particularly those who are most at-risk for missing critical elections. The group goes out canvassing in pairs, with one person assigned the role of trying to change people's minds and the other responsible for recording it on camera. Staying grounded in our real lived experiences instead of opinions. Neighbours United, formerly known as West Kootenay EcoSociety, developed their script over 1.5 years of script iterations, building off the learnings of many other deep canvasses and organizations, notably Montana Engagement Partnership, and in collaboration with the New Conversation Initiative, with support from Yale Program on Climate Change Communications. "He kept saying high school is hard for everybody. How much does a deep canvass program typically cost? Leadership LAB Conversation with a Voter about Transgender Rights, 2016(Video 8:30 mins). See video at 10:20 mins for script development process. You will also need a team of at least three full-time organizers, which is the majority of the budget, and you need a dedicated team of volunteers (ideally 200 or so). As a subscriber, you have 10 gift articles to give each month. Three months after the canvass, Broockman asked participants to fill out the survey again. The mans daughter, though, would have none of it: She practically pushed him out of the way to tell Riley they were a 10. What does it take to divert someone away from prejudice and toward greater acceptance of others in order to build support for progressive causes? He then did something few political consultants would advise: He introduced her to the oppositions favorite argument. One of the challenges at #KnockEveryDoor is to take a traditional organizing practice that assumes volunteers can be extensively trained and managed by staff and translate it into a distributed organizing model. A 2016 study in Science proved it was possible. Its about sharing and listening, all the while nudging people to be analytical and think about their shared humanity with marginalized groups. Finding common humanity. Its also quite a departure from standard political canvassing. Its almost the opposite of growing up today in the age of Facebook and political polarization, where its easy to always be among like-minded people, your self-isolation complete before you have your first beer., At first, Fleischer and his team tried cerebral arguments and appeals to fairness in their doorway conversations with same-sex-marriage opponents who didnt express deep religious objections. You can view some reportage on our ground-breaking deep canvassing in the New York Times. UC Berkeley, Stanford study finds canvassing conversations reduce That means not making assumptions based on the voters age, race or their religion. I think theyre wonderful. I'm David McRaney, and this is the final segment about deep canvassing. Let a person be who they are.. 1), Unpacking Deep Canvassing, Indivisible, 2021 (see right to vote video example at 19:49 mins), Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike CC BY-NC-SA, Contact a Commons librarian if you would like to connect with the author. Fleischer has an unwavering confidence in his ability to persuade most people to be more empathetic and less prejudiced, and his optimism is shared by progressive groups who train with him. They may come in organically through the website. The year before, a survey of more than 6,000 transgender and gender-nonconforming people revealed that an astonishing 41 percent had tried to commit suicide. Ella then managed the Leadership LAB project at the Los Angeles LGBT Center, where a team of more than 1,000 volunteers and staff collaborated to innovate new methods of voter persuasion and prejudice reduction and apply them on the ground to help win LGBT rights campaigns across the country. If youre talking about having real, quality conversations with voters, you cant bring that to scale without a really large number of people, says Tim Saler, a Republican strategist at Grassroots Targeting, which works to mobilize and persuade voters. Its not about listing facts or calling people out on their prejudicial views. The canvasser shares vulnerably about their own life and asks curious questions to create mutual understanding grounded in lived experience. Help put resources in the hands of change makers, Listening Partnerships and Deep Canvassing, Resistance School Video Course, Deep Canvassing whilst social distancing, Indivisible, 2021 (Video), Unpacking Deep Canvassing, Indivisible, 2022 (Video 54:08), Kimberly Serrano on lessons learned from deep canvassing, The Immigrant Learning Center, 2019 (Video 6:50 mins), Everything you need to know about Deep Canvassing, CallHub, Changing the Conversation Videos and Articles, For Your Reconsideration Podcast, This American Life, NPR, April 8, 2016. But there is a similarity, because at the root theres the feeling of being judged, of having someone make assumptions about you, and that does not feel good.. What a roller coaster of emotions," he says. These deep conversations, I suspect, may be more cost-effective in the long run because the impacts are durable, Serrano says. Nancy had no such seemingly relevant personal experiences, nor did she appear particularly concerned about bathroom safety. It can take six months or more for an organization were partnering with to get the hang of the method and recruit and train volunteers to carry it out. About Us - The Leadership LAB Fleischer then returned to his scale, asking Nancy what number felt right for her now. Topping and dozens of other canvassers were a part of that 2016 effort. Right, because otherwise you have the biggest secret in the world, and everyone thinks something about you thats not true, Fleischer said, before pivoting to a story about Jacksons being demeaned by a waiter in a restaurant. Still, Fleischer isnt ready to give up. Jeremy Bird, a Hillary Clinton adviser who was the national field director for Obamas 2012 re-election effort, told me that his team conducted a number of experiments to try to have a greater impact when canvassing. A typical canvassing conversation might have ended there. The activists and scientists I spoke to for this story all agree that you cant change everyones minds. He likes to say that he has been talking to people who disagree with him since he was 4. As several studies have shown, deep canvassing, which involves deliberately developing a nonjudgmental, empathetic connection with a voter through 10 to 15 minutes of authentic conversation, canif done properlylead to persistent changes in people's attitudes on issues like immigration and transgender rights. I have friends who are gay.. Armed with a no men in womens bathrooms message, anti-L.G.B.T. Beginning in 2014, the Leadership Lab teamed up with Planned Parenthood to canvass in support of pro-choice policies. The video ends like this. Deep Canvassing - Western Wisconsin Votes Williams says the man said he hadn't considered what that might be like. In this conversation, recorded in March 2016, a Leadership LAB volunteer speaks with a voter in Los Angeles about including transgender people in non-discrimination laws using the same approach that was studied by Broockman and Kalla in Miami in 2015. Learn from Netroots Nation about research from the field of deep canvassing and receive training on how to apply this grassroots learning to your own power-building and persuasion work. An excellent introduction to deep canvassing and the work of the Leadership LAB can be found in an April 2016 feature article in the New . People are resistant to changing their mind during an argument, the hypothesis goes, because it threatens their self-image. Theres still a script, but its designed to help the canvasser build a good rapport with a voter. Our team is made up ofamazing creative, organizational, and political consulting talent committed to achieving political and advocacy goals. How long does a deep canvass program typically take? Our organizing philosophy was outlined in the book Rules for Revolutionaries: How Big Organizing Can Change Everything which was co-authored by Becky Bond, one of the volunteer chief organizers at #KnockEveryDoor and featuring stories about several other co-founding staff and volunteers who worked together on the Bernie Sanders 2016 presidential campaign, including Texas Zack Malitz, Hannah Fertig, Lynn Hua, Sam Ghazey, Cole Edwards, Kenneth Pennington, Hector Sigala and Max Cotterill. There's this belief that if we just say the . But even if that happens, he says, it at least will encourage people to think deeply about the issues they're going to vote on. However, a modern technique of deep canvassing developed by David Fleischer at the Leadership LAB encourages canvassers to engage in one-on-one conversations with the intention of gaining understanding, building empathy, and finding common ground. Its a reminder that our political opponents arent always as rigid or ideologically severe as they appear in our minds. Social science experiments are usually conducted on college campuses, in a lab, in contrived scenarios. We have worked for candidates and causes, big and small, all across the country. gets them to begin thinking hard about the issue. Green, who was unaware of the deception, quickly requested a retraction. And in that moment, he points out that a transgender nondiscrimination law would help people who feel discriminated against at school or work. Leadership LAB - Los Angeles LGBT Center Volunteer's go door-to-door, talking to strangers, and often change their attitudes about things like same-sex marriage and transgender rights. It is a landmark study, according to Elizabeth Paluck, a psychologist at Princeton University who was not involved with the work. people, with a current focus on transgender discrimination didnt take to the golf-ball suggestion, but Fleischer wanted me to know that he is not opposed to stealing a good idea from the Mormons.. He said I blew his mind, and that he would never forget the conversation we had! Meg Riley, a 60-year-old Unitarian Universalist minister from Minnesota who volunteers with a racial-justice group, recounted her eventful day. Possibly. Oh, okay, that makes a lot of sense, she says. Were just beginning to learn how to do this well, but its important. PDF Book Club Synopsis The numbers get a bit bigger when you just focus on people who actually entered into the conversation, he says. Those basic numbers tell you something about just how willing most Americans are to have an open conversation with a stranger about these ostensibly divisive issues, Broockman says. We are still in the process of figuring this out. Second, we will provide volunteers with materials, including template scripts, data entry sheets, sign-in sheets, field training and debrief agendas, etc. Jeffrey Fountain/Courtesy of Los Angeles LGBT Center. Join us for the following two webinars on Effective Lobbying and Deep Canvassing, both presented by Olivia Chow and the Institute for Change Leaders in partnership with the Sustainability Network. In 2014, Fleischer and his team modified their canvassing work to persuade and mobilize voters by phone. ", The conversations are short, usually 10 to 20 minutes long. But after shooing the dog into another room, Nancy appeared in her doorway again. If the effect persists, Broockman says, the technique could be used to reduce prejudice across society. Were out talking to voters about an important issue Fleischer began, only to have Nancy excuse herself and walk away. Fleischer asked her to rate that support on a scale from zero to 10. Script structure used to guide SURJ-NYC deep canvassing conversations on reparations, A Qualitative Examination of Dialogical Elements in Anti-Racist Deep Canvassing Conversations, 2021 (Journal article see fig. Give me a few years, and I know Ill be a 10!, How Do You Change Voters Minds? They dont say if they are pleased or hurt by the response. The new research shows that if you want to change someones mind, you need to have patience with them, ask them to reflect on their life, and listen. As Fleischer returned to the discrimination she had faced, Nancy paused and said, It felt terrible. A few minutes later, when he asked her if she saw a connection between your experience and how you want to treat transgender people, she said she did. Have a Conversation, academic study referenced by the New York Times that was published by political scientists David Broockman and Josh Kalla, http://www.vox.com/2014/11/13/7214339/campaign-ground-game. Were asking voters not to discriminate, to be less prejudiced, and we need to walk that walk, she said. Instead of a script that lasts 60 seconds, volunteers spend 10 or 20 minutes talking with each voter. Ella then managed the Leadership LAB project at the Los Angeles LGBT Center, where a team of more than 1,000 volunteers and staff collaborated to innovate new methods of voter persuasion and prejudice reduction and apply them on the ground to help win LGBT rights campaigns across the country. Proven Persuasion and Inoculation: Breakthroughs in Deep Canvassing And the data shows it works. The impacts these conversations had on feelings of prejudice, Broockman admits, are about a third as strong. Is First Republic Banks failure sign of a slow-motion banking crisis? The idea is that people learn lessons more durably when they come to the conclusions on their own. Since 2018, as the cofounder of the New Conversation Initiative and the New Conversation Institute, Steve has been a key partner in the development, rigorous testing, and implementation of deep canvass programs on issues from climate to immigration and policing. But through deep canvassing, the activist is able to turn her around. hide caption. . Why Should My Campaign Consider Using Union Printers? In it, canvassers in three areas central Tennessee; Fresno, California; and Orange County, California went door to door and interacted with 2,374 voters in these communities during the runup to the 2018 midterm elections. A lot of organizers dont know how to motivate volunteers, and if they cant rally volunteers around the urgency or desperation of an issue its difficult to mount a successful deep canvass program. Deep Canvassing: Changing Voters' Minds Through Conversation - Leading It likely wasnt because someone berated you. In the video above, notice how the voter starts to come around on the issue when the canvasser asks if shes ever been on the receiving end of discrimination. Through a deep canvass, we can at times identify a voters deeply bias and prejudices, views that may not be identified through polling or focus groups but can be utilized by your opposition. The Los Angeles LGBT Center's Leadership LAB (Learn Act Build) specializes in deep canvassing and organizing through volunteer leadership development. (This definition is sourced from The New Conversation Initiative). Without in-person, full-time, paid organizers running all aspects of the operation, we are piloting a canvass model that is lightweight, easier to learn via online training, and depends on peer-to-peer coaching, encouragement and knowledge sharing among volunteer hosts, canvassers and support team members. For privacy information see the About page. Dave Fleischer, director of the center's Leadership LAB, welcomed the academics' independent measurement of its canvassing program. Jeffrey Fountain/Courtesy of Los Angeles LGBT Center How to talk someone out of bigotry with deep canvassing - Vox What do social scientists know about reducing prejudice in the world? Studies on deep canvassing suggest a conversion rate of 10%. "Canvassers asked people to talk about a time they were treated differently. Advancement Leadership Lab Over the next few minutes, she recounted several instances of racism after moving to Los Angeles from Central America with her husband. But this work isnt about that. Steve Deline has been organizing around the methodology of deep canvassing, across multiple movements, for 13 years. Video example of deep canvassing. On the issue of transgender rights, the woman seemed mostly supportive but stopped at a nine. Though there is scant research on transgender prejudice, what is known suggests transgender people face widespread prejudice and discrimination, Aaron Norton and Gregory Herek wrote in their 2012 study of heterosexual attitudes toward transgender Americans. Fleischer wasnt surprised; people rarely feel safe enough at first to express deep hurt. Dates: March 31 from 1:00-2:00 PM EST and April 7 from 1:00-2:00 PM EST. A new study finds that it works. Deep Canvassing Workshop 2022 Medicare for All Strategy Conference, HealthCareNow, 2022 (see example from 48:40 mins), Peoples Action Institute Deep Canvass Script, 2020, Peoples Action Institute (Report see pgs 8-9), Insights from Deep Canvassing: Proven Scripts for Transformational Outreach, The New Conversation Initiative, Netroots Nation, 2022 (Video), How We Can Reduce Prejudice with a Conversation, David Fleischer , TEDxMidAtlantic, 2017 (Video 16:51 mins), Unpacking Deep Canvassing, Indivisible, 2022 (Video See marriage equality example at 5:42 mins), Deep Canvassing: Changing Voters Minds Through Conversation, Leading Change Network, 2018 (Video 1:32:42 mins). Over the past few years, deep canvassing has been adopted by some progressive activist groups looking to not only change minds when it comes to policies on immigration and LGBTQ rights, but also to reduce prejudice toward these groups. Could it be used to wage conservative culture wars? We want to avoid asking for permission, she told them. Subscribe to the newsletter for new resources every month. The voters were followed up with by survey one week, one month, and several months after being contacted by the canvassers. After the canvass, the groups filled out four follow-up surveys, up to three months later. That changed everything, Fleischer told me. But when it comes to changing minds, they work. Deep Canvassing in Action - The Leadership LAB Grassroots, Psychology explains how to stop it. Think back to the last time you changed your mind about something important. Broockman and Kalla were intrigued by LaCours findings and hoped to replicate it for an experiment measuring the Leadership Labs transgender canvassing. Here is the script used by The Australian Youth Climate Coalition AYCC in the lead up to 2022 Australian election to talk about climate. Study Finds Deep Conversations Can Reduce Transgender Prejudice Volunteers may find #KnockEveryDoor through a variety of channels: An increasingly large body of political science research shows that the gold standard for moving a voter to the polls is a personal conversation between a volunteer and a voter.1 These conversations are the most powerful when they are in person, but they are also effective when a volunteer and a voter engage via the telephone. Approaching voters with emotional honesty and vulnerability. When we see racist behavior, we should call