Editing Strategizing (section)

=== Three Faces of Power ===
When strategizing, we can think about 3 distinct ways in which we can bring about change: direct political involvement, structural changes, and shifts in worldviews. Ideally, we can set goals and theories of change that work on all three faces of power simultaneously.

===== Decision: Direct Political Involvement =====
With direct political involvement, we work to influence decisions within the systems and structures that are already in place. This type of strategy buys time for the long-term change that is desired, and is often (though not always) insufficient to bring about sustained change. It can involve direct actions like civil disobedience, boycotts, blockades, and other forms of refusal. It can also involve trying to impact elections, change laws, and affect political and economic decisions. For example, a campaign working for the rights of transgender people might work to develop trans-inclusion policies at local school boards or city councils.

===== Structures: Structural Change =====
Structural change involves shifting the structures that are preventing change from occurring by actively building capacity in the organizations, groups and communities that are working towards the desired change, and shifting control over the structures working against our interests. It involves building up a sustained membership, organizing people for collective action, and developing leaders who can guide these organizations through the desired change. For example, a campaign working for the rights of transgender people might work to develop a lobby group for trans rights or identify trans leaders to run for public office themselves in order to develop power structures to advocate for their community in the long term.

===== Systems: Shifts in Worldviews =====
By shifting worldviews, the oppressive values that lead to injustice are changed, while the values that will allow change to survive are developed. In order to develop these values, we draw upon existing cultural beliefs, norms, traditions, histories and practices that shape political meaning. We can do this by taking the values and stories of the change we are trying to create, and connecting those to the values and stories of the people whose worldview we are trying to shift. In this way, telling compelling stories is key to many strategies trying to shift worldviews. For example, a campaign working for rights of transgender people might share stories of the oppression experienced by trans people in public spaces and the media in order to shift the worldviews and values of decision makers and the general public.

===== Challenging All Three Faces of Power =====
When setting strategic goals and theories of change, we can challenge systems, structures and key decisions simultaneously. In the Montgomery Bus Boycott, the organizers created tangible change for their community by engaging in direct action (a boycott) to desegregate the buses. They shifted structures by building capacity in the black community in Montgomery, developing leaders, and creating new organizations to fight segregation more broadly. And they dragged systemic racism into view by creating a conflict in the other two faces of power, which allowed them to raise awareness of how systemic racism was unacceptably rooted in their community.

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===== Goal and Theory of Change: Chicken and Egg =====
You can’t know what your theory of change is until you know what goal you are trying to achieve. And sometimes you don’t want to set a goal until you have a sense of what theories of change you stand a chance of succeeding at. As you develop your goal you can have an eye to what’s possible, and as you develop your theory of change you may go back and revise your goal based on your best path to success.
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