Successful Organizing

June 29th, 2018

For any type of work, defining how to measure success is a critical undertaking. Clarity around success metrics helps us make decisions big and small.

Yet defining success is especially tricky if your work involves organizing people towards a common goal. Is achieving the goal—hitting the number, scoring the goal, passing the bill—the only metric that matters? What about the health of our community?

In his course “Organizing People Power and Change” at the Harvard Kennedy School, senior lecturer Marshall Ganz introduces a framework for successful organizing.

When is organizing successful? Ask:

1. Did we accomplish the goal?
2. Did our community grow stronger?
3. Did the individuals involved learn and grow?

This mix of success factors prevents us from ignoring adversely affecting our people in the pursuit of a goal or attaining goals without building capacity among those we serve.

Success demands achieving outcomes by developing others.