5 Pitfalls That Ruin Activism Groups
Why do so many political activism groups fail?
No matter what you’re into, what you believe, or what your passions and hobbies are, there’s a group somewhere for you. In fact, there are entire websites—many of them—devoted to helping you find them.
Political action groups, activists, whatever you call them, are no different. Whatever your politics are, there are public events where you can go show up with signs, banners, and the gear of your chosen cause to listen to speakers, demonstrate, protest, and network with other like-minded folks.
Political groups are like beef stew. Make it right, and it’s great. Make it wrong…and look out.
I like to tell people in my classes that designing and maintaining a group is like making the perfect stew. With the right ingredients, stew can be a hearty, filling meal. With the right spices, it can be taken to a whole new level. Throw in the wrong ingredient, however, and it’s ruined.
Groups are the same way. With the right people, skills, and personalities, a political, neighborhood preparedness or activist group can be a force of nature, getting things done and working toward a common goal. Throw in one bad apple, however, and suddenly you’ll have strife, dissent, drama, and ultimately a group that fails from the inside out—or gets taken down from external forces.
So what are the ‘bad ingredients’? How do seemingly solid groups keep failing? I’ve seen, worked with, and even been part of a number of political activism groups over the years, and there is a steady pattern of specific behaviors that will take down a group every time. Let’s take a look.
Pitfall: Quantity over quality.
Talk to almost anyone involved in a political group and ask what their goal for the next year is, and you’ll hear the word growth. More bodies. More members. More funding. MORE. The concept of being part of a movement seems to be far more attractive to the average political activist than being part of a group. Movements make change. Movements get momentum and attention and get stuff done. Try and explain that ten solid, trained, stable people are better than 100 random people who claim to be on board and you'll either get the deer in the headlights look, or you'll get a sermon so in favor of more people that you'll swear you're talking to Christopher Walken in the SNL skit, who just wants more cowbell.
That belief results in a push for recruitment above almost all else. Bring in those people we gotta get more. Some groups might do a public records check to make sure their prospect isn’t a registered sex offender or convicted killer or something, but even that small hoop to jump through is only done by a very small number of groups. Largely, the motto is simply “the more, the merrier.”
Should the group take on someone who turns out to be an addict, violent-tempered, or even a sociopath, the group just tries to deal with that as it comes. Reactive, not proactive. Of course, by the time anyone tries to handle the situation, the bad seed already has access to critical information or is even in a place of leadership.
The other, lesser-known effect of focusing on quantity means you’re too big to keep your members in the loop. When your leadership makes decisions about direction, actions, or other activities, not all members might be on board—but they didn’t get a say in it, and might not even know the decision was made until they’re suddenly lumped in for the outcome. That means it is absolutely possible for you to go to jail for being associated with something you didn't even know was occurring.
Fix: Do proper vetting. Focus on quality of personality, character, and skillset.
It is not possible to overstate the importance of a robust vetting system. If you want more information for your group about what that looks like, contact me. I’ll be talking about that more in future issues as well.
Pitfall: Deviating from stated goals, or having goals that are too vague.
The point of a group created for political activism or advocacy is to work toward a common goal. Whether that be fighting for a basic human right, lobbying against an unjust law or system, or just wanting to bring grievances to the public awareness, all members in the group have to be on board, like oars on boat all pulling in the same direction.
Once a group starts engaging in “mission creep,” effectiveness is decreased and forward motion eventually ceases. If your issue is food deserts, for instance, don’t decide that you also need to get involved in preaching against the evils of animal products. If your focus is local politics, don’t suddenly decide you need to go take on federal issues.
If the group has a vague, jingoistic goal to begin with, then effectiveness can’t even get off the ground because there’s no clear starting point, no answer to the question “where do we start?”
Many groups out there have goals like “take our country back,” or “fight for human rights,” “feed the hungry,” etc. Those aren’t goals, they’re slogans.
Fix: Pick a SMART goal and stick to it.
If you want an effective group, sit down and decide what your niche issue is, and put a laser focus on it. Your group cannot save the world. Stay in your niche and stay on track.
Pitfall: Ego.
We all get motivated by something, and that’s a topic I’ll dive into in great detail in future issues because it’s a vector for leveraging, predicting, and even steering behavior. But for today, I’ll simply say this, and it’s something you’ll hear often here:
Mission (or cause) first.
Not attention for you, not interviews, not notoriety, not being known as “the leader of…” and not getting what you perceive as clout.
In the last two decades, I have seen group after group fail because their leadership (or members) wanted more interviews, more press, more attention. They shrug off infiltrations, get involved in the mission creep, take on more issues that have nothing to do with the initial goals, and generally shift from leading or being part of a group to using it as their personal vehicle to get into—or back into—the spotlight.
Fix: Know your leadership. Don’t be in groups that are so big you cannot get in person face time with the people running it. Avoid groups with members who want to be stars.
Pitfall: Misunderstanding OPSEC.
We just got done talking about OPSEC, so I won’t belabor the point. Take a look at the following statements. Sound familiar?
There’s no point in OPSEC; they’re watching us anyway.
If you’re not on a list then you aren’t doing it right.
I’m not going to hide. They can come and try to get me if they want.
I’m not changing a thing.
Fix: If you have group members or leaders saying things like this, either get rid of them, or get out yourself.
Pitfall: Loyalty to personality instead of the cause itself.
Personality cults are a big problem. Everyone has their favorite speaker, group leader, activist, local politician, or other personality. Instead of gravitating to a core issue and working toward a goal, group members often get caught up in the person behind the issue. Once you decide, even subconsciously, that you’re following a person instead of working toward a cause, your group is no longer engaging in activism; now it’s just hero worship, which leaves you open to manipulation and worse.
About 7 years ago I talked to someone who was a huge fan of a state level politician. He was so enthralled, in fact, that he said, “If _________ ever says it’s time to lock and load, I’m there.” There was no discussion of his own research or thought process, no talk of what his own beliefs were or how he had done the mental work of deciding how far he would go for his cause. It was all about his perceived leader. That guy wasn’t an activist. He was a sycophant, and unfortunately that attitude is seen on every point of the political spectrum.
Fix: Know yourself. Know what YOU believe, and don’t settle for being someone else’s toadie.
There are many more pitfalls and we’ll talk about them later. This will get you started on the right track of doing some mental work about where you and your group are on the scale of effectiveness.
In the next issue we’ll start digging into motivation and why it’s such a useful tool to understand. Subscribe so you don’t miss out!