There is a mountain of literature explaining how to campaign, how to engage in community development, how to manage an organisation, but the reality is that all the theory on how to act and what to do does not assist us when we come face-to-face with individuals. What matters is how we relate to people and their perception of us. First impressions matter.
The body of literature is of immense value in describing processes but does not address interpersonal skills, yet how we relate to people is the most important element in the tasks of helping individuals and campaigning for systemic change to achieve social justice. It is a question of communication skills, of the ability to hold the attention of individuals and groups, to secure support and enthuse. It is a matter of what we know and how we deliver our knowledge, insights. ideas, plans and messages to others. Many of us have listened to church ministers, teachers, lecturers, politicans deliver terrible presentations. Learned they may be, boring in delivery, soon forgotten.
It is vital to understand how to put a case. It is even more important to know your audience, indeed to determine who should be your target audience. Seek to discern who the key personalities are in communities and organisations: people with influence beyond formal organisation structures. Building a reputation for trust and competence is time consuming but essential as a preliminary to getting people on side and supportive.
Be prepared not to achieve the outcome you and your colleagues have worked for. Communities of geography or interest may prove to be unresponsive, even hostile: organisations reluctant or opposed to changing existing policies and priorities or to make funding commitments.
Faith in the City stated:
We are not at home in the tough, secular milieu of social and political activism. Paragraph 3.7.
The challenge is to gain confidence to flourish as equals in this tough milieu.
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