Coming Soon: “Keep It Simple” Workshop

The organizer’s job is to make the complicated simple. There's been a tendency lately to do the opposite. Here's a chance to reset.

In late February, we’ll be releasing a little book, the Fundamentals of Community Organizing. In it I name three dozen fundamentals of the craft that have been the most essential for me. One of those is “Make the Complicated Simple.”

There’s been a tendency lately to do the opposite – to make the simple, complicated. To lead with words – both technical and ideological - that leave lots of people scratching their head, wondering if they attended the right meeting. If the people we are trying to organize have to Google what we are saying, we are in deep shit. 

That’s why, next month we’ll be “premiering” a ninety-minute, “Keep it Simple” workshop to help organizers return to language that invites more, not less, people in.

The workshop will take place over Zoom on Wednesday, February 28 from 11am-12:30pm Central Time.

Here’s what we’ll cover:

·       Getting clear on your “who”: Much of today’s organizing language caters to highly-educated progressives. If that is not who you want to organize, hit the reset button, and get clear on who the organization wants as its future members.

·       Review your current language: What about your current language creates barriers for people you want to organize? What’s preventing you from making changes? Is your current language for philanthropy, the staff of the organization, to win approval from allies? Or, is it for working-class members, both present and future?

·       A return to common sense language: Here we go through examples of how to take academic ideas and technical terms and bring them back into language that still communicates the essence of the idea.

·       Toss the bathwater; save the baby: There will be heady words and concepts that your organization will want to keep. They provide a precision and analysis that is essential for more people to get. We’ll discuss how you introduce those, with no assumptions that people should know them, or judgement if they don’t.

Who should apply?

1. People who are organizing working class people who are not already “in the know” progressives, but just need to win some justice.

2. Organizers and communicators who have picked up the insider speak of the non-profit progressive sector and want to reset.

3. Executive Directors and communicators in organizing shops who have the challenging job of communicating to many audiences: the current base, the future base, philanthropy, allies, media, etc.

Application Process
Apply by filling out this form.

If you are on our training wait-list, or have applied and not been accepted to past trainings we have offered, please know we have been overwhelmed by the number of applicants and are growing our team to meet the demand. We encourage you to apply to this workshop!

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