[Week 10 04/09/08:
I set the wake-up time on my campaign to a leisurely half-past Lawrence, because I made a conscious choice to ground my efforts in graduate school in a community where some people believe time stopped when all the mills closed. I lay my head on my pillow, full of hope that after the fall semester’s work, I’d be attune to the rhythm of change in that place. Then I sought out a stable/successful youth empowerment organization and a group of young constituents and leaders. I again thought I could easily step into the rhythm of their existing programs and add some capacity to take community change a step further than individual advancement. I set some personal milestones to complete a campaign, unknowingly trying to mimic the style of Gersick’s described as proactive, temporal pacing strategy.
BEEP. BEEP. BEEP. When that alarm of the first couple reflection papers went off, I rolled over and pressed the snooze button. I realized that I was still in the foundation phase of the campaign. Just showing up with questions about what they saw wrong with Lawrence were NOT effective strategic tactics. I had to interrupt the momentum of the weekly flow just to get a word in edgewise with the staff and to make the time to build relationships one-on-one with a few of the youth. But I also unknowingly ignored Chavez’s advice that non-violent change is based ACTION, not talking about action.
BEEP. BEEP. BEEP. This time, even though I was already wide-awake, thinking about the peak of my success with one-on-ones with the leadership team, I still pressed snooze again. Perhaps, we were edging toward a kickoff, because we had voted on a central issue to pursue and formed a collective story based on our shared values. But I had just started to ask for commitments (do your own one-on-ones, do some research on the local authorities, gather some local resources such as camera equipment). And they weren’t following through so maybe they need to think about action it a little while longer.
BEEP. BEEP. BEEP. Darn it. I had reset the alarm for the week before break, because I knew I’d be missing some time with them and I wanted to make sure they could continue the work without me. I hastily tried to incorporate some action planning and dispersed responsibilities, but they weren’t feeling the urgency of the looming end of my semester. I re-assigned some old commitments and vowed that action plans would be created the week I returned to get us closer to “THE” peak…
BEEP. BEEP. BEEP. I woke up from my deep dream of spring break to the stark realization that my main staff contact and some of my leadership team were away on a trip. And true to Gersick’s prediction, it was at the halfway point when I had to re-orientate my targets, timing and tactics. The team had met when I was away, brainstormed areas to document trash-filled alleys and public spaces, and distributed cameras amongst themselves. But only one camera had returned, with the comment “There’s a LOT of trash out there” and an overall lack of motivation for the project. Suddenly I realized I had been riding the circular curve of the organization’s timing, instead of drawing the straight arrow of action.
So I stopped facilitating brainstorming session for ideas and instead offered several action options. I also stopped waiting for other organizations to call me back and showed up at the doorstep of Groundworks, only to find out they did a study three years ago on trash on alleyways and had a clean-up scheduled on April 24th. They offered to give us a platform to announce the start of a petition to the City to follow-up on past promises to clean up the alleys. I reset the alarm clock, aiming for “THE” peak on the 24th. In fact, I programmed weekly milestones for the next five weeks into my own clock, then worked with a few members of the leadership team today to create specific action plans to do a petition and create a commercial spot to air at several upcoming community Earth Day events. They complained that they didn’t know what to do and weren’t qualified, but I said we’re going to work with what we’ve got and go for it anyway.
So after too many weeks of talking, they made me write out and sign a vow that today would be the last day of planning and the next five weeks would be only action, with a little bit of reflection/evaluation along the way. We’re jumping into some plans of action and I’ve disconnected the snooze button. I only hope that I’ve built up enough sleep to make it to the resolution and the celebration.
Related posts:
- About Yes We Will campaign in Lawrence MA [More info on a campaign that Lawrence CommunityWorks is devising to empower citizens to get involved in local political campaigns and citizen journalism - they...
- My Strategy is Candy [Week 4: 03/12/08] Why is my strategy like a Tootsie-Pop? My reflections this week will be both around my project’s strategy [candy shell] and my...
- One-On-One Leaps [Week 3 03/05/08]: He hesitated, then asked me why I was there. After thirty straight minutes of almost continuous talking about himself, in my last...
