Big policy ideas are having a moment. Proposals like Medicare for All, the Green New Deal, $15 minimum wage, a wealth tax have captured the attention...
Continue reading...Decision Paralysis Wastes Time And Money. Here’s How to Avoid it.
Making decisions is a core part of a manager’s role, and in a knowledge-based organization core to everyone’s role. For advocacy organizations the choices vary widely...
Continue reading...Book Review: Rules for Revolutionaries
Senator Bernie Sanders 2016 presidential campaign initially had limited extremely limited resources beyond the four earliest primary states of IA, NH, SC, and NV. The campaign...
Continue reading...The Four Types of Political Influence
Advocacy organizations use a wide variety of tactics and strategies to shape the political process. Almost everything, however, boils down to one of four different types...
Continue reading...How to Set Goals for Policy Advocacy
Setting goals for policy change may be one of the most difficult parts of working in an advocacy organization. If you’re like many policy, advocacy, or...
Continue reading...Why Funder Education Is Not a Quick Fix
Many advocacy or nonprofit employees will recognize this scenario. Several staff are sitting around a table discussing future strategy. Inevitably, someone comes up with a great...
Continue reading...Is your organization siloed? Of course it is. The better question is how?
You’ve heard this before. Someone speaks up in a meeting, lamenting the fact that the organization is siloed and uncoordinated, and that we need to work...
Continue reading...Five Ways to Promote Great Individual Contributors Who Make Bad Managers
Most managers are familiar with the following story: promoting a great individual contributor into a management role, only to watch them stumble. The person who excelled...
Continue reading...Policy and Political Organizations Are Often Poorly Run. Here Are Three Reasons Why
Horror stories abound of poorly managed think tanks, political offices, and advocacy nonprofits. While I don’t have hard evidence that management at these organizations is systematically...
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