What is Organizing?
Organizers identify, recruit and develop leadership; build community around leadership; and build power out of community.
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Learning Organizing
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"It is a calling. It is a vocation—social change work. But there's a craft to it. You know, there are skills, there are practices, there's a discipline, there's a way to do it right, and there's a way to utterly screw it up."
– Marshall Ganz, Kennedy School of Government course lecture, on becoming an organizer
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Work leaders do to enable others to achieve purpose in the face of uncertainty--and develop more leaders.
Videos:
Key Readings/ Materials:
• “Organizing Notes” Chapter on Leadership
• Ganz’s Harvard Course Readings on Leadership in Organizing
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Relationships are the threads from which organizers weave organizations. Ganz walks through the process of building relationships.
Videos:
Key Readings/ Materials:
• “Organizing Notes” Chapter on Relationships
• Malcolm Gladwell, “Six Degrees of Lois Weisberg,” in
The New Yorker, January 11, 1999 (pp. 52-63)• Ganz’s Harvard Course Readings on Leadership in Organizing
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“How do you challenge fear? ... You find hope.”
– Marshall Ganz lecture
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“I mean, David knew how to use that sling.... He also understood arrogance.”
– Marshall Ganz’s lecture, on David’s strategy to defeat Goliath
Key Readings / Materials:
• “Organizing Notes” Chapter on Strategy
• TheBible, Book of Samuel, Chapter 17, Verses 4-49 [Davidand Goliath].
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“...[O]rganizing is not only about changing the self, it’s about changing the world, and changing the world means translating that insight, energy, understanding into something that actually re-organizes the environment out there--that actually changes things out there.
–Marshall Ganz’s lecture on the topic of action.
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Welcome
- • What is organizing?
- • How do people organize?
- • What skills are required of organizers?
- • How can these skills be shared with others?
Welcome to Marshall Ganz’s Web module on organizing. Professor Ganz is a long-time organizer; a Lecturer in Public Policy at the Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University; and a principal of Harvard’s Hauser Center for Nonprofit Organizations.
This Web module contains learning materials that touch upon such questions as:
This module is designed for organizers, students, and trainers of organizers alike. It is more of a library than online course per se. Organizers and students will find readings, video lecture clips and Web links on organizing ("Learning Resources" tab on this website). In addition, trainers will find a pedagogy of organizing developed by Professor Ganz and his colleagues ("Trainer's Workshop").
As Ganz explains, learning organizing is learning a practice, like riding a bicycle--falling off, and having the courage to get back on, is the only way you can learn to keep your balance. (See the "Learning Organizing" section of this website for more detail.)
We welcome your suggestions and/or feedback on this site. Please email Professor Ganz's assistant, Gerta Dhamo.
Videos Included in this Section
Introduction
Organizing Traditions
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