Navigating Changing Environments Partnership - What Dog Walking Taught Me About Campaigns

Dog walking can be a lot like partnership campaigning. I have two long-time clients, Stella and Baxter, that I have been working on walking without pulling for about eight months now. We started working over the summer, and by fall both dogs had excellent leash behaviors. However, with the first snow, Baxter promptly seemed to completely forget everything acted like he had never walked on a leash before. This naturally caused frustration for us both - I was frustrated Baxter was pulling me in icy conditions that felt very dangerous, and Baxter was frustrated because we were not having his brisk normal walk. Of course, the ultimate issue was neither of accounted for how the change in environment had shifted our goals for the walk. I was suddenly interested in walking much slower to be sure I didn't fall, and Baxter was suddenly interested in running to all of the new smells from the snowfall and subsequent shoveling.

Changes in environment also suddenly change the goals of partners previously aligned in a campaign. Elections, budgetary shifts, new administrators or other leaders, and changes in public opinion can lead to a proverbial blizzard that reshapes environments and freezes even the best planned campaigns.

I know the only way to solve the changing environment problem with Baxter is through patience. While that may not seem like the best way to adapt to policy environment changes, it has been my experience that to keep campaign partners together, patience is a critical tactic. There are three main ways that I have used patience to keep partnership campaigns on track in changing policy environments.

1. When the "blizzard" hits, take the time to check in with all your campaign partners. Especially in the middle of a dramatically changing environment, it can feel very overwhelming to stop what you're doing and have in-depth conversations with each campaign partner. On some levels it can feel a little bit like a groundhog day - you'll probably have the same conversation from when you agreed to form the partnership. However, giving your partners' the time to explain their new priorities to you can only benefit you in the long run. Your partners will see you value them in this campaign and beyond, and you may learn of other shared goals that you want to work on with them in the future.

2. Have patience with your partners if they need to change their role in the campaign. Shifting environments can present an opportunities for organizations to achieve goals that where formerly out of reach. Sometimes even the most dedicated partners have to step back to "shoot their shot" on a different objective While it is difficult to accept a partners' change in level of commitment without frustration, having patience with partners is the best tactic. Being patient and understanding leaves partners the opportunity to easily rejoin campaigns once priorities shift again. Showing campaign partners you can be patient and flexible will make them more likely to continue to want to work with you in the future.

3. Accept the fact that changing priorities sometimes mean that campaign partners need to cut ties. Perhaps the most difficult result of a changing environment is when campaign partners are no longer aligned. However, just like with changes to commitment level, it is important to be patient with partners that need to leave campaigns. Amicable endings to partnerships are essential not just because you may want to work with an organization in the future, but also because policy universes are usually small. Individuals you work with in your issue space will probably continue to be potential partners at other organizations over the course of your career. You always want current and former partners to think of you first when new opportunities to create aligned change present themselves.

Luckily for Baxter and me, we were able to realign on our walk goals and did not have to engage in an amicable split. By finding different walk routes in the winter environment, we easily met our new goals of me feeling safe and him having multiple things to sniff. Like most good partnerships, all we needed was a little patience for us to start working like a great team again.

Baxter and Stella, two very good dogs in any environment.