Welcome back! This month I want to dive into a word that has been on my mind off and on for years:
Innovation
This first became a central thought for me as I was doing trainings and found myself thinking about how stale some of our organizing tactics were beginning to feel. While it’s true that the basics will always work at a foundational level, the real truth is that the people we are organizing with and for, and the environments we are organizing in, have changed and on some levels it feels like our tactics haven’t necessarily kept pace,
So let’s talk about what Innovation in organizing can be and some ways to break out of our ruts to innovate new and exciting ways to do our work.
What is Innovation?
According to the dictionary innovation is: “A new idea, method, or device…the introduction of something new”
Quick…when you hear the word innovation in the organizing context what’s the first thing that comes to mind?
I’d be willing to bet many of you thought of AI immediately. I don’t disagree that AI can be part of our innovation, but AI in and of itself is not innovation, it’s a tool we can use as we innovate.
Innovation in Organizing
Innovation in organizing isn’t about blowing up what works, it’s about asking ourselves whether our methods are still meeting people where they are and making them feel like they belong. The communities we serve have changed. The way people communicate, build trust, and make decisions has changed. Innovation in organizing is about keeping pace with those changes instead of just defaulting to what we’ve always done.
Innovation as Rethinking Our Work
Innovation starts by going back to the beginning and questioning our foundational assumptions, rebuilding and/or adjusting our strategy.
Why do we do things the way we do them? (think Theory of Change)
Who are we doing these things for and with? (think Target Audiences)
What do they want and need from us? (think Resources and Knowledge)
How can we provide what they want and need from us? (Think Tactics)
When do we need to do each thing, in what order?
What tools do we need to be using to be successful?
How are we measuring our impact?
Rethinking doesn’t always lead to dramatic change, sometimes it’s minor adjustments. Sometimes it even confirms that what we’ve been doing is working. What rethinking really does is give us the opportunity to pause, reflect and recharge to rededicate ourselves to the work.
Innovation as Exploring New Ways of Doing the Work
This is about iteration and experimentation. This about being fearless about trying new things abd being ok with sometimes being wrong. It’s about doing the analytics to know what to tweak, what to keep and what to throw out the window. It’s about being responsive to the world as it currently exists white doing the work to create the world we want in the future.
The one training that never ceases to excite me is our Tactics training in which we talk about creative tactics we’ve seen in the past and then spend most of our time brainstorming new tactics. 80% of those brainstorms end up not being feasible, but the remaining 20% are golden.
Then folks in the room volunteer to test some of the new tactics we dreamed up and report back, both the fails and the successes. Over the years, this sequence has led to some incremental innovations in our digital organizing tactics that some of us still use today.
For example, in one session, someone suggested that “Twitter Townhalls” were becoming to common and thus a little boring. By the end of the conversation, some of the participants were ready to go and experiment with new approaches. One of the most successful iterations was to source questions from all the social media platforms and then turn them into short videos (today we’d say reels) sharing the question and short answers,
Innovation as a Creativity Spark
Sometimes, creativity in organizing gets squeezed out by urgency or the belief that creativity is somehow at odds with strategy. Actually, creativity is a strategic asset. Making time for it, even a little bit here and there, changes the quality of everything else.
It could be brainstorming sessions, like I described above. It could be doing Rosemari Ochoa’s “Internet Scavenger Hunt” to spark new thinking. It could be seeing what people in other industries are doing and adapting them those ideas to organizing.
For example, in 2026, about two months before the election, Meta released Messenger Chat Bots. Corporations jumped into these with both feet and I had the idea that we could use these to provide people with their polling precinct in a space they were using anyway and that they could easily return to on Election Day.
So we set up a chat bot that asked people their address and connected to one of the API tools that provided polling precinct locations based on addresses. Then we ran Facebook ads with standard GOTV messaging that added “Not sure where to vote? Click here and we’ll tell you”. The results were remarkable: 72% of the people those ads reached clicked through. 68% of them gave an address to get their precinct location. 62% of the ad clickers then opted in to receive email and/or SMS voting reminders from the sponsoring organization.
Sadly, Meta soon changed their Messenger chat bot terms of service and, we were unable to iterate further. But here’s the good news: those terms of service have evolved and it would be possible to do this again, with some modifications! If your organization would be interested in doing this, hit reply and let’s chat.
One thing that is important to remember about creativity and brainstorms: innovation doesn’t always come from the loudest voice in the room or the person who contributes the most ideas, everyone’s input can lead to important steps forward. Don’t be afraid to speak up!
Innovation as Collaboration
I mentioned brainstorm as a means to innovation because reality is that some of our best ideas are probably already at the table, we just haven’t created the right conditions for them to surface, Brainstorms are the ultimate collaboration tool and often spark the most innovation, Make time on a regular basis to brainstorm. Invite different people people from across the organization to participate. Invite supporters to participate. Widen the circles you are listening to and you may be surprised what comes next.
Innovation requires Transparency
An important thing to remember about innovation is that transparency isn’t an add-on, it must be baked in. Give credit where credit is due. Be forthright about what’s working and what isn’t. Give people explicitly permission to innovate with clear guidelines where needed. When people feel safe to experiment and know their contributions are seen, innovation becomes a culture rather than an occasional event.
How to Innovate
There’s no single right way to innovate but here are some of the approaches we’ve touched on:
Make time for regular brainstorms and invite new voices to the table
Rebuild your strategy from the foundation periodically, and include some people who may not usually be invoiced in your strategic process
Let the data guide you…often some of the best innovation comes from honest analytics
Be fearless: It’s ok to try something and have it not work!
Final Thougts
Innovation isn’t a destination, it’s a practice. It doesn’t require big budgets, a dedicated tech team or the perfect moment. It requires curiosity, the willingness to question what we’ve taken for granted, and the courage to try something new even when the outcome isn’t guaranteed.
The work we do is too important to stay stuck in a rut. The people we organize with and for deserve our best thinking, and our best thinking only gets better when we push our comfort zones.
So go brainstorm something. Try something, Break something. Fix something. Let me know how it goes.
PS- Speaking of innovation and iteration. You’ll note that we have a new newsletter title. As this newsletter has evolved it’s become clear that’s it not actually “quick hits” so we did some brainstorming. Let me know if you think the new title sets the expectation of what to expect when you read the newsletter.