Tying It All Together

This guide has provided an introduction to organizing as leadership that enables people to turn the resources they have into the power they need to make the change they want. We’ve also outlined the five key leadership practices – telling stories, building relationships, structuring teams, strategizing, and taking action – that together, make up a framework for effective community organizing.

We practice telling stories, building relationships, and structuring teams to build power in our organizing. Telling stories communicates our shared values and motivates others to take action. Telling stories also connects us to one another and is key in building strong relationships. In building relationships, we secure commitment from our communities and grow and sustain a campaign. In turn, relationships are the glue that bind effective teams together, and we structure teams so that we can work together in a sustainable and empowering way.

We strategize and act to wield power in organizing. We devise strategies in response to intolerable circumstances our communities face, and our strategies becomes our blueprints for making change. We implement our strategy by taking action via tactics and, subsequently, deepen our relationships, strengthen our teams, and develop shared stories in the process.

By tying all these practices together in our organizing, we embody leadership as accepting responsibility for enabling others to achieve purpose. In so doing, hopefully, we achieve the change we want and develop leaders capable of creating more positive change in the future.