Tag Archives: AEIOU

Educate and the 1-on-1

[This post is part of a series on 1-on-1 organizing conversations. If not familiar, please read the intro post as it describes the basic definition of “educate” and how it fits into AEIOU (agitate-educate-inoculate-organize-uplift), which the writing below builds on.]

Intro

If you want to solve a problem in your workplace that you’ve discussed in the agitate step of AEIOU, you need a plan. The educate step of AEIOU is about how to make a plan in talking with a coworker.

Sometimes my writings on this blog are meant to be succinct and hit home a point in a punchy way. Sometimes my writings, as in this post, are messier and more tedious as I wrestle with problems that I haven’t mastered yet, and I want to get my hands dirty.

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Organizing Is Not about Getting People to Agree with Radical Ideas

[This post is part of a series on 1-on-1 organizing conversations.]

Intro

There is one misconception in organizing, especially workplace organizing, that is responsible for more confusion and dead ends than any other. It manifests itself in many ways, but it boils down to this: “The way I was radicalized and got involved in organizing is the way everyone is radicalized and gets involved in organizing.”

Most commonly, people new to organizing and radical politics try to show others their own new ideas, when really those same ideas will refract very differently depending on others’ very different experiences. Most often, people don’t immediately cling to the ideas you cling to. This often leads new organizers to become exasperated and confused, “Why does no one else get radicalized when I show them the things that radicalized me?”

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Agitation and the 1-on-1

[This post is part of a series on 1-on-1 organizing conversations. Check out the intro post here to see how agitation is defined. The below post is an exploration of ideas based on that definition and framework.]

Intro

Agitation in organizing is the spark that creates the wildfire. Like in all parts of life, our emotions lead, our thoughts agree, and then our behavior follows. In part AEIOU is about channeling this natural progression of human action.

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Species of 1-on-1s

[This post is part of a series on 1-on-1 organizing conversations.]

Intro

There are many different kinds of 1-on-1 organizing conversations.

In the previous and first post in this series, I introduced the AEIOU (agitate-educate-inoculate-organize-uplift) framework and showed how to use it in the context of meeting up with a coworker for the first time who has a grievance that they may want to take action on. In many ways, that’s the most important kind of 1-on-1 because it’s where we first connect our social relationship with someone to a shared political project based on shared circumstances. I’ll call it the “initial coworker 1-on-1”.

When someone finishes an organizer training for the first time they learn how to do that kind of 1-on-1 but such trainings typically include little guidance about how to apply AEIOU and 1-on-1s in other ways. However, organizing involves an unlimited variety of circumstances and as the primary tool of relating deeply to people (and thus of organizing) we need to be able to respond with an unlimited variety of 1-on-1s to meet our needs as organizers. I submit that AEIOU still applies in part or in whole to most of these kinds of 1-on-1s but you do have to be keenly aware of the needs of the moment to know how to use AEIOU in a wide range of situations.

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An Introduction to 1-on-1 Organizing Conversations

[This is the central post in a series on 1-on-1 conversations. Sign up for email notifications at the bottom of this page or follow me on Twitter to see follow-up posts on this topic.]

The 1-on-1 organizing conversation is the heart of grassroots organizing. I’d go so far as to claim that if someone is trying to organize but is not using 1-on-1s, they probably are going to fail or at the very least will not be building towards success in the long-term. In my own personal estimation, it’s not even organizing if it doesn’t center 1-on-1s because 1-on-1s are where deep relationships form that are the foundation for building grassroots power.

How 1-on-1s are done differs somewhat across different organizing traditions and domains, but the core elements of 1-on-1s in each tradition are largely the same. Many of these techniques were developed in labor organizing but are just as commonly used today in community organizing as well.

As a basic definition, 1-on-1 organizing conversations are talks you have with someone to 1) build a relationship of trust, 2) identify common grievances and shared interests, and 3) move together from a place of inaction to one of action.

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