Using Power Analysis to Identify Tech Tactics for Social Justice Campaign Strategies

Always start this exercise with a discussion of what is a campaign - to be clear your participants understand what it is:

Step 1 List your stakeholders on post-its, these are the types of people that will be either impacted or involved in your campaign

Step 2 - The half wheel of tactics Put the post-its on a half wheel divided into three quadrants - Allies, Neutral Parties, and Opponents. This starts to give you an idea of the types of tactics you need to use in the campaign - Allies - mobilisation tactics - these are the people that you need to get into action. - Neutral parties, education tactics - you need to make 'em allies aactics that make use of evidence that can discredit them. - Opponents - Countering Tactics - discredit or prove wrong - often these kinds of tactics involve conveying details and strong evidence in compelling ways

Step 3 - The power analysis pyramid Start this section with a discussion about what is power - who has the power to make the change you want to see happen. This might be a head of a committee within a legislative body or a government minister or the head of a company. Put the post-its in a pyramid, with the stakeholders that have the power to make the change at the top - then having the stakeholders that have direct influence on the change makers directly below them and so on until you've arranged all the post its. The pyramid then shows you what kinds of tactics you need to prioritise in your campaign.

You might do this exercise routinely during a campaign to evaluate how your stakeholders are changing.