I love Formula 1 racing. I love grassroots advocacy. So, I created a list of 5 lessons that grassroots professionals can learn from F1. Even if you don’t know a lug nut from a walnut, there are still useful lessons here for you.
And for those Formula 1 fans, I noted my favorite F1 team in the comments. Add your favorite team or driver while you’re there.
LESSON #1: While races and floor votes are flashy, there are years of work behind the scenes that lead to victories.
🏎 (Formula 1): A team will work on an engine for several years before it gets used in a racecar.
🌿 (Grassroots - it's the closest emoji they had): It can take years of building volunteer capacity and recruiting bill champions and cosponsors before there is enough support to demand a floor vote.
Being goal-focused and working from clearly defined strategies are vital to success. If your strategic plan isn’t written so it can be shared with others and regularly updated, then it’s not truly a strategic plan.
LESSON #2: Success requires intense focus even during the slower or more boring times.
🏎 There are boring, less competitive parts of nearly every Formula 1 race, but if a driver loses focus they could crash into a wall at 200 mph.
🌿 There are slow periods in any campaign, but losing focus could devastate your momentum with volunteers, leading people to unsubscribe or silently drop off your list. Fortunately, no one ever got seriously injured clicking an unsubscribe link.
LESSON #3: Never forget the people who are doing the hard work.
🏎 During a race, you hear only about the driver and one or two key team members. However, little is said about the 1,000+ people who work back in the factory building the cars and analyzing the terabytes of data generated every race.
🌿 An organization should never forget that it’s the field staff and volunteers who oftentimes do the work that will drive your success. The keys to victory rarely sit in your DC office.
LESSON #4: Winning is everything, but there is much to learn from a loss.
🏎 Nobody remembers who came in second.
🌿 No one showers praise on an organization whose priority bill didn’t pass.
In both cases though, no one walks away empty-handed. The data and feedback collected are invaluable for creating future strategies. Losses can even be more motivating than wins for creating increased commitment and improved performance from your team.
LESSON #5: The offseason is vital to success.
🏎 Team members don’t just work on race weekends. Their engineers work all winter, maximizing every hour to make the car faster next season.
🌿 It’s called grassroots “organizing” for a reason. Train your top volunteers. Cultivate new relationships. Recruit more volunteers. Be active in the district. Ask volunteers to share their thoughts and stories. These are all tactics that should be deployed when Congress or your state legislature is in recess. Don’t waste your “downtime.”
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