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Activist and Professor Marshall Ganz addressed the Summit about effective organizing.
Photo by T.E. Lesle

by Timothy Lesle
Working Smart Session
Marshall Ganz, What Affects Grassroots Effectiveness

Marshall Ganz got his first taste of organizing during the Freedom Summer of 1964 when, as a Harvard undergrad, he registered black voters in Mississippi. He was so inspired that he has been organizing ever since, including more than 15 years with Cesar Chavez and the United Farm Workers. In 1991, he returned to Harvard—to finish his undergraduate degree. Now, with a doctorate and an appointment to Harvard’s faculty, Ganz has brought his wealth of experience, along with a rigorous study of what makes organizations work, what doesn’t, and what makes them better, to the Sierra Club.

The Sierra Summit was born at a Board of Directors meeting to which Ganz was invited. He said that every successful social movement and organization has nationwide conventions so that members can meet each other, learn about their work, and come away energized. We saw this in action over the weekend, and Ganz held an overflowing audience of Summit delegates spellbound as he animatedly shared his personal experiences, his views of the Club, and advice for the future.

The problem Ganz and others found in the South in 1964 was an inequality of power: African-Americans had little or no economic or political power. Grassroots organizing is about building power, and to do that, he said, you must start in your community. Many communities lack power, but have resources—the trick is to turn these resources into power by bringing people together. He pointed to the Montgomery bus boycott as a perfect example. Referring to a united population, Ganz said “we have an obligation to turn that precious resource into power.” Recognizing your community and identifying its resources are two key elements of grassroots organizing. In many ways, Ganz’s work takes elements of business effectiveness and applies them to advocacy organizations (and he said many business school professors would love to pursue this direction and have a direct impact on society). But a key difference, he noted, is that businesses want to reach their goals with as few people as possible, while organizing and advocacy groups endeavor to reach their goals with as many people involved as possible. He added that community can be defined at any level: neighborhood, town, state, region, and country.

A third element of a successful grassroots program is leadership. Ganz counseled participants to remember that “leadership is a craft that is learned,” and that includes learning from mistakes. He added that “the closer the reflection is to the action, the faster the learning.” When he worked with the national grape boycott of 1965, he found vastly different results in 43 cities, and the key factor in whether the boycott succeeded locally was the leadership on the ground. He also pointed to organizations like churches and the Sierra Club as being “schools” for local leadership.

As a result of the study (available online to Clubhouse activists) carried out by Ganz and his students, he said that every Sierra Club chapter and group has a committed set of core activists who invest their time and energy into committees and organize activities. He also said that new participants are attracted by local Club activities. An important question is how to engage those new participants and turn them into core activists. The one effort that stands out most in successfully engaging these people and prompting them to take active roles in their chapter or group are new member meetings. Personally meeting and creating relationships with new members makes them more likely to become an activist. Relatively few chapters and groups hold these meetings, so Ganz encourages more across the country. Furthermore, he encourages coaching and mentoring interactions between veteran and new members.

Ganz ended by reciting the parable of David and Goliath as demonstrating the vital necessity of strategic imagination. The story as he sees it teaches the importance of three aspects of organizing:

1. The first thing you need before you can create a good strategy is a firm commitment.
2. You need to recognize and understand the key resources you possess. Build a strategy on your strengths.
3. You need imagination to lay out your strategy and use your strengths in the most effective way.

-- 09/11/2005 Sun
9pm