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Organizing: People, Power, Change
Organizing: People, Power, Change is a handbook originally adapted from the work of Dr. Marshall Ganz of Harvard University and resources from the Leading Change Network and the New Organizing Institute. It aims to support you in developing your capacity for effective community organizing.
50 pages, Unknown Binding
Published January 1, 2014
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
July 26, 2026
read for the trans justice organising fellowship - a really great intro/overview to organising!
chapter 1: introduction tor organising
- leadership = responsibility for enabling others
- organising is leadership that enables people to turn the resources they have into the power they need to make the change they want
- organising is a practice - you learn to organise by organising
- ‘organising is a fancy word for relationship-building’
chapter 2: story-telling
- story telling isn’t just big speeches - but also 1:1 and small conversations
- ‘some emotions inhibit action, while other emotions facilitate action’ e.g., apathy v anger, fear v hope, isolation v solidarity
chapter 3: building relationships
- relationship-building: not jut about creating new ones, but maintaining and building existing ones
- ‘never apologise for asking: organising is an opportunity not a favour’ - people often want to help but don’t know how - so ensure your ask is specific
- full-time = can maintain 10 relationships
chapter 4: coaching: enabling others
- coaching is about enabling others to find their own solutions (something i am not good at lol)
- is the challenge to do with head (strategy), heart (motivation), or hands (skills)
chapter 6: strategising
- ‘strategy is a verb, and is an ongoing process. strategy is something we do, not something we have’
- ‘no one strategic goal can solve everything’
- theory of change: ‘if you can’t write your strategy out in a sentence that makes sense, then it probably won’t work’
chapter 7: acting: tactics + timeline
- ‘beware of peaking too early - often, campaigns accidentally peak at the kickoff’
- ‘campaigns are either won or lost. only by risking failure do we make the kind of commitments to make success possible’
- when we win, don’t ‘forget to learn why we won, what we did right or wrong, and recognise those who contributed’
chapter 1: introduction tor organising
- leadership = responsibility for enabling others
- organising is leadership that enables people to turn the resources they have into the power they need to make the change they want
- organising is a practice - you learn to organise by organising
- ‘organising is a fancy word for relationship-building’
chapter 2: story-telling
- story telling isn’t just big speeches - but also 1:1 and small conversations
- ‘some emotions inhibit action, while other emotions facilitate action’ e.g., apathy v anger, fear v hope, isolation v solidarity
chapter 3: building relationships
- relationship-building: not jut about creating new ones, but maintaining and building existing ones
- ‘never apologise for asking: organising is an opportunity not a favour’ - people often want to help but don’t know how - so ensure your ask is specific
- full-time = can maintain 10 relationships
chapter 4: coaching: enabling others
- coaching is about enabling others to find their own solutions (something i am not good at lol)
- is the challenge to do with head (strategy), heart (motivation), or hands (skills)
chapter 6: strategising
- ‘strategy is a verb, and is an ongoing process. strategy is something we do, not something we have’
- ‘no one strategic goal can solve everything’
- theory of change: ‘if you can’t write your strategy out in a sentence that makes sense, then it probably won’t work’
chapter 7: acting: tactics + timeline
- ‘beware of peaking too early - often, campaigns accidentally peak at the kickoff’
- ‘campaigns are either won or lost. only by risking failure do we make the kind of commitments to make success possible’
- when we win, don’t ‘forget to learn why we won, what we did right or wrong, and recognise those who contributed’
June 17, 2021
Essential to anybody interested in community organizing.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews