7 Leadership Lessons from ACT UP

ACT UP is a grassroots political movement that emerged in the late 1980s to lobby government and industry leaders to more aggressively fight the AIDS virus. Their tactics caused controversy but proved to be quite effective. While ACT UP was a loosely organized, grassroots movement, it did benefit from some brilliant leadership from members of the gay community, like Larry Kramer. Here are seven leadership lessons from ACT UP.

1. They Chose a Great Name - ACT UP is an acronym for AIDS Coalition To Unleash Power. The long form of the name conveys what their team's mission was in a full way. The acronym conveys it in a much more concise way. It is also short and easy to remember.

2. Simple, Powerful Logo - ACT UP used simple imagery of a pink triangle with Silence=Death as the logo to develop a brand. The pink triangle had historical roots from its use to identify gay people in the badge system the Nazi's used in their concentration camps. That made it a provocative, powerful statement to evoke that history. The Silence=Death logo was brilliant in the concise way it both conveyed its mission and gave a clear call to action to others at once.

3. Targeted Hit in the Wallet - ACT UP targeted its protests in a smart way to inflict economic pain at specific targets they wanted to get a reaction from. They protested at least three different times at the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) on Wall Street. In one of those protests, they infiltrated the floor of the NYSE with a specific target of the company that made the drug AZT with a demand to lower the price.

4. Coordinated Communication - The day before their first protest on Wall Street, Larry Kramer published an op-ed piece in the New York Times listing specific demands they had. That made the purpose of their first protest more clear than they could do just with chants and signs at the protest itself.

5. Anticipating Press Coverage - ACT UP scheduled another of their protests to be at the main post office in New York on the tax filing deadline day. They knew that television crews often went to that post office to interview last minute tax filers. The reporters and camera crews covered the protest while they were here. They effectively hijacked another news story they had accurately predicted into a free press event for them.

6. Targeted Demands - ACT UP targeted some of their biggest protests at the headquarters of the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the National Institutes of Health (NIH). They targeted those agencies because they had the power to accelerate and prioritize the testing and rollout of drugs to fight AIDS. By showing up in such numbers at the right time as employees started arriving for work, they achieved maximum attention from the exact government officials they wanted to reach.

7. Focus on Collective Results, Not Individual Credit - The loose leadership structure of the ACT UP movement also meant that individual leaders did not hog the limelight. Individual egos were kept in check to focus on the overall goals. For example, the artists who created a lot of the material to communicate the purpose of ACT UP worked as an anonymous collective called Gran Fury instead of crediting their work as individuals.?

ACT UP's aggressive tactics offended many people, but they did generate the attention they were seeking for their targeted demands. And they ultimately had a positive impact on many people who eventually got effective drugs to fight AIDS and manage the HIV virus.

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About the Author: Victor Prince is a?corporate trainer,?executive coach, and an Amazon Top 20 best-selling leadership?author?who helps organizations build leadership, strategy, communications, and critical thinking?skills. Follow Victor on?LinkedIN?to access his 100+ articles on?leadership,?strategy,?learning & development, and more.