In 2020, if I were to utter the phrase “in the room where it happens” you’re likely to immediately conjure images of Leslie Odom, Jr portraying Aaron Burr in a performance of Hamilton. And, in all honesty, I can’t blame you for making that connection. First off, the music of Hamilton is absolutely infectious. Secondly, the vast majority of us feel a certain attachment (though not necessarily a positive one) to the image this piece illuminates in our subconscious.

Smoke filled rooms. Closed door conferences. We can bring these images so clearly to our imaginations because, at some point or another, it’s been our reality. At some point, we weren’t influential enough to be in a particular room, at a particular time, when a decision critical to our agenda was being made. We’ve all had those doors closed on us just before we crossed the threshold.

Powerful imagery, but so what? I’m not here to be a theater critic, nor am I here to bemoan the process behind politics. I am here to share thoughts on how you can take steps to get in that room the next time.

Periodically, I’ll use this blog as a mode of sharing some insights from the political advocacy world. By no means will this be advice on how you can win every battle for your issues. Rather, I hope to help spur your thoughts on strategic engagement. I’ll share some of my experiences working in the public sphere for the past 10+ years. I’ll bring in guests who I trust will get you thinking about your methods and share in your madness.  Occasionally, we may study an issue of the moment and share the historical context of how we’ve gotten to where we are on an issue.

No one ever knows, when they take on a project like this, where it will ultimately lead. Broadly – I hope to help you capture some of the broad concepts that have made others successful advocates across the issue spectrum.  But I also hope to foster a community of engaged leaders committed to finding ways to work together – whether they agree on 8 out of 10 issues or 2 out of 10. The narrowest ground for agreement can hold great promise for accomplishing the critical and sustaining reforms on which our great experiment in self-government depends. 

I’m still on the journey to learn this field. I often draw on some unique experiences in my life to guide the way I think through problems. As you learn more about me, I hope you’ll join in sharing some of your own experiences – especially those paradigm shifting moments in life that helped you evolve your approaches to management, political activism, networking and just about anything else.

I’ll strive to avoid being preachy – but I can’t promise that I’ll successfully avoid using dad jokes and the occasional foul language. I ask that you join me in striving to be open about failure. I’m not a professional writer, and I am CERTAIN that the tone of this blog will evolve significantly over time. I ask that you help guide that tone and the topics we explore.

I trust that we will also start to dialogue about the real-life challenges all of us are experiencing now in the COVID world. If I take a bit of your time to dive into the challenges of parenting instead of advocating, please excuse that digression. After all, it’s the full scope of our life experiences which helps inform the decisions we make on given projects and about the direction of our work broadly.  Every one of those experiences can inform us on what is possible in a given environment.

And that’s the point I’ll end with today: being a part of the possible. I struggled with a name for this project. This work is not sexy – rather it is a daily struggle to foster relationships, build coalitions and pursue thought work that is not all that common to other industries. But, working through all of that, we have unique opportunities to create real change that benefits our communities and serves a higher good.

However, that work is often accomplished in fits and starts. It takes an openness to artful compromise. It requires patience. It demands we not let the perfect become the enemy of the good. I hope the community we build together will help you, from time to time, be a part of the possible.