We use various methodologies in our trainings. Some are designed to present a framework to think about our organizations, others are to introduce and practice with strategy tools, others are workshops where most of the work is done by the participants to structure their groups or their strategy.
Currently we work in four areas: organization, strategy, actions and communication. (We also have some resources. Check here.)
Even though we have some training modules as starting points, virtually all our trainings are co-designed with the recipient group according to their context and needs.
Below are some tools and concepts we introduce in our trainings.
Organization
Groups struggle to recruit, consolidate and maintain their members while sustaining their efficacy. Under external pressure, we find ourselves in constant struggle to build internal capacity to strengthen our struggles.
Our basic organizational trainings address meeting facilitation, online meetings and evaluation processes for actions and events.
Our advanced organizational trainings include the ladder of engagement, the action learning cycle, direct training within an organization, leadership styles, RACI model for accountability and tools to delegate.
Strategy
Dealing with a volatile, uncertain, complex and ambiguous reality, our movements struggle to build strategies and have a collective learning process.
Our basic strategy trainings introduce concepts that we find essential for strategic activism, such as SWOT analysis, the spectrum of allies, framing and re-framing a narrative, points of intervention, action logic, pillars of support and SMART objectives.
Our advanced strategy trainings include tools like ecology of movements, theories of change, conflict escalation, scenario planning, setting strategic priorities, understanding movements and currents, revolutions and grand strategies, momentum-driven organizing and the cycle of momentum. These tools are generally presented within a longer training that can take between one day and one week.
Action
No one is born an expert in direct actions and the socioeconomic system we live in trains us to obey rather than to act. Groups that come to the conclusion that they need to take direct action may feel disempowered due to their lack of experience and possible political risks.
Our training modules can prepare groups for non-violent direct action, for actions of civil disobedience, and for mass actions.
Disclaimer: We do not give action trainings that do not prepare the participants for a specific action already designed by the group. We believe that the best action training is the action itself and that void action trainings create a false sensation of preparedness in the participants.
Communication
Our activism is useful only when others and the public know about them. We are not professional experts in communication but we come from a background of grassroots activism with some experience.
In our trainings, we help groups prepare media teams and media strategies for their organizations, campaigns or actions. We also explore various means of communication (eg. press work, social networks, photos, videos) and to what extent they are relevant for our activism.