Current e-Journal

Try this
Step 1: Identify all the organizations who do similar work to you.
In some cases those may be groups who do exactly what you do. Or it may be groups who do that work slightly differently.

Perhaps yours is a secular organization, while theirs is faith-based.

Or perhaps your organization has a feminist or anti-racist core, while theirs is more mainstream.

Or maybe they have a more comprehensive program, and the work you do is just one small part of their work.

Whatever the differences, look for the similarities.

Step 2: What would it take for them to participate in your decisions / your work / your plans?
In the language of Catalytic Thinking, this part of the question is all about conditions for success. What needs to be in place for you to work together as ALLIES, rather than fighting each other as competitors?

• What would both groups (you and them) need to feel?
• What would you both need to believe?
• What would you both need to value?
• What would you both need to be assured of?

List all the answers you can for each of those questions. Then, for each of your answers, ask a further question:

• What would need to be in place for you both to feel that / believe that / value that / be assured of that?

As an example, let’s pick the elephant in the room: Funding. If one of your answers is that you need to be assured the other group will not “steal your donors / funders,” what would need to be in place for you to be assured of that?

• Perhaps you could commit to approach funders together, as a united front about your issue.
• Or perhaps you could share ideas together, deciding which group is most qualified to do which part of the idea.
• Or perhaps you could bring together the funders in your area, to create systems that stop the competition, once and for all.
• Or…?

In the business world, competition is part of the goal – to defeat the other guys and be the last soft drink or deodorant standing. The question they are answering is made for that battle: Who is your competition, and how are you different (better) than them?

In the world of social change, the goal is not about “winning” against other organizations. The goal is that our communities be healthy, vital, equitable places to live. And the only way we will achieve that goal is if we do so together. That question is therefore, “What do we have in common, and what would it take for us to work together towards our common goals?”

The more you consider what it would take to work together as allies, the more likely you are to turn that intention into reality.

We may be stuck in a system that is counterproductive for our goals, but we don’t have to go along with it. We can create systems that align behind the real goal – working as allies to create healthy, vital communities.

And in this current environment, we need all the allies we can get!

So let’s follow the questions of Catalytic Thinking, and link arms together to create the world we want – as allies.