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Cover art for the sound art concept album MARSIFICATION: a tale of planetary grief created as part of the spread of the neologism.

Language as a critical arena of struggle

Effective campaigns and social movements don’t just react to to the realities imposed upon us, we also fight to change it: to normalize new ideas, transform structural relationships and create new social realities. So language is often an important area of struggle, battling over the meaning of words, challenging their misuse and even creating new language in the form of neologisms. 

Here’s an update on a little project I’ve been involved in for a few years around the neologism MARSIFICATION which was created as an intervention to challenge techno-salvationist narratives.  

Techno-fix narratives are at play in many different sectors

A little background: Over the years I’ve done various narrative strategy projects to support campaigns challenging dangerous deployments of new, untested technologies being pushed on an unsuspecting population mainly by unscrupulous corporations. Many of these have sparked large-scale and in some cases global resistance movements challenging things like genetically modified food and organisms (GMOs), synthetic biology, nanotech, killer robots and a huge growing fight currently: exposing polluters’ fake climate tech.

Over and over again I’ve seen different versions of the same basic techno-fix frame derail pressure for transformative and system change solutions (body cams on cops anyone?) When techno-fixes have been successfully fought off it is often because movements won the race to frame public awareness like food justice movements framing Monsanto’s GMO sterile seeds as “terminator seeds” which helped block their deployment.

Mocking the ultimate techno-fix: replacing Earth with Mars 

So a few years back collaborating with the participatory art project the Bureau of Linguistical Reality, I helped coin the word MARSIFICATION (verb tense is MARSIFY) to critique the whole Mars-will-save-us narrative that is being pushed by a number of tech-billionaires. The term picked up steam recently through various media attention and then New Scientist named it as one of their words of the year for 2023 and then it got into wikipedia.  

We created the word to help activists specifically name how fantasies of turning Mars into Earth are distracting us from the fact global capitalism is rapidly turning Earth into Mars. Here’s some of the definitions:

Marsification: The various cultural, political and economic processes through which techno-salvationist fantasies divert our attention from the dominant global economic system’s erosion of Earth’s capacity to support life.

We also want to show how all these techno-fixes are rooted in the same flawed and oppressive worldview. My favorite definition, which I can imagine activists using to fight almost any elite techno-fix is: 

Marsify: To attempt to solve a problem in the most statistically unlikely and unselfconsciously grandiose way possible.

One potentially powerful rhetorical strategy to challenge bad ideas by linking them with the most extreme version of the misguided idea. Since the current fantasy that Mars could somehow become a replacement Earth is so transparently ridiculous, it can hold up a mirror to discredit a lot of the more normal-sounding techno-fix proposals. Polluters selling phony “offsets” so they can keep polluting? Creating a massive whole new global industrial complex to suck carbon out of the air, ship it around on pipelines and dispose of it (somewhere…?) all so fossil fuel companies can keep profiting from destroying our atmosphere? Those are not only unjust and dangerous proposals, they are also wildly unrealistic terrible ideas that won’t even work. So let’s call them out as polluters trying to “marsify” climate policy. 

Exposing the ongoing legacy of colonial worldviews

In addition to mocking some of the crazy billionaire techno-fixes Marsification draws attention to the deeper historic roots that the obsession with Mars colonization reflects. A second definition of the word is:

Marsification: The expansion of colonial fantasy beyond the atmosphere of the Earth.

Many of the drivers of our current planetary crisis have their roots in the worldviews spread through force by European colonialism: Unlimited expansion, human exceptionalism, seeing complex interdependent natural systems as just resources etc. It seems reasonable to assume that since space extractivism is largely a continuation of the same underlying logic it will have basically the same few winners and many losers. Just like historic colonialism primarily benefited European elites I’d suggest colonialism in space – Jeff Bezos mining asteroids or the U.S. and China carving up the moon – isn’t really in most people’s interests. Already most of the ongoing extraction & “economic growth” is merely increasing corporate profits NOT meeting human needs and generally not increasing collective well-being. Expanding into space isn’t going to change those core power dynamics.

And now MARSIFICATION the sound art concept album!? 

The latest development in this neologism journey towards influencing discourse is two artists (one of them who co-created the word with me) have released an amazing audio art concept album called Marsification: A tale of planetary grief. It is basically a love letter to the Earth and a fun, artistic critique of “astro-colonialism” ranging from details about zero gravity pooping to an homage track to Gil Scott-Heron called “Whitey Out on Mars.” I had a very limited advisory role on the album so can take zero credit for its awesomeness but I am a huge fan. I highly recommend checking it out. You can access it from their adorable album website or any of the main streaming platforms. If you like it please share the album because it has zero promotion behind it and it deserves a wider audience. Plus it’s another exciting way the concept of marsification is moving in the culture and inspiring more critique of the most absurd techo-fix narrative of them all. 

So if marsification/marsify is useful to your work please take the word and use it. Experiment with it. Spread it. Who knows what powerful, creative, strategic ways folks might put this word and concept to use. And really shouldn’t we all be trolling Elon Musk these days? 

Reasons to Fall in Love with Grassroots Movements

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As the polycrisis expands there are a lot of new constituencies trying to understand social change from panicked decision-makers to a new generation of emerging philanthropists to impacted communities turning to activism. For many of us––who participate in contemporary social movements or are familiar with the history of social movements’ transformative impact––their value is self-evident, perhaps even axiomatic. But in a mainstream U.S. context the role of mass movements in driving social progress is often downplayed, even whitewashed out of our collective history. 

The idea of a movement is hidden in plain sight. The word is well known, even if only through generic accounts of the “Civil Rights Movement” yet most people don’t have much actual understanding of the real history, the mechanics or ongoing impacts of grassroots movements. 

So below is a list of talking points about some of the things that grassroots movements actually do. These are a resource to support anyone promoting movement-building as a key change strategy and/or making the case for investing in movements. As a messaging resource it is primarily intended to offer lots of rhetorical entry points that supplement, but not replace, the many more substantive arguments, frameworks and research on the role, structure and mechanics of social movements.

Amazing things that Grassroots movements do:

BUILD/SHIFT POWER Movements build the power of traditionally marginalized constituencies and challenge powerful interests that block action on collective problems. Building the power of an organized constituency is one of the most versatile strategies for change.

STRENGTHEN DEMOCRACY Movements organize, mobilize and engage people in multiple ways that strengthen our democracy. 

INSIDE/OUTSIDE Movements operate both inside and outside official processes and therefore provide a check on institutional power and accelerate the process of change.

ROOT CAUSES/STRUCTURAL CHANGE Movements address root causes and therefore are effective vehicles for challenging oppression and accelerating structural change. 

CREATE NETWORKS movements connect diverse actors into networked ecosystems and therefore are able to address problems at all levels of society. 

RESILIENCE Movements are an investment in resilience. They build the multipurpose infrastructure and capacity to mitigate, adapt and transform. This is particularly urgent in the age of rapid climate breakdown. 

MULTISOLVE PROBLEMS Movements not only help identify social problems they also solve them. In fact they often “multisolve” them which is a useful concept from systems theory to describe “when one investment of time or money solves many problems at once.”* The term provides some intellectual specificity to the multifaceted ways movements operate.  

SHIFT THE DEBATE Movements highlight issues in ways that prevent them being ignored. Look at the way #MeToo or Black Lives Matter has managed to bring attention to long-standing injustices in a way that has driven changes across society. 

EXPAND THE POSSIBLE/MOMENTUM Movements generate momentum which makes lots of different types of change more possible. Investing in movements is the solution that strengthens all other solutions (“acting like a rising tide that lifts all boat”).

INNOVATION/EMERGENCE Movements are OUR best bet for unexpected innovation that can shift the trajectory of our society. Where do paradigm shifts come from?  Bottom-up often scales much faster and easier than top-down. 

RETURN ON INVESTMENT Grassroots movements are dramatically under-invested in compared to other parts of the social change ecosystem. Given how much frontline communities fighting for racial/economic/environmental/climate justice have already accomplished, imagine what they could do with a little more investment from philanthropy?

HELP US MAKE BETTER DECISIONS & POLICIES Movements aggregate and amplify the perspectives of those most impacted by problems. This helps society as a whole make better decisions. Policymakers should look to stronger movements to help solve this key knowledge problem because when we solve problems for the most impacted it creates better outcomes for everyone.

MOVEMENTS INVITE PEOPLE IN Movements are inclusive, operating in locally and decentralized ways that offer many pathways to engagement. By inviting us all to take action, movements are foundational to creating and maintaining a democratic society

HISTORIC TRACK RECORD  Organized social movements have played a central role in almost every positive change in modern society from ending injustices, expanding rights to shifting culture and creating whole new legal frameworks. (Pick your favorite example). Movements have undeniably strong metrics and a proven historic record. And now they are being super-charged by communications technology so that may well make their future track record even stronger.

MOVEMENTS GIVE US HOPE, or at least they should… At a time when mounting global problems can seem on the brink of overwhelming many of our institutions. Movements invite us to imagine whole different scales and types of social engagement in recreating our world. They offer us collective agency in the face of growing despair about society’s future. This is where hope lies.

 * This definition of “multisolving” was created by Dr. Elizabeth Sawin, a student of Donella Meadows, who runs an organization dedicated to the concept call the Multisolving Institute

Movement Meta-Verbs: How Movements Solve Problems

A foundational idea that informs much of contemporary advocacy and organizing is the understanding that collective action can scale into “grassroots movements” and these types of emergent movements can help solve many of our problems. Many of us, particularly those who work in philanthropy or adjacent sectors, have lots of different research, reports and glossy materials to make this case.

Effective communication is action oriented and so it can be helpful to have what we call meta-verbs, that is an overarching verb that communicates the logic of your action or intervention.* So here’s a simple list of potential meta-verbs that help synthesize the story of how grassroots movements help make positive change. These meta-verbs can be used in conjunction with the more substantive talking points above to promote social movement oriented theories of change

NAVIGATE: Having powerful, democratic movements operating can help society NAVIGATE the complexity of the coming transition with the most co-benefits and the least amount of destructive trade-offs.

TRANSLATE: Movements shine a light on issues, explaining obtuse power structures and technical jargon to TRANSLATE the issues to those who will be impacted so they understand what is happening. 

POPULARIZE: Movements spreading new concepts and helping people apply them to their local struggles. Just look at the way transformative concepts like just transition, abolition, intersectionality, agroecology, regenerative economics [etc. add your favorite] have been POPULARIZED through trans-local networks. 

MOBILIZE: Movements sound the alarm, and MOBILIZE people to get them involved in the democratic process to stop bad things and collectively build better things. 

PRESSURE: Movements channel public outrage in order to apply strategic PRESSURE at the places that will break through institutional inertia and force change.

ADAPT: Movements help communities ADAPT to meet new circumstances and build resilience.

SCALE: Movements SCALE impact by connecting dispersed initiatives under a common umbrella that aggregates and amplifies. The alchemy of social movements means the whole actually becomes greater than the sum of its parts. 

* For more info on the concept of “meta-verbs” see page 86 of my book Re:Imagining Change: How to Use Story-based Strategy to Win Campaigns, Build Movements and Change the World

Turning the Tide on Organizational Toxicity

The past few years there has been growing attention to dysfunctional internal dynamics within progressive and left organizations. Whether it’s contentious unionization fights, high profile failures to address racial justice and other equity issues or mass resignations, it’s been hard to miss the upheavals at many organizations. In this context perhaps it’s not surprising that the term “toxic” is frequently used to describe the culture inside some social change organizations. Many practitioners have been analyzing the phenomenon and trying different interventions. In that spirit of collective inquiry, here’s a draft framework that emerged from my work coaching leaders grappling with how to steward organizational change.  

There are many sources of toxicity but one common place where I have repeatedly seen problems overtake organizations is when needed change processes are either thwarted or fail.  By the time some organizations have acknowledged a problem and begun considering how to make change, the stakes have often become very high. Either the organization will succeed in a certain degree of transformation or toxicity will grow, and sometimes literally kill the host org. 

The chart below is intended to define two ends of a spectrum. At one end are the qualities of a successful change process that I’ve seen lead to organizational breakthroughs and transformation. These are contrasted with qualities of toxic organizational culture that undermine organizational function and can sabotage change processes. However, far more important than my distillation of these qualities is the simple idea of a spectrum that contrasts these qualities. 

For the framework to be most useful, a group should determine for themselves the specific qualities that define their spectrum. Participatory work to create shared definitions of toxic qualities and transformative qualities is a great way to start an organizational change process. These qualities can then serve as “guard rails” to keep a process on track. The power of co-creating this type of framework and transparently holding it at the center of the change process can help give all stakeholders the agency to counter toxicity if and when it develops.

Sample Framework

TRANSFORMATIVE                     ←	→                           TOXIC
“Leaderful” where all stakeholders feel agency	Lack of leadership or leadership that disempowers stakeholders
Community: everyone recognizes there is a problem even if they don’t all know or agree on what it is	Isolation: people feel like they are facing the problems alone, might feel gaslit
Momentum: progress is happening at an appropriate pace that works for the group	Inertia: change feels impossible
Process “works” meaning it meets community expectations on pace and level of clarity of outcome	Imbalance between process and outcome
Trust in people’s best intentions. This creates the safety needed to express concerns and be vulnerable about one’s own role in problems	Lack of trust. This is corrosive in so many ways but critically for a change process it often undermines people’s ability to be honest
Organization has functioning equity and justice practices that balance existing power differences and create the space for all stakeholders to fully participate regardless of rank, identity or historical marginalization.	Unacknowledged/unhealthy power dynamics. Organization lacks functioning equity systems, patterns of dominance and marginalization are unaddressed and disrupt participation and agency.
Hope	Cynicism (change feels impossible)
Everything is a tool	Everything is a weapon
Curiosity	Animosity
(Appropriate levels of) transparency	(Unnecessary) secrecy
Clear boundaries on the process. Everyone understands which parts of organization are changeable and which are not.	Unclear boundaries. Either because of fundamental disagreement, gaslighting by leadership or just poor process design.
Clear shared vision, purpose or theory of change that can act like a lighthouse guiding the group through the dangerous waters Aka “accountability to mission”	Lack of political alignment = no shared vision to anchor process or provide a compass for navigating disagreement
Time is managed well. People have the time they need. The process is not too fast but also not too slow.	Poor time management undermines process: not enough time for critical work, or the process drags on too long.
Shared models that help people embrace individual differences such as frameworks that address organizational culture, personality, information processing, conflict styles, etc.	Underdeveloped understanding or appreciation of difference on the team. Lack of shared frameworks.
Metaphor: The spiral of evolving change and creativity (systems are complicated and we may need several passes over the same content to get someplace new)	Metaphor: The circle of repetitive doom (nothing will ever change; we are just going round in circles)
Emotion is welcomed and there is a group container that can hold a range of expressions	Lack of group container to hold and channel strong emotions
Collective sense of potential, that a new organizational state is possible	Blocked energy, sense that failure is inevitable
Excitement and engagement by all stakeholders	Withdrawal of stakeholders from process either through lack of engagement or overt departures (quitting, leaving group, etc.)
Unleashing of collective creativity leads to lots of new ideas and unblocked energy	Status quo thinking remains dominant and old debates repeat without producing new insights
GROUP LANDS WITHIN SUCCESS RANGE	FAILED PROCESS OUTCOMES

REMINDER: “leadership” shouldn’t be seen as an exclusive skill to be hoarded atop hierarchies or feared when it is expressed from unexpected sources. We should all be growing the leadership capacity of the people around us. We are in a planetary emergency and we need LEADERFUL movements to face it.

The graphic above is from 2011 when a group of core organizers were intervening in the Occupy Wall Street movement to challenge some of the misconceptions that horizontal and consensus-based organizing models are “leaderless.” Instead successful movements actually unlock as much leadership capacity was possible. As the Black Lives Matter movement helped amplify we need to get beyond scarcity and prioritize building “leaderful” organizations and movements.

There are many great resources to help us implement these ideas but one I often return to is the 2005 article “We the Leaders: In Order to Form a Leaderful Organization” by Joseph A. Raelin, in the Journal of Leadership and Organizational Studies, 2005, Vol. 12, No.2. The paper is not specifically focused on social change organizations, but many of its suggestions align with the best practices of many directly democratic organizing models.

Raelin’s research identifies 4 Cs which organizations engaging in “leaderful practice” can utilize. Leadership should be concurrent, collective, collaborative and compassionate.

The last few years have been a crash course for many of us in virtual team-building. Now after many organizations took COVID-informed hiatus from in-person retreats I’ve been contacted by several groups who are once again planning them. I believe deeply that in-person time to focus on strategy and collaboration is critical to any team’s success. I’ve found that particularly in remote teams, in-person time is uniquely precious. It’s hard to do the deeper, transformative work virtually, particularly to build shared culture or address conflicts. So in the interests of supporting any group or facilitator working to have a successful strategy retreat I’ve listed below some of the specific principles and practices that inform how I approach participatory strategy work with groups.

Build the container: Sure the term “container” is facilitator speak and may sound a little geeky. But in order to hone specific skills it’s helpful to have specific language. Group container is one of those words I think is useful enough that I’m willing to sound a little geeky saying it. The term is a shorthand for all the complex, dynamic factors that define a group’s ability to act collectively. Things like an environment of collective trust, clarity of purpose, the degree of political alignment, a shared culture. These are all preconditions for a group to be powerful together. Collective action – rooted in “power together” can most effectively emerge when there is a strong “group container” that supports the group to do deeper work. Successful agenda design and facilitation requires attention to building and sustaining the container.

Preparation is half the battle: Successful retreats begin long before everyone is in the room together. The design process should identify the priority issues to address as well as which necessary info the entire group already has vs. what needs to be presented. It’s important to level the information playing field and avoid unnecessary knowledge gaps or strategizing based on caricature. Materials should be shared in advance with clear expectations around prep for all staff so precious in-person time can be spent on generative work. I often recommend doing a prep call with all participants to share frameworks or overview critical info before the retreat. Your strategy process should begin well before everyone arrives at the first session.

Culture matters: All groups have culture but usually many aspects of group practice are invisible or unstated so groups often need support to surface default cultural practices. When we create intentional space to assess cultural norms we can distinguish between practices that are useful and should be codified versus ones that are unproductive or are outgrowths of unhealthy power dynamics. I believe when groups intentionally create organizational culture together it can greatly increase collective agency and impact. [For more on this topic see my blog post on Toxic vs Transformative culture.]

Less is more (spaciousness supports clarity). A common mistake is to try and cram in too much content into an agenda, thereby creating an artificially frenetic pace that reduces visionary and strategic thinking. Of course there are times when we have to push and meetings that need to go long. But in general people need spaciousness and time to do deeper work. I believe in frequent breaks,15 minute break every 90-120 minutes of content is my general role. I also believe in 60+ minute meals to allow time for socializing, relationship building and individual recharge.

Design to engage the group’s diversity: Diversity is one of a group’s greatest strengths when harnessed properly, particularly since new insights often come from the margins of a group (just like in society, frontline of the problem = frontline of the solution.) I believe in using activities appealing to different learning styles such as audio, visual and interactive/kinesthetic so I design agendas using a range of modalities: individual reflection, pairs/small group/whole group, creative teams, gamification, generative sprints etc. Additionally, I think it’s important to harness non-meeting time, such as evening and meals (without over-structuring) to support relationship building and different types of processing.

Prime the pump: It is important to get people primed in the appropriate headspace to do strategy work. Good agenda design takes this into account through sequencing, structuring generative exercises and creating the conditions to tap individuals’ experience and power.

Constraints drive creativity: When asking a group to do generative work providing constraints helps drive out-put. It is amazing what smart people can accomplish in short periods of time with the right constraining instructions. Sure you can create a multi-tiered campaign plan but what happens when you try to create one in 15 minutes?

Surface generative conflict: Many groups are held back by unexpressed conflicts that linger, undercutting group unity and morale. Artful leadership and facilitation support the group in effectively surfacing and resolving conflict. Conflict is a great driver of strategy as long as the group has a strong enough container to engage in healthy conflict that is generative. Make sure you understand the deeper forces and play and do unleash past traumas or conflicts the group doesn’t have the capacity to address. A group can make the best strategy in the world but if the process destroys the group then none of it really matters right? 

Reality Check: Ensure that as strategies are developed they are incorporating political reality: group capacity, funding, political moment, enthusiasm factor, etc. This is not juxtaposed with visionary and ambitious strategy, but rather a check and balance to make sure the strategy is not a set-up for failure. Groups often have a hard time prioritizing but strategy is not only what we do it is also what we choose not to do. Likewise we need to check the group’s appetite to actually do the things they think need to be done. A smart plan that some other vague somebody is going to do isn’t going to get us far. As we make our plans we need to ensure we are creating the desire to carry them out. 

Skills sharing/leadership development: A core orientation of my movement support approach is to Identify leadership development/skill-building opportunities and include them in the process whenever possible. Which staff members can I tap to facilitate different sections? Ideally I’m able to manage my own capacity so I also have some time to coach someone into a new skill area. We should always be developing people’s capacity and leadership. 

 Define and Test Hypotheses: Evaluation should be baked into everything we do. We should always work to surface our assumptions, hone them into clear hypotheses and ensure they are testable so we can evaluate them in order to build upon success or learn from failure. The point is to be rigorous enough to ensure our evaluation creates positive feedback loops to grow a group’s collective skill and impact. 

