Black Coffee Movement

photo by: Jean-Louis Zimmerman

Step one to planning is completing this SWOC Analysis as truthfully & honestly as possible. If we do not know the environment we are working in we can not accurately plan successful SMART goals, actions or tactics for a campaign or movement.

We’ve heard the saying: “to know where you’re going to need to know where you’ve been.” That statement is valid, but I’ll add - that to know where you’re going you need to know where you’ve been AND where you are! Since resources (time, money, and people) are limited we need to be intentional about the energy we exert.

The SWOC Analysis allows us to recognize if we are in a place to even plan for a campaign or build a movement. Sometimes the SWOC results in some internal work that needs to be completed, before we move forward with a campaign/movement. There is no right or wrong outcome to the SWOC Analysis, it is simply an assessment tool that gauges the preparedness of the campaign/movement.

The next step in this process is to develop some S.M.A.R.T. Goals, which will be covered in the next post in the Movement Building Series.

PART 1: INTRODUCTION & DEFINITIONS

Many people in our communities across the nation discuss and idealize about getting blacks in amerikkka organized. The term organizing is used often and interchangeably but I wanted shed some light on the differences between strategy, organizing, and mobilizing, how they work together, and present a methodology.

Strategy is perhaps the most important and vital of the three concepts, in respect the to the fact that organizing & mobilizing should be apart of a strategy. Strategy is not mutually exclusive. In order to move and have a successful strategy you must have good organizing and you also must be able to mobilize.

Before we go farther let me quickly define organizing and mobilizing:

Organizing is actually very simple it concept. It is building and maintaining strategic relationships with individuals, communities, and institutions. The complexity comes in actually carrying out the action of organizing - building & maintaining those relationships.

Mobilizing is also quite simple. It is maneuvering [or moving] the strategic relationships you have, from organizing, to complete some kind of action. The more energy you have put into maintaining the relationships from organizing, the greater the potential action people are willing to take.

For example, if you have put little energy into a relationship with an individual they may complete a small action [i.e. signing a petition]. However, if you have put a lot of energy into a relationship they are more likely to complete a larger or more consistent action [i.e. taking leadership in a campaign].

That said, it is possible to mobilize people without having a relationship with them - but it is not sustainable for the type of movement we’re building. Sometimes it is a cause that pulls a person in, but its the relationship that we have with the people, the community or organization that keeps them coming back and pushes them to take on more responsibility. Think about it like this: we are much more likely to complete things for people we know versus people we do not.

So, we’ve made the connection between organizing and mobilizing - how does strategy fit into all of this?

Strategy is basically designing a plan that addresses the following:

1. SWOC Analysis
2. S.M.A.R.T. Victory and Benchmark goals
3. Power Mapping
4. Strategizing: Who will do What to Whom When and for How Much?

I’ll break each of these pieces down in the following 5 weekly posts.