Editing Strategizing (section)

=== Step 2: What is the problem? ===
Now we need to analyze the problem by asking three questions: ''What exactly is'' ''the problem we’re trying to solve? Why hasn’t it been solved? And what would it take to solve the problem?''

===== '''What is the problem?''' =====
What problem are our people facing? To be most effective as an organizer, we should seek to enable your people to change an intolerable circumstance. By focussing our efforts on solving a problem that is emotionally resonant with our community, we know that it is important enough to them to organize until they win.

In the Montgomery Bus Boycott example, the people were black residents of Montgomery, and their intolerable circumstance was a system of racist segregation policies.

===== Why hasn’t the problem been solved? =====
''Who has the resources to solve the problem? Why haven’t they used them to solve the problem? Do we know how to solve it, but just lack the necessary resources? Or do we need to first figure out how to solve the problem?''

It’s important to look at the history of this problem to understand what has been tried (if anything), what failed, and why.

===== What would it take to solve the problem? =====
If the problem were to go away, what would need to be different in the world? What would you have to build, who would you need to elect, what law would need to be changed, what program would need to be funded? As you start to answer this question, you’ll start to set your strategic goal.