'From Values to Action: The Craft of Democratic Organizing' with Marshall Ganz

Marshall diagnoses our democratic crisis through hard-won wisdom from decades of organizing—from the Civil Rights Movement to the Obama campaign. "We look for hope in the wrong place—out there in the great hero," he explains. "What we should be doing is connecting with each other to create the kind of hopeful imagination and willingness to take risks." His framework for change starts with three simple questions: Who are my people? What change do we need? How do we turn resources into power?

Action Opportunities:

• Marshall’s Latest Book: "People, Power, Change: Organizing for Democratic Renewal" - https://bookshop.org/p/books/people-power-and-change-organizing-for-democratic-renewal-marshall-ganz/20658319

• Website: https://marshallganz.scholars.harvard.edu/

• Leading Change Network: https://leadingchangenetwork.org/

Organizing Principles:

Marshall's core organizing questions:

1. Who are my people?

2. What is the change we need?

3. How do we turn our resources into the power we need to achieve that change?

Spiritual Foundations:

Hillel the Elder's three questions that guide Marshall's work:

"If I am not for myself, who will be for me? If I am only for myself, what am I? And if not now, when?"

For Organizers:

• Leading Change Network offers training, coaching, and resources for organizers worldwide

• Public Narrative workshops available through LCN

• Harvard Kennedy School executive education programs on leadership and organizing

Connect:

Learn more about Marshall's ongoing work in democratic organizing, public narrative training, and movement building through the Leading Change Network and his courses at Harvard Kennedy School.

Key Topics Discussed:

• The three interlocking problems facing democracy: structural inequality, lack of collective capacity, and fragmented identity

• Public Narrative framework: Story of Self (purpose), Story of Us (community), Story of Now (urgency)

• How organizing differs from mobilizing and why it matters for sustainable change

• How to diagnose power structures and turn resources into collective power

• The importance of civic infrastructure and local organizing capacity

Recommended Reading:

• "People, Power, Change: Organizing for Democratic Renewal" by Marshall Ganz https://bookshop.org/p/books/people-power-and-change-organizing-for-democratic-renewal-marshall-ganz/20658319

• "Caste" by Isabel Wilkerson https://www.isabelwilkerson.com/

• "The Tyranny of Structurelessness" by Jo Freeman - https://www.jofreeman.com/joreen/tyranny.htm

About Marshall Ganz

Marshall Ganz is Senior Lecturer in Leadership, Organizing and Civil Society at Harvard Kennedy School, where he teaches, researches, and writes on leadership and strategy in social movements. Growing up in Bakersfield, California, where his father was a Rabbi and mother an educator, he entered Harvard College in 1960 but left before graduating to volunteer with the 1964 Mississippi Summer Project. He found his "calling" as an organizer with the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, then joined Cesar Chavez and the United Farm Workers for 16 years, becoming Director of Organizing. After designing innovative voter mobilization strategies throughout the 1980s, he returned to Harvard, completing his undergraduate degree after a 28-year absence and earning his PhD in sociology in 2000. He was instrumental in designing the grassroots organizing model for Barack Obama's 2008 presidential campaign and founded the global Leading Change Network.