the disasters but also
on everyday acts of courage and resilience.
Story of self
Call to leadership
The story of self are the values and experiences that inspired each person, individually,
to take action. This story focuses specifically on key moments in each person’s life when
values are formed and big decisions are made. When did you first realize that you were
concerned about climate justice? Why? What were the specific choices you made?
Story of us
Shared values & experience
In this case the story focuses on choice moments of the team as a whole. Those
moments that express the values, experiences and past challenges of the “us” (team).
For example, tying a current effort to win a campaign to a past campaign victory and
describing this process.
Story of now
Strategy & tactics
This story deeply specifies the team challenges. It includes the path you are taking or
can take to achieve your main goals. The “story of now” summons its audience to a
specific action they can do to achieve the collective mission. It also lays the expected
outcome you will achieve if the team’s strategy succeeds.
Key elements of Storytelling Structure
Challenge → Choice → Outcome
The story’s plot begins with a challenge that confronts you with an urgent need to pay
attention and to make a choice. A choice you are not prepared to make. This choice then
ends up in an outcome that teaches a moral lesson that frames your strategy and sets
your goal.
As each story follows the same structure, you can use this one to frame whichever of the
three stories.
A good example of story of self, story of us and story of now can be found in Obama's
2004 DNC keynote speech. You can check the speech here.
4Cs of communication
The 4Cs of communication will help you ensure that you are building the relationships
that you need and also that you are working efficiently.
● Connection - establish a personal relationship.
● Context- Articulate clearly who you are and what you are communicating.
Describe the problem and the solution. Let people know why their involvement is
important.
● Commitment - Ask people directly to assume some responsibilities. You can start
little, for example, by asking them to lead the next meeting.
● Catapult - have a follow-up plan and don’t forget to give your contact information.
3. Setting achievable goals and believing in those.
S.M.A.R.T. goals
A clear goal is vital for succeeding. It unites your team, helps with recruitment and allows
you to establish a clear strategy.
You should identify the goal of your campaign first, as this one should be mainstreamed
in every other small goal and in your whole journey in general. The team leader should
remind people of this constantly, so the team doesn't lose focus. Then you should
establish short-term and long-term goals. Regardless of the scale of your goals, these
should always be S.M.A.R.T.
● Strategic - your goals should reflect the most effective path to both solving the
problem and strengthening your organization. You should be specific, state what
will be done.
● Measurable - you should be clear on how success will look like, try to quantify the
success of your efforts.
● Actionable - there should be specific activities aligned with your goals, so that
anyone that wants to take part knows exactly what to do.
● Realistic - your goals should be practical and achievable. You should aim high,
but not so high that there is no chance for success.
● Timebound - you should state when you will achieve your goal. It has a clear
time-frame.
4. Develops strategies and tactics, and differentiates both.
Strategizing & Campaign Planning
A strategy is the means through which you’ll achieve the goals you set. When creating
your strategy, you should ask yourself the following questions:
● What are the resources you can put in? Be specific
● Who are your stakeholders? Who has interests in your campaign?
● Who is affected?
● What power do they have over the decision maker?
● What are the risks they are taking by participating in your campaign?
After creating your strategy, the next step is to create your Campaign Plan. The benefits
of having a Campaign Plan are the following:
● The focus is set on the goal.
● You can hold people accountable.
● It helps with the organization of the team.
● Bigger tasks can be divided into smaller.
● You can identify conflicting priorities.
● You can manage time more efficiently.
Make your plan and timeline
Before you begin to work on your plan, remember to set your main goal as the center of
it and then plan accordingly. Also, remember that sometimes circumstances change, so
be ready to adapt your plan during the campaign.
Step 1: Create Framework
● Clarify the time and the resources for your campaign
● Create a tracking document, it could be a spreadsheet, with planning categories
● Fill in your tracking document with goals for each week of the campaign
● Make your long-term goals super clear
Step 2: Set goals
● Create S.M.A.R.T. goals for your tactics. (See previous section)
Step 3: Work backwards
● Work backwards from all your goals to think of all the steps you need to take in
order to achieve them.
● Establish deadlines.
● Set responsibles for every action.
● Establish some time at the end to catch up in case you are falling behind.
● Keep the Law of Halves in mind- this means you should plan for getting half
participation. So if you need 10 volunteers, you should ask 20 people to volunteer
and talk to 40.
● Plan to do the double amount of work required so you can beat the Law of
Halves.
● Efficient self-organizing - priorize for each week/month/ campaign and follow up
with your team.
Step 4: Identify conflicts
● Adjust your timeline so that you don’t end up having too much on a week and too
little on another.
● Look for activities that could overlap so that you can reduce your workload.
Step 5: Prioritize
● Look for the things that are absolutely important in your plan, those things that if
left behind will cost the success of your plan.
● Keep in mind that campaign priorities may not match the priorities for the week or
month.
● Share your plan with your team, so that everyone can be held accountable.
Step 6: Revise
● Invest time to make a first draft of your plan and timeline.
● Check your campaign plan on a daily basis. You can check it at the end of the
day to see how far you’ve come and then prioritize again.
● In a similar way, check your weekly plan at the end of every week to plan the
following week.
Useful tactics
Regarding strategy and tactics, Sun Tzu wrote: “Strategy without tactics is the slowest
route to victory. Tactics without strategy are the noise before defeat.” We already know
what our strategy is, so now we are going to define tactics. A tactic is any activity, either
big or small, that is used to implement our strategy. You might employ a lot of different
tactics during your campaign in order to achieve your goals. Just make sure these fit
your strategy.
Some examples of tactics may be:
Letter Writing, Petitioning, Meeting with decision-makers, lobbying.
Be creative and think of more tactics you can use to implement your strategy!
A good way to remember this is the staircase analogy, where the stairs are the tactics,
the staircase the strategy and the goal is to get to the top of the staircase, or winning
your campaign.
Power Mapping
A power map will help you visualize who has influence or power over your target. When
creating a power map you’ll be able to identify strategies and tactics that will convince
your target to take the action that you want. By following these steps you’ll be able to
work smarter rather than harder, and to make connections between your targets and
influences.
Step 1: Determine your target
● Who has power to decide? Put this person in the middle of your map.
● You should always “put a face” to your target. It is easier to target a person than
a whole institution.
● Individual decision-makers are more encouraged to respond to actions targeted
at them directly.
Step 2: Identify the Influences on your target
● Make a list of all the influences of your target, including institutions and
individuals.
● Map everyone you can think about, even those who may seem powerless on
their own.
● Research! So you can identify donors or potential customers.
● Consider public influences such as media, voters or constituencies.
● Financial influences such as investors, consumers, campaign contributors.
● Personal: friends, religious groups.
Step 3: Look at the whole picture
● Divide your map in quadrants and place each “influencer” according to their
importance to the target and whether they are with or against you.
● Influence those against you and the important ones.
● Engage the neutral “influencers” to align with you.
Step 4: Use in your plan
● Evaluate your opposition’s access and where both of you have influences. In this
way you can better prepare.
● Contact people and institutions before contacting your target. In this way you can
have a good, influential message and isolate your opposition.
5. Is creative with marketing.
Managing Marketing
Thanks to today's opportunities and technologies, you don’t need to depend on
newsletters to deliver your message and campaign to the community. There are a lot of
different free platforms through which you can stay connected with your community. You
want to spread your message wide to get all the support you need and finally achieve
your goals, so be creative and use technology in your favor!
Media
Your media strategy should be focused on advancing your campaign and to attract
attention from people that may want to join you, or your target corporations, institutions
or individuals. Your media strategy should:
● Be strategic in selecting media to reach and measure outcomes.
● Save you and your team some time by helping to prioritize resources.
● Reach the right audience.
● And help you find media for when you best need them.
You can follow the “POST” framework to do media outreach for your campaign.
● P - People: You should understand your audience and how to target it.
● O - Objective: Your goals and objectives should be planned before you start
thinking which platform to use. Don’t forget to make them S.M.A.R.T. The
outcomes you can expect from media are reach, action, engagement or donation.
● S - Strategy: You should integrate media in specific and effective ways. This
includes engagement, listening, communicating and content. Also how you
integrate leadership and measure your results to prove impact.
● T - Technology: There are a lot of different channels so you need to decide which
makes better sense for you to use.
350.org has a great toolkit on Digital Storytelling that will help you showcase the story
you have already worked in in your social media. You can find it here.
6. Share your story, and lead by example
Now you have all the tools you need to build your team, develop leaders, communicate
with them, strategize efficiently and market your campaign, so you can now take the last
and final step. Share your story with others and inspire them to take action.
