The organizer's Canvas

What is a Canvas?
Canvases help us map out an idea. By visualising an idea on a canvas, something similar to
an artist’s canvas, the user can look at an idea from different perspectives, better navigate it,
and come to a better understanding of it through brainstorming, testing and continual
improvement.

A canvas is not a how-to document but rather a tool to support creative processes,
especially where there are alot of moving parts. By breaking down a complex idea into
smaller components, the user can easily shift between focusing on the finer details and
stepping back to see the greater whole. A canvas can show a relationship between different
parts of a key concept or provide analogies to stimulate the brainstorming.

Canvases can be sketched anywhere, on a whiteboard, a notebook or on the back of a

napkin. They can be printed out again and again, or can be projected onto a large surface.
They can be used by both individuals and groups, and are great for providing direction
during a brainstorming session. Filling one in can take anywhere from 15 minutes to few
days, especially if used in conjunction with larger structured workshops.

The organizer’s canvas

Organizing is a practice of leadership whereby we define leadership as enabling others to
achieve shared purpose under conditions of uncertainty. When building leadership to create
change, there are five key organizing practices: story, