Thank­ful­ly, my union, the Chica­go Teach­ers Union (CTU), has tried to change that wrong-head­ed per­cep­tion. The CTU works hard to train our mem­bers to under­stand that orga­niz­ing is grass­roots rank-and-file work. There are lead­ers every­where if you’re look­ing for them. Improv­ing our work­places and the lives of our com­mu­ni­ties are col­lec­tive tasks. We can all be orga­niz­ers, but there is an art and sci­ence to learn­ing to prac­tice good labor orga­niz­ing skills.

Yet, some­how, if you asked me if I was an ​“orga­niz­er,” I prob­a­bly would have said that I wasn’t. ​“Orga­niz­ers are the pro­fes­sion­als. I’m not a pro­fes­sion­al organizer!”

As a pub­lic high school his­to­ry teacher for 10 years, I orga­nized les­son plans and mate­ri­als and the arrange­ment of my class­room. I facil­i­tat­ed thou­sands of dis­cus­sions about his­to­ry with class­es of teenagers. I designed projects and guid­ed the stu­dents to achieve our goals and get excit­ed about learn­ing and putting in the work.

Secrets of a Suc­cess­ful Orga­niz­er—a new book from Labor Notes, by Alexan­dra Brad­bury, Mark Bren­ner, and Jane Slaugh­ter — is a per­fect primer on the basics of good orga­niz­ing. Dis­tilled into digestible bites, the book lays out eight main lessons — from how an orga­niz­er thinks, to how an orga­niz­er maps a work site and designs, car­ries out and assess­es a cam­paign. (It even includes a brief sum­ma­ry of labor law and relat­ed resources.)

Unlike many wordy and inac­ces­si­ble how-to man­u­als, Secrets of a Suc­cess­ful Orga­niz­er reads more like a con­ver­sa­tion with an expe­ri­enced and patient orga­niz­er, guid­ing you and reas­sur­ing you along the way.

You’re encour­aged to see that even read­ing the book can be a col­lec­tive activity.

“You could read this book alone, but you’ll learn more if you talk each les­son over with a bud­dy — or bet­ter yet, a group of co-work­ers,” it reads.

The book is designed to make this pos­si­ble through its orga­ni­za­tion and content.

Each chap­ter builds on the pre­vi­ous one to paint a coher­ent pic­ture of how to build bet­ter orga­niz­ers and orga­ni­za­tions, and have suc­cess­ful cam­paigns. The book’s eight lessons are divid­ed into 47 short­er tips, and near­ly each one includes down­load­able hand­outs, spe­cif­ic orga­niz­ing sto­ries and exer­cis­es you can do with co-work­ers or in trainings.

The per­fec­tion­ist in me loves the chart hand­outs. One explains ​“How the Boss Keeps Us Dis­or­ga­nized.” Anoth­er shows how to track tasks dur­ing an orga­niz­ing cam­paign, along with who is respon­si­ble and the dead­line for each task. While you’re read­ing, you might think things like, ​“Eas­i­er said than done!” but no soon­er than you have, the book antic­i­pates your con­cerns and, like a good orga­niz­er, inoc­u­lates you — giv­ing you rea­son to hope and telling you a real sto­ry to prove the point.

For exam­ple, the book pro­files Joe Uehlein, an orga­niz­er in a Geor­gia meat­pack­ing plant. He and his col­leagues used the esca­lat­ing tac­tics of singing, whistling and hum­ming at work to call out a union-bust­ing offi­cial every time he walked on the plant floor. Each esca­la­tion was a response to the boss try­ing to shut down an orga­niz­ing dri­ve with ridicu­lous new rules. The actions scared the boss­es and gave work­ers con­fi­dence in a short peri­od of time, which ulti­mate­ly allowed them to win a union. Tip #34, ​“Don’t Let the Boss Trip You Up,” then lays out the main tac­tics that boss­es use (fear, hope­less­ness, con­fu­sion and divi­sion) to stop organizing.

Some of the sto­ries are com­ple­men­tary and help orga­niz­ers not only see the tips come alive, but point out that the work­place con­text will often dic­tate what kind of tac­tics are best.

The sec­tion around Tip #25, ​“Choose an Issue That Builds the Union,” includes the sto­ry of Los Ange­les hos­pi­tal work­ers who orga­nized a cam­paign after man­age­ment changed pol­i­cy to man­date that work­ers pro­vide a doctor’s note even for a one-day absence. A sub­set of work­ers demand­ed a meet­ing with man­age­ment and, when it was held, work­ers took their 15-minute breaks in rotat­ing fash­ion to attend the meet­ing. One set of work­ers start­ed the meet­ing, then as work­ers had to leave when their breaks were over, new sets of work­ers joined. They were able to keep the meet­ing going as long as pos­si­ble and tes­ti­fy as to why the change was bad.

That sto­ry con­trasts well with that of the Penn­syl­va­nia social work­ers who orga­nized a pow­er­ful 15-minute strike by using the flex­i­bil­i­ty in their work rules to have all social work­ers take their reg­u­lar 15-minute breaks at the same time.

This sto­ry, con­tained with­in Tip #31, ​“Keep the Boss Off Bal­ance,” is sim­ple and inspir­ing, but the sim­i­lar­i­ties and dif­fer­ences between it and the sto­ry about Los Ange­les hos­pi­tal work­ers help orga­niz­ers draw on uni­ver­sal advice and apply it to their unique setting.

Addi­tion­al­ly, each of the sto­ries includes reflec­tions, quotes and hon­est assess­ments of mis­takes and accom­plish­ments from orga­niz­ers and work­ers on the ground.

For me, maybe the biggest les­son the book helped to ham­mer home is that we are often reac­tive in orga­niz­ing, but it’s impor­tant not only to respond to crises. To be our best pos­si­ble orga­niz­ers, we have to proac­tive­ly and strate­gi­cal­ly select orga­niz­ing issues that are the most urgent and impor­tant to the broad­est set of members.

Whether you’re a labor leader want­i­ng to increase work­er or mem­ber engage­ment, a vet­er­an orga­niz­er in need of a refresh­er or a new stew­ard want­i­ng an ori­en­ta­tion to best prac­tices, Secrets of a Suc­cess­ful Orga­niz­er is a must read.

Buy the book for $15 + ship­ping here.