Trouble-shooting an Advocacy Campaign

“Strategy without tactics is the slowest path to victory, Tactics without strategy is just noise before defeat.” -Sun Tzu

A campaign marked with confused, ineffective, or start/stop tactics is not an invitation to try more tactics, it is a plea to spend more time on strategy. Solid strategy directs effective tactics, and the effectiveness of tactics can only be measured against a clear strategy. 

A sound set of strategies is central to developing an advocacy campaign, and it starts with a vision and a campaign goal. But while a campaign will also need structure to succeed, often a specific structure does not precede the campaign goal, but follows from it and the process by which a “grand vision” is refined into a campaign's strategic objectives and tactical outcomes.

This "grand vision" is often general, not always clearly defined, and often somewhat unitary (for example, it may include results that require state and federal intervention, different status lands, legislative and administrative solutions, etc.). Yet it still serves as a marker, and an ultimate resolution to the end sought. An example might be: “We need to protect this thing and have nothing happen to it that we don’t like, so we should make it off-limits to future harm.” 

Although itself non-distinct, it is from that “grand vision” that a specific campaign goal follows: What the campaign wants in this current effort. A campaign goal is usually described as a winnable, time-limited and specific result, often as: What (you want), when (you want it), and who (can deliver it to you). From this vision, a campaign must develop a specific, tangible campaign goal, and from that develop its strategies and tactics.

With a clear goal, as the more tangible expression of that generalized vision, the campaign then considers which approaches it will take to reach that goal, and what forces it will muster to get it there. In other words, a campaign now must discern which primary strategies the campaign will pursue to win in a manner aligned with its grand vision, and what types of tactics will build those strategies. 

A strategy is first described by its objective, and further defined by the sets of tactics, which are described as broad outcomes, that will achieve that objective. A strategic objective explains the overall result of a particular approach a campaign is taking, for example a communications strategy, which might have as its objective: “Wield clear and compelling opinion leader support for campaign goal, reinforce with VIP messaging and grassroots support, develop compelling, credible and consistent talking points and other content.” 

Tactical outcomes, which set the campaign up to transition into action, describe the results of the particular set of tactics deployed in service of a strategy. In the example of communications above, this might be something like “Wield opinion leader support: Schedule editorial board tour of the region to connect key opinion leaders with small, medium and major media outlets and bring the message that campaign goal is best.”

Of course, the campaign goal would be explicit or understood in each tactical outcome, but the outcome itself is measured against the strategic objective rather than against the campaign goal: Are these tactics supporting the communications objective?  Progress toward the campaign goal is evaluated by metrics, as the campaign reconciles its action aspects with its vision, and are the measurement of a campaign's tactical effectiveness.

These specific tactics, or the tasks and activities that accomplish tactical outcomes, are described in work-plans. A work-plan takes these outcomes as a guide, and then describes specific tasks and metrics to meet them. Who is doing what, when, and how much of it.

Metrics also are the step by which tactics check back in with strategy, and support the guidance function of accountability. At this stage, a campaign's actions are reconciled with its goal and vision. Metrics evaluate progression in moving toward the campaign goal. Metrics make sure work-plans align with, and that campaign action is in fact marching toward, that goal and ultimately toward manifesting the grand vision.

If properly configured, when your tactical outcomes line up you should reach your strategic objective. When enough and the right mix of your strategic objectives line up, you should have reached your campaign goal. 

Campaign guidance and operational functions

It is when the campaign is developing its strategic objectives and tactical outcomes that it should also be developing the structure that will steer and drive the campaign to its goal. Here it is important to consider the two primary guidance functions, which help guide a campaign: coordination and accountability. Coordination provides clear direction to shift vision into action. Accountability ensures the proper application of action toward the campaign goal, reconciling it with vision. 

There are also two primary operational functions, which help drive a campaign: Discernment and effective action. Discernment is a visioning function that bridges strategic and tactical vision, and allows the campaign to hold both a wide perspective and to maintain situational awareness. Effective action is what manifests when tactical action, which is adaptable, is paired with strategic action, which is steadfast.

These dynamics, created by the campaign's functions, can be understood as interaction among its four paired, and opposing, aspects, which are: Strategic and tactical vision, and tactical and strategic action. And that brings us back to Sun Tzu and the initial claim made in this essay: That a campaign plagued with ineffective action is not an invitation to keep doing more things, it is a sign to give more attention to understanding what the campaign is working to accomplish--in its overall goal, strategies, or in its tactical outcomes.

And the opposite is also the case: A well-thought out idea that still lacks its intended effect does not indicate, in many cases, the need for more great ideas, it is often a call for a better plan of action--more relevant work-plans, stronger accountability, etc.

Like guidance functions, operational functions can also help trouble-shoot a campaign. An emerging campaign that has a clear goal, strategies and objectives is still not necessarily ready to launch into action. And doing so might be skipping over a critical visioning step, where many campaigns stumble.

Discernment is the operational function that moves a campaign from strategic to tactical vision. This is when a campaign considers and develops its strategic objectives and its tactical outcomes. It is this step that sets the campaign up for success in moving from the visioning into the action aspects of the campaign by providing clear direction and coordination for the campaign to follow.

Trouble-shooting a stuck campaign

The primary functions of a campaign--discernment, coordination, effective action, and accountability--can provide insight when trouble-shooting a campaign. Take one that feels like a jumble of activity, without clear direction, that creates a lot of work, but does not yield desired results. That suggests a potential deficiency in two functions: coordination and effective action. And both of these deficiencies can suggest that more attention is needed in the visioning aspects of the campaign.

Guidance functions, like coordination, represent a progression between vision and action and action and vision (in the case of accountability). If there appears to be a deficiency in one of these places (coordination or accountability) the previous aspect that a guidance function is moving out of is an obvious place to look. In the case of a campaign that lacks direction, this means taking a closer look at tactical vision. Was the work done at that stage of the campaign to properly prepare for the next?

Spending too little attention working through the visioning function may actually show up initially in the campaign as an impression that things are finally getting started, but the results are little more than a confusion of activity. Without a clear articulation of tactical outcomes, skipping ahead to action is often unproductive.

At this stage--as the campaign is shifting from vision to action--the coordination function must be made explicit: How are decisions and "tough calls" made? And who is broadly responsible for making sure campaign outcomes are met, how, and by what mechanisms? And to do so, clear tactical outcomes must first be described.

Likewise, if trouble-shooting identifies a schedule full of work that is not yielding results, this might also point to deficiencies in the operational function of effective action. A campaign with lots of activity but no clear way to measure that against the campaign goal, is much less likely to have enduring strategic impact.

This deficiency can show up as poor or missing work-plans or the lack of meaningful metrics. It may create lots of tasks, even enough to feel like progress should be getting made, but still not produce needed outcomes. However, unlike with trouble-shooting a guidance function deficiency (i.e. coordination), when addressing an operational malfunction, we look first not to the prior aspect but to opposing ones.

The dynamics of a campaign, which drive and steer it through the interactions of its four paired aspects, also have a set of lesser functions (in addition to primary ones of discernment, coordination, effective action, and accountability).

Primary operational functions (discernment and effective action) rely on these lesser functions of their aspect-counterparts to perform optimally. These lesser functions ensure that action aspects are checked by vision, and that vision will benefit from "on-the-ground" information that flows from the action aspects.

Put differently, effective action (which is operational and of the action aspects) relies on lesser visioning functions of oversight and tuning, which keep the campaign on track and the activity relevant to the latest situation. These lesser steering functions provide real-time guidance and allow for adjustments to action.

The lesser action aspect functions (that support the visioning aspects) are ground-truthing (a guidance function), and feedback (operational). These cycle crucial action-oriented information and intelligence into the visioning aspects of the campaign.

And as a final point, these lesser functions often can provide direct clues about how a faltering campaign might get itself unstuck. But that will have to wait for the next essay.

Today’s lesson is: If you want to get to effective action, make sure you have first clearly discerned your vision.

This essay is developed from The Way of a Winning Campaign, a series of campaign workshops developed by Pete Kolbenschlag and Mountain West Strategies. Work may be republished with attribution. Visit our Linked In page to schedule an online workshop or to learn more.