Derek’s insights got me wondering if a policy revolution could follow the same road map.  Even blogger Rohit Bhargava of Influential Marketing Blog suggests that Sivers formula is similar to the process he used to turn his Social Media Optimization concept into a revolution within the social media community.  We can use the same lessons as we design our policy change revolutions.

As Sivers highlights in his TED presentation, it’s the first follower that really starts the movement.  Until the first person joins the lone dancer, he looks inconsequential and no one takes him seriously.  Alone, observers might notice him, but then they lose interest and pay attention to something else.

Policy revolutions work the same way.  While every revolution needs a leader to sound the alarm, leading organizations need to recruit “followers” through partnerships with like-minded, diverse organizations to build effective policy change movements.  Without additional organizations rallying with you and behind your issue, policy calls to action can fall on deaf ears, eventually losing volume and credibility.  As a result, policy reform campaigns also lose impact among policymakers.

After one organization joins the leading group to create social change, it will become easier to build alliances with other organizations.  The crowd of supporters will follow, extending the size, reach and significance of a policy movement.

Earlier this month, a group of energy-concerned companies and advocacy organizations joined together to sign and submit a letter to President Obama requesting that consumer access to energy information, such as real-time electricity pricing information in their homes and business, become a national priority. The letter got the attention of and praise from Carol Browner, assistant to the President on Energy and Climate Change — an unlikely result if only one of these organizations had petitioned the White House for action.

Working together, anything is possible — even for the guy or organization dancing to the beat of their own drummer.  So the lesson learned from the shirtless dancing guy?  Starting a policy change revolution is more than just demonstrating the willingness to be in front, but the commitment to find that first follower to build a coalition and start a real movement.

Thus, it is clear: before a climate bill reaches the President’s desk for signature, there have been multiple additions, deletions or complete rewrites of the legislation, as well as changes in policymakers’ positions and stakes on the proposed legislation.

With so many game changes and changers, how does an organization keep up? While companies like CapitolAdvantage provide software platforms to follow developments on the Hill, these options may be too pricey for non-profits. However, there are inexpensive ways to use existing Internet tools to help follow the action (or lack there of) in Congress on your target issues.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/jordanconway/ / CC BY-SA 2.0

Organizations may already be using Internet news alerts, such as Google Alerts or Yahoo! Alerts, to follow media coverage of  areas of interest, and utilizing RSS (Really Simple Syndication) feed readers, like Google Reader, to organize and track news alerts and updates from key outlets, blogs and Web sites. You can use these same tools to track federal and state legislation.

Creating news alerts with search terms related to a specific bill – such as the bill number, title, acronym, or even names of key legislators involved in the bill – will help organizations follow any updates about the legislation.  Registering for RSS news feeds from Congressional or state committee Web sites and key policymakers publicly connected to the bill will keep organizations informed of developments prior to resulting media reports. Ultimately, you’re using these tools to track legislation online the same way you would track a news story online.

THOMAS - the Library of Congress legislation database – is a great resource for identifying search terms to use to track a specific federal bill. There are also wiki databases maintained by non-profit government watchdog groups, like OpenCongress, which can provide similar information, but may be less authoritative and should be used with caution.

Using alerts and RSS feed readers to keep your organization abreast of  the ebbs and flows of policy issues or bills will make it easier to determine your positions, calls to action and when and how to best communicate them to key audiences.

Despite the myths, 501(c)3 organizations can lobby without losing their tax-exempt status. Visit the Center for Lobbying in the Public Interest for more information about IRS lobbying rules for non-profit organizations. You’ll be surprised at how much your organization is allowed to do to impact policy.

In the meantime – while you wait for your bill updates to arrive – here’s a refresher course on how bills become laws and the role we can play, with policymakers, to make them happen.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/amboo213/ / CC BY-SA 2.0

Like our younger selves, policymakers don’t like report cards, but the tactic can definitely get an organization noticed in the media and the public. More advocacy organizations are using report cards — or scorecards — to draw attention to the performance (i.e. voting record) of Congressional and state legislators on a variety of policy issues.

Recently Environment America — a nonprofit, nonpartisan environmental advocacy organization — issued their annual Congressional scorecard. It identified members of Congress who are “Washington’s environmental champs” – policymakers who voted for the environment 100% of the time in the past 18 months on major environmental issues. The scorecard also called out policymakers who are “natural disasters” and did not support environmental legislation and/or issues. State affiliates of Environment America also replicate this approach and release scorecards focusing on their state’s representatives, as Environment Washington did in December.

Outside of the environmental movement, other advocacy groups also use the scorecard as a tool to bring awareness to and action on their issue. For example, the Human Rights Campaign issues a Congressional Scorecard each year to show how members of Congress have voted on equality issues. The Sargent Shriver National Center on Poverty Law has an interactive Web site dedicated to their annual scorecards on how Representatives and Senators voted  on anti-poverty legislation. The Web site even allows visitors to compare legislators’ grades.

Federal and state policymakers don’t like their voting records publicized and publicly evaluated. Their constituents (policymakers’ “parents” in this metaphor) are often unaware of the voting behavior and legislative actions of their representatives, and a scorecard can provide them a new, easy to understand viewpoint to evaluate their representative’s performance.

Issuing scorecards can also open doors for organizations looking to build relationships and alliances with key policymakers. Media coverage resulting from a scorecard release draws attention from Capitol Hill and state legislative staffers to your organization and may inspire — or force in an election year like this one — legislators to change their viewpoint and voting record on an issue.  In addition, scorecards provide valuable, concise information and data to reporters covering that policy issue and will help position your organization as an expert and resource for future insights.

In spite of the discomfort it causes lawmakers, the scorecard/report card approach is an effective tool in the policy communications arsenal to expand an organization’s message exposure. Hopefully, it will reinforce supportive policymakers to continue championing the issue or pressure failing legislators to improve their grade and make the honor roll on their next report card.