2018 Goals

  • Shared analysis around long-term power building grounded in rigour
  • North Star for long-term power building inspired by radical hope
  • Lots of small movement wins and failures

See our draft 2020 Goals + Success for broader context.

Failure

Minimum

Target

Epic

Long-Term Power Building

Failure

Minimum

Clear visual artifacts for every core participant’s orgs indicating what long-term success looks like, how they think we’ll get there, what they’re doing now, and their biggest strategic questions.

Mapping of what core participants are doing and where.

Constantly updated map of key strategic questions.

Target

All core participants can articulate — at a high level and with minimal squirming — what success looks like for the other core participants, their beliefs as to how they’ll achieve success, and what they’re doing to get there.

Stake-in-the-ground, long-term, radically hopeful Vision, North Star, and secondary indicators based on rigorous analysis.

Core participants are citing Vision and North Star in their everyday work and organizational strategies.

The process (especially in first half of 2018) feels messy. Core participants express clear disagreement with each other and start working through that disagreement.

The process (especially in first half of 2018) feels hard. Core participants experience meetings where they struggle and walk away with more questions than answers.

The process feels nourishing, joyful and inspiring. Core participants are thinking bigger and feeling a greater sense of possibility. Their favorite meetings are with other core participants.

Shared vision based on shared analysis for how we want the left to be building, and pulling more centrist / bigger budget orgs toward that vision (developing the new common sense). [Note: Will work to make this more specific in early 2018.]

Epic

Core participants operating off of an aligned strategy.

Move $500 million (possibly philanthropic) into transformative local base-building and grassroots organizing — particularly opportunities to position working people in powerful bargaining relationships with capital.

Left political movement secures 2018 state races.

Redistricting.

Experiments (Jan-Mar 2018)

Failure

Nobody does them.

Nobody follows them.

Don’t learn anything. (All we learn is that people are too busy to do experiments.)

Minimum

10 people have participated in at least one experiment cycle.

Alignment around what we mean by experimentation and the muscles, mindsets, and capacities needed to do it well.

Target

Experiments engaged in are personally meaningful.

Participants document every aspect of their experiments using templates.

Epic

Experiments (Mar-Aug 2018)

Failure

Minimum

More precise (defined / in focus) definition of the problem we’re trying to address by experimenting that leads to new pathways of experimentation.

15 people have completed at least 4 experimentation cycles.

Target

10 people (3 orgs) integrate lessons learned from experiments directly into strategy and programs.

Peripheral participants following experiments, starting to familiarize themselves with tools, structures.

Epic

Experiments (Aug-Dec 2018)

Failure

Minimum

Run 25 explicit experiments with published lessons.

Target

Identified other pressing problems or opportunities to address, ideated possible solutions, and tested assumptions and solutions in rapid iterations.

All experiments are documented and lessons learned/reflections synthesized.

Epic

Network: Growth

Failure

Minimum

Northstar Network Design Team of at least 5 organizations.

7 organizations (at least two from each org, including ED) + other leaders actively learning and practicing together as part of Northstar Network.

Groups / leaders can find points of entry into “Northstar Network” space — with clarity of purpose and working agreements.

Target

10 organizations (at least two people from each org, including ED) + other leaders actively learning and practicing together as part of Northstar Network.

LIO leaders feel FOMO about not participating in Northstar Network!

Developed strategies for influencing the thinking and behavior of non-participating progressive organizations and philanthropy.

Growth beyond Leading from the Inside Out (LIO) and Art of Transformational Consulting (ATC) alumni.

Epic

Network: Capacity-Building

Failure

Minimum

Northstar Network Design Team of at least 8 organizations.

15 organizations (at least two from each org, including ED) + other leaders actively learning and practicing together as part of Northstar Network.

Groups / leaders can find points of entry into “Northstar Network” space — with clarity of purpose and working agreements.

Target

Core participants are pro-active about writing down, sharing their analysis with each other.

Core participants aren’t saying “more” in their goals and strategies. They’re saying how much more.

Core participants are bringing STP Team practices, frameworks, and tools back into their organizations.

Integrating the arts and story more intentionally into what we do.

Epic