Success grows upon itself. The facilitator needs to ensure the group is set up with realistic outcomes so the meeting can stay focused on the specific questions that need to be answered in the sequence that allows collective insight to build upon itself. But beyond achieving the tasks at hand it’s important the group FEEL successful. This is why it’s important to set and manage expectations and for facilitators to be reinforcing the group’s spectrum of success. We need participants to have an experience of collective power that creates momentum that will surge into the post-retreat work. 

Many of these principles are common sense but by naming them it helps remind us to pay attention to them. They are all means to an end, to catalyze a successful group experience that produces alignment, enthusiasm and momentum. That is what turns ideas on the flip chart into real world change. This is what turns retreats into the key moments of focused dreaming that let the work advance. 

These times call on ALL of us to be better leaders

One of the most important ways to be an effective social change practitioner is to cultivate leadership, your own and others. Our movements have come a long way in shifting the paradigm of leadership. The old paradigm elevated a simplistic ideal where leadership was often seen as the charismatic person (usually male) at the top of a hierarchy with all the decision-making power.

Now thanks to the efforts of newer generations of activists––particularly BIPOC, women, non-binary, and LGTBQ leaders steeped in the lessons of organizing for racial, gender and environmental/climate justice––the realm of leadership practices has been dramatically expanded. The orientation long used by organizers in struggles for systemic changes has become much more widely embraced. We now increasingly understand the need for “leaderful” movements where leadership is not seen as just a role in a hierarchy or approached from the perspective of scarcity or exceptionalism.

These movements have taught us that leadership is a set of qualities and practices that can and should be widespread. In fact it’s an orientation ALL of us must cultivate in order to be better organizers and grow our collective capacity for transformation. 

One of the most fulfilling parts of my consulting practice is coaching leaders of varying  levels of experience. I get to both support and co-learn. Through aiding my client’s growth and pulling on my own decades of experience in organization-building and social change work, I’ve distilled 10 key leadership practices below. Whatever our role in the movement, these 10 tips should be part of everyone’s toolbox who is working for a better world.  

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1. Cultivate self-awareness.
   • Pay attention to what’s going on inside yourself. Self-awareness is a foundational skill that undergirds almost all leadership orientations. Recognize the impact of circumstances and when you’re out of sync with your goals or intentions.
2. Incorporate self-assessment into how you do your work.
   • Build time for self-assessment into your routine in multiple places: planning, prioritization, mid- project and after-the fact reflection.
3. Pause and explore what’s happening BEFORE it’s a crisis.
   • Do hard things when they are easy. Intervene early. Shift dangerous dynamics before they become a crisis. Auto-pilot leads to accidents.
4. Ask yourself for help.
   • Part of why coaches are helpful is they are outside the situation. Try to model the same dynamic by getting some distance to reflect and reconsider. 
5. Interrogate the situation from multiple perspectives. 
   • Multiplicity is your friend. Ask yourself: what are different things that might be happening? Create mechanisms to check your blind spots.
6. Develop more than 1 hypothesis to test. (Play what if…?)
   • Try on new perspectives, without committing to them.  Don’t let yourself get trapped between only 2 choices. Imagination is a super power.
   • TOOL: Polarize to recenter: articulate worse case/best case, hopes vs fears,  what if I did B or C instead of A?
7. Embrace complexity. 
   • Accept that cause and effect is difficult to predict except in very simple situations. 
   • TOOL: “Probe” difficult situations with small experiments. Let feedback loops guide you towards solutions.
8. Give yourself homework (Invest in yourself)
   • Your leadership is a critical part of your work, so invest in yourself. Include personal development in your goal-setting. Build capacity to take risks. 
9. Give yourself a day off.
   • Social change work is a marathon, not a sprint and we need to pace ourselves.
10. Take the work seriously, but don’t take yourself too seriously. 
    • Humble revolutionaries are more effective and resilient revolutionaries.

I’m so excited to announce that the new updated and expanded edition of Re:Imagining Change is now available! Order your copy from PM Press HERE! 

 

I’m very excited to announce that PM Press will be releasing a 2nd Edition of Doyle Canning’s and my book on story-based strategy in September. We’ve expanded it with new tools, examples and case studies as well as updated it for the Trump resistance era. We’re also honored to have a new foreword by Jonathan Matthew Smucker author of the great new book Hegemony How-To (AK Press 2017). You can find out more from PM Press here.

Welcome to my new personal website. Nothing fancy, just a place to keep some of my writing and some other thoughts all in one place. Bigger pieces are in the “Selected Writings” section but this area is a grab bag of little strategic gems often pulled from some of my larger narrative and strategy projects.