Enlace
Enlace is a strategic alliance of low-wage worker centers, unions, and community organizations in Mexico and in the U.S. We partner with our member organizations in international campaigns to motivate abusive multi-sector transnational corporations to treat workers and communities with dignity and respect.
Enlace uses an integrated approach to organizing, creating unique campaign strategies while developing systems strengthening organizations internally. Our strategies often cross industrial and sector lines for reasons relating to both workforce development and campaign strategy.
In addition, the Enlace Institute presents trainings in strategic organization development that were developed over the many years of learning through our campaigns. Our collaborative brainstorming processes are useful for virtually all work groups in base-building organizations.
Read More
Newsletter Sign Up >
Victory! United Methodist Church Divests from Private Prisons
The United Methodist Church has divested from Corrections Corporation of America and the Geo Group!
Read More >
Frameworks for High Performance Organizations
These are collaborative brainstorming processes that are useful for virtually all work groups in base-building organizations, including top staff leadership teams, strategy groups, organizing teams, boards of directors, and teams that include volunteers, unless otherwise noted. A few can be used by an individual. Enlace Director Peter Cervantes-Gautschi first developed the frameworks in the 1980s. They have been built upon and improved over the past 12 years by Enlace trainers and participants from more than 70 organizations.
Evaluation Star
Team work analysis and evaluation
Rather than assigning blame, the Evaluation Star sheds light on areas a team needs to address in future plans. It is grounded in measuring the depth and growth of the organization’s base (in leaders and leadership) while at the same time analyzing the quality of the group’s operations, internal coordination, strategy, and the effectiveness of its work. It is an easy process to learn and easy to use.
Suggested uses include:
• analyze an organization’s readiness for launching a campaign, evaluate progress during a campaign, or assess the effectiveness of a completed campaign
• evaluate an organization’s internal structure and how well that structure facilitates the mission and/ or goals of the organization
• evaluate an individual event
• evaluate an organization’s campaigns and programs.
Strategic Direction
Obstacle management planning
Strategic Direction is valuable in a situation when a team is experiencing doubt or frustration in accomplishing an objective or when a team is in a rut or lacks focus or a clear priority. A group of almost any size can use this process to improve or to create a new strategy when the current one is not moving the team closer to its objective.
Proactive Plan
Proactive strategic planning or new campaign creation
Using Proactive Plan, the team identifies a fundamental change that it must make to achieve a significant objective and then creates a strategy to achieve this change. The results inoculate the team from falling into a reactive mode. This process is used to make a plan for up to one year. One variation is effective for creating a plan for a new campaign. An individual can also use this framework on his/her own.
Organizing Cycle
Short term planning
A team can use the Organizing Cycle to plan a single event, action, or program or a team work plan for a period of up to three months. This process clarifies the team’s objective and takes into account the key people the organization wants to impact, multiple goals, the organization’s capacity, and any potential challenges or obstacles to success. This unique planning tool analyzes in advance how to achieve all the major and secondary goals of the activity and adds an extra step to ensure that the plan is thorough.
Four Sages
Crisis management planning
Four Sages is a collaborative brainstorming process that is useful specifically for top leadership teams when the group is confronting a crisis with the potential to destabilize the whole organization or facing an unanticipated barrier to its strategy. This framework organizes thinking from four perspectives that must be considered to ensure the survival and/or continuing viability of any group or organization.
Levels of Energy
Morale and commitment improvement
Levels of Energy is a tool for getting a team or individual out of a rut or state of low energy when the team doesn’t have time or need to engage in a longer process. It is useful anytime low morale troubles a team or individual.
The Rap
Structured recruitment conversation
The Rap is the basic process for motivating and recruiting. It is used to persuade people in any role in the organization to commit to something new or to recruit new people to participate in one of the organization’s activities or campaigns. The legendary Fred Ross developed the Rap and taught it to hundreds of organizers, including those who built the United Farm Workers.
Power Analysis
Campaign strategy development
Power Analysis is a comprehensive process that can be used by a team or by an individual to identify strategic targets and alliance potential in campaigns in order to create or modify the overall strategy. Anthony Thigpenn of Strategic Concepts in Organizing and Policy Education (SCOPE) developed the process.
Arrow through the Apple
Long term strategic plan, founding plan, leader plan
Both individual leaders and leadership teams can use Arrow Through the Apple to make an initial plan when starting an organization or program, or for developing a strategic plan of 5 to 10 years. It can also be used to create a 10-year plan for an individual leader that is aligned to the needs of the organization. It is a modification of a strategic planning process developed by corporate consultant Charles Krone.
If you are interested we can customize a training program and/or an individualized consultation to fit your organization’s needs and budget. Contacts us for a needs analysis!