There are some organizations that just get it, when it comes to advocacy. Everyone is into it. They share ideas, collaborate on campaigns, debate policy at staff meetings, talk strategy over chips and salsa at the monthly staff birthday parties…it’s just ‘what we do’.
And then there are the organizations that stifle any revolutionary thought, cling fervently to the status quo, punish dissidents, and appease opponents.
When social workers who belong in the latter organization land in the former, they usually quit, or are politicized. When social workers who belong in the former land in the latter, they are usually demoted, subtly harrassed, or fired.
But my work with nonprofit organizations has taught me that there are also organizations that look more like the latter, status quo-supporter but want to be more like the former (or, at least, some influential elements within them do). They have stuttering efforts to move in that direction but find themselves fighting resistance at every turn. Or, they give lip service to advocacy but then freak out when people start asking hard questions. Burned, these would-be advocates give up or get out.
What the organizations that succeed in advocacy have, I believe, that the others do not, is not superior technical knowledge (although they may have accumulated that) or abundant passion (because people can, in fact, be very passionate about their resistant to advocacy–trust me!), but, instead, a culture of advocacy.
I’ve only officially taught organizational culture in an Introduction to Community and Organizational Practice class that I haven’t taught in two years, but I find myself working some content on it into every course, because students are hungry for it. Social workers almost always have to work in organizations, and knowing why those organizations do the things, collectively, that they do, helps to make working within them much more pleasant and much more successful.
Edgar Schein is one of the authors I use most in these conversations in class. He defines organizational culture as “a pattern of shared basic assumptions that the group learned as it solved its problems that has worked well enough to be considered valid and is passed on to new members as the correct way to perceive, think, and feel in relation to those problems.”
That definition helps to explain how advocacy can become an imbedded part of how an organization, and, of course, its members, view advocacy; it becomes seen as a/the valid way to address shared problems, so that it is then the tool to which people turn when confronting challenges, rather than something to be feared and avoided.
But how can people within organizations build an advocacy culture, if their organization currently lacks one? I’m not an organizational theory expert, certainly, but I’ve worked in organizations with and without cultures of advocacy, and I’ve done a lot of thinking about what sets them apart. I’d love to see more theoretical work on the elements of organizational functioning that can pull together a coherent culture of advocacy. In the meantime, here are some of my thoughts on what organizational leaders can do to promote one.
Be okay, really okay, with dissent. I was very lucky one time to have a boss who was really fine with me disagreeing with him, as long as I could make a compelling case for my point of view. On more than a few occasions, he conceded significant points. In the process, he demonstrated his confidence, earned my respect, and, most importantly for the organization’s advocacy, honed my skills. It was a priceless education that only a great leader can give.
Help people to know their own power. Seek out and truly incorporate the opinions of colleagues/employees/volunteers. We all know the difference between the structure of participatory decision-making and actual influence; don’t bother with the former but cultivate as much of the latter as possible. You can’t expect people to agitate for change outside your organization if they’re not allowed any chance within it.
Ask unanswerable questions. I firmly believe that our society would be a whole lot more just if we all asked, “why?” and “why not?” as much as my three-year-old. As a leader in your organization, ask why things are the way that they are, why we can’t do things differently, why people experience the problems they do. Make it clear that you don’t expect easy answers; here, the value is in asking the questions.
Learn together. The best advocacy organizations have a fervent desire to know more, to heighten their understanding, to increase the sophistication of their policy and political analyses. They seek this knowledge not because it gives them a competitive edge or because they think it’s what the donors expect, but because they really want to know. Bring in articles to discuss, use social media to share links, set a learning agenda together.
Seek a fundraising and organizational structure that supports advocacy. The greatest advocacy culture in the world will be stifled by a funding picture that forbids any advocacy, or by an organizational structure that only allows one person to interface with those outside the organization. Make yourself a designated ‘barrier remover’; find those elements of the organization that currently inhibit advocacy and find ways over, around, and through them.
Reward risk-taking. When people in the organization do advocate, organize their clients, practice radical social work–celebrate them! This doesn’t mean financial compensation at all or even formal awards; one of my most valuable rewards from El Centro, Inc. was when our then-Executive Director sent out an email congratulating our team on the work and adding that I was now one of his heroes. I saved it for three years on my computer and printed it out when I left.
What did I leave out? What actions have shaped an advocacy culture at organizations where you’ve worked/been a Board member/volunteered/received services? What actions have squelched that same culture? As a nonprofit leader, what do you do to encourage advocacy? How would you define the culture where you work now? In what ways does it promote or inhibit advocacy?
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Advocacy and Organizational Culture
There are some organizations that just get it, when it comes to advocacy. Everyone is into it. They share ideas, collaborate on campaigns, debate policy at staff meetings, talk strategy over chips and salsa at the monthly staff birthday parties…it’s just ‘what we do’.
And then there are the organizations that stifle any revolutionary thought, cling fervently to the status quo, punish dissidents, and appease opponents.
When social workers who belong in the latter organization land in the former, they usually quit, or are politicized. When social workers who belong in the former land in the latter, they are usually demoted, subtly harrassed, or fired.
But my work with nonprofit organizations has taught me that there are also organizations that look more like the latter, status quo-supporter but want to be more like the former (or, at least, some influential elements within them do). They have stuttering efforts to move in that direction but find themselves fighting resistance at every turn. Or, they give lip service to advocacy but then freak out when people start asking hard questions. Burned, these would-be advocates give up or get out.
What the organizations that succeed in advocacy have, I believe, that the others do not, is not superior technical knowledge (although they may have accumulated that) or abundant passion (because people can, in fact, be very passionate about their resistant to advocacy–trust me!), but, instead, a culture of advocacy.
I’ve only officially taught organizational culture in an Introduction to Community and Organizational Practice class that I haven’t taught in two years, but I find myself working some content on it into every course, because students are hungry for it. Social workers almost always have to work in organizations, and knowing why those organizations do the things, collectively, that they do, helps to make working within them much more pleasant and much more successful.
Edgar Schein is one of the authors I use most in these conversations in class. He defines organizational culture as “a pattern of shared basic assumptions that the group learned as it solved its problems that has worked well enough to be considered valid and is passed on to new members as the correct way to perceive, think, and feel in relation to those problems.”
That definition helps to explain how advocacy can become an imbedded part of how an organization, and, of course, its members, view advocacy; it becomes seen as a/the valid way to address shared problems, so that it is then the tool to which people turn when confronting challenges, rather than something to be feared and avoided.
But how can people within organizations build an advocacy culture, if their organization currently lacks one? I’m not an organizational theory expert, certainly, but I’ve worked in organizations with and without cultures of advocacy, and I’ve done a lot of thinking about what sets them apart. I’d love to see more theoretical work on the elements of organizational functioning that can pull together a coherent culture of advocacy. In the meantime, here are some of my thoughts on what organizational leaders can do to promote one.
What did I leave out? What actions have shaped an advocacy culture at organizations where you’ve worked/been a Board member/volunteered/received services? What actions have squelched that same culture? As a nonprofit leader, what do you do to encourage advocacy? How would you define the culture where you work now? In what ways does it promote or inhibit advocacy?
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