60-seconds on: Spectrum of Allies and Action

Use your energy effectively

Merely educating people on what our enemies are doing is not enough, we need our own groups of activated people doing things to WIN. Our fiercest social enemies are virtually un-persuadable. But moderates might be convinced. And non-activated allies can be activated.

Therefore:

Apply your efforts to push the activated, activate the convinced, convince the moderates, and deactivate the opposition.

This concept is presented in the following graphic, known as the Spectrum of Allies:

(Credit: https://www.usipglobalcampus.org/ )

As you can see, each sector should be addressed with different tactics.

• People in the friendly and neutral Middle: Build connections, educate, and overcome fear of becoming an ally. Move them into being Passive Allies. Don’t do things with them that backfire and push them toward the opposition.

• Passive Allies: Move them toward action, by building solidarity, coordination, and making intelligent “risk-taking” more achievable. Move them into being Active Allies.

• Active Allies: Support their actions, increase solidarity within action movements, build group cohesion and coordination, and push for greater strategic/effective risk-taking so as to WIN.

• Opposition: To the extent you interact with Opposition, the goal is not to convince them they are wrong, but to arouse doubts, deactivate, cause group infighting, and discredit/weaken their leadership. Just shift them one step over. This alone will never make you win, but it can slow them down. (Note: This is what the organized opposition is trying to do to you).

USING THE TOOL:

• Pick an issue you want to win, and list where different people and groups are on the Spectrum.

• Select appropriate tactics for each group of people on the spectrum.

  • Various people on our side have different skills, appropriate for different areas of the spectrum.

“But what actions should we be taking when we try to get activated?” people ask me. In addition to election-strategy efforts or joining/supporting pre-existing groups (such as ADL, American Virtue, or the Big Family American Principles Project - which may not actually guide YOU to do anything) check out this one-page handout of community organization suggestions created during the 2020 shutdowns, and the USIP guide, both located here. Get creative, form a local group with specific action goals, become competent on the strategies and tactics of community organization, and start doing things.

In the next post, I’ll provide a tool for assessing the efficacy of community organizing tactics.

Please share this post with others. We’ve got work to do!