Spectrum allies exercise
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Name: Spectrum of allies
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Time: Minimum 30 minutes
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Goal or purpose of the exercise
- To help in realizing that tactics need to be planned in relation to how much they do or don't attract key allies
- To invite people into the fascinating complexity of strategizing.
- To encourage more optimistic mobilization efforts through a realization that it is not necessary to win over the opposition to our point of view.
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How it's done
- Use newsprint to describe the idea that in most social change situations there is a struggle between those who want the change and those who don't.
- Those who want the change are represented by a point at one side of the sheet (say, on the left), and the opponents by a point at the other side.
- Explain that societies (or towns, or states) usually include a range of groups that can be put on a kind of spectrum from closest to the point of view of the advocates to farthest away, and draw a horizontal line to represent that.
- Then draw a half-moon or half a pie with wedges.
- Ask for an example of an issue that people in the group might be working on. Suggest a demand we might have and ask who in society might be inclined to be most supportive, least supportive, and in the middle. Give examples: "unions?" "poor people's groups?" "Chamber of Commerce?" etc. As participants identify groups and their location on the spectrum, write them into the "pie." Do this only enough to make the idea clear.
- Give the good news: in most social change campaigns it is not necessary to win the opponent to your point of view, even if the powerholders are the opponent. It is only necessary to move some or all of the pie wedges one step in your direction.
- Pause to let the idea sink in and make sure it is understood.
- If we shift each wedge one step, we are likely to win, even though the hardliners on the other side don't budge.