it racist and not be euphemistic by calling it racially charged. Arguably, theres a time and place for calling people out, particularly when it comes to powerful, influential people. I drew from a variety of models and teachings. Over 8 years on the LA LGBT Center's groundbreaking Leadership LAB team Steve helped create the tactic of deep canvassing. One group aired a lurid television ad of a man following a frightened, wide-eyed young girl into a bathroom stall. Jackson grew up as a girl, but he knew even when he was 5 or 6 that he was really a boy. See below for examples around particular issues including climate change and marriage equality. Canvassing needs to be managed. See also the AYCC website for more information about deep canvassing and an example of a useful Climate Conversation Report Tool. To Change Voters' Sympathies, It's Time to Go Deep I have to teach my hamster to speak Finnish today., Gardiner turned to the volunteers. There are three things. All Muslims are often blamed for single acts of terror. They are supposed to appear genuinely interested in hearing the subject ruminate on the question, as Broockman and Kallas latest study instructions read. It was only in his 20s that he started to tell his folks the truth, and he started making the transition to living as a man. Thats likely a lot of people. The groups feared a backlash against a recent ordinance that prohibited discrimination based on gender identity. Think of any of our recent elections nobody is winning these things by 10 or 20 points. I cant think of a campaign thats put more volunteers on the ground in a primary season to have quality, face-to-face conversations with voters, she told me. At the Leadership Lab's two-hour pre-canvass training that morning, volunteers were warned about "fake 10s," people who think of themselves as against discrimination many of them Democrats . I think people dont talk enough about the focus on persuasion we had, because the story line became, Oh, they won because turnout was so high.. "[That's] the moment I backed away from my monitor and said, 'Wow, something's really unique here,' " he says. Among those who started the conversation, there was a 7 percentage point increase for granting legal status to people brought to the US as children, he says, for example. Take a mental break with the newest Vox crossword, Sign up for the 4. Its much easier to put all your volunteers in a cozy phone bank where everyone gets to hang out and eat pizza.. Deep Canvassing with Dave Fleischer of The Leadership Lab Cost: $50 for both sessions (Also worth noting: Deep canvassing has only been tested with progressive causes. If he had his way, Fleischer would knock on doors with a golf ball. issues, he believes this kind of canvassing could change peoples thinking on everything from abortion and gun rights to race-based prejudice. He and several collaborators struggled for years to get to this point. I dont like seeing people mistreat Jackson. And finally, this method dramatically changes who volunteers on a campaignwe get a more engaged and self-motivated volunteer base when we tell volunteers to interact with voters as human beings rather than as robots. But how does it work? Her passion for social justice and teambuilding began in the woods of Timber, Oregon, where her family built a large community home around the core value of radical acceptance. That doesnt tell you about the person inside., On this particular day, volunteers would be canvassing in a predominantly black neighborhood, so Gardiner reminded them to be sensitive to experiences of race-based discrimination. Its not easy to confront people whose votes would seek to hurt you, and then try to change their minds. Eventually, the canvassers tried eliciting more emotional experiences. It is an extraordinarly rewarding experience, and you will come away with greater skill at talking with, understanding, and influencing a wide range of voters who are not just like you. LaCour denied the misconduct in a statement to The New York Times last year. This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged. Amazon.com: The Leadership Lab: Understanding Leadership in the 21st You can also contribute via. The canvassers thought the conversations were changing people's minds, but Fleischer says he couldn't know if it was working without independent verification. Connecting and Inspiring Voters Through Deep Canvassing - MyLO To me, protecting transgender people with these laws is just affirming that theyre human. Fleischer then steered the conversation to Nancys experiences with discrimination. In the runup, conservative news outlets were blaring headlines about a scary immigrant caravan marching north through Mexico to the US southern border.