Practice #1
Anchor Your Purpose
Ensure the organizational purpose is clear, motivating, and aligned with the material needs of your membership. Purpose is the other side of the belonging coin. According to the Wildfire Project, people come to social movement organizations seeking to fulfill two key drives: purpose (making an impact in the world), and belonging (feeling part of something bigger). These drives are what guide and motivate peoples actions.
Having a sharp purpose to anchor our political vehicle is what makes an organization an organization. Across the organization, people need to understand how their work contributes to the whole. Staff, members, and volunteers should be able to think critically about how they connect to the purpose and engage in ongoing action towards it–even when there is disagreement along the way.
Risk
When we deemphasize our organizational purpose in order to keep the peace or avoid conflict (under the guise of building belonging), it can take a toll on the day to day functions of our work and ultimately demotivate our members.
If our purpose is easily swayed, ungrounded, or unactionable, there is no central force for people to belong to. People may forget why they come together to do the often difficult and strenuous work of social change. They may invest energy into work with no outcome, or pour their efforts into never ending processes. When that work becomes too hard or uncomfortable, they will leave. Aimlessness is often demoralizing and discouraging.
Without having a purpose to belong to, people can stake their belonging in other things, such as individual feelings, isolated conflicts, or recurring trauma.
In Healthy Group Accountability, Michael Strom and Joshua Kahn Russell speak to the impact of following-through on our purpose: “Sometimes we imagine that believing in the group is what drives action, that if the mission and vision are compelling enough, people will reliably participate. But it can actually work the other way around: when a group does what it says it will do, members often come to believe its vision and mission are possible and worthwhile.”
Opportunity
When we effectively create and sustain a motivating purpose, we create a grounding force that anchors people during times of confusion or distress.
More than building an individual sense of belonging, working towards a larger purpose can create a resilient collective identity that is willing to engage in a long-term power struggle. Beyond the limits of individual identity, collective identity brings people together with the understanding that we struggle together towards a common goal. It contextualizes our relations and drives our work.
Challenge
Each person in our organizations will contribute to the purpose in different ways. We must encourage people to get in where they fit in–supporting people to identify the role that allows them to draw from personal strengths, grow their capacities, and carry out said purpose.
To do this, we have to effectively organize. In the spirit of Marta Harnecker, “convince, not impose.” Without relying on dogma, there should be appropriate time given to training staff and members in the underlying ideology and history that led to the purpose.
Assessment Questions
Can members of the organization state the purpose of the work in their own words? Are they able to articulate their role in moving that purpose forward?
Can people identify what isn’t in the realm of the organization’s purpose, as well as what’s in it? Do people understand what issues and people sit at the center of the organization?
Are there opportunities to learn the lineage of the organizational purpose, discuss how it manifests in the work, and debate and refine it where appropriate?
Implementation
Clarify the organization’s purpose and trace the lineage that brought you to this moment. Encourage staff and members to situate themselves as part of this lineage.
Map different avenues towards contributing to the purpose. Provide space for people to see how their protagonism moves the purpose forward. Evaluate how members see their own impact and provide opportunities to strengthen that impact.
Build consistent social units that help new members connect as humans and go on the ‘journey’ of connecting to purpose together. These units, such as membership cohorts, neighborhood groups, or buddy systems, can support people to build relationships, reflect on the impact of their actions, and share stories.
Practice managing the potential discomfort of prioritizing purpose, even when everyone’s individual wishes may not be met.
Without falling into liberal traps of disposability, develop strategies for meaningfully and compassionately parting ways with people if there are irreconcilable disagreements with the fundamental purpose.
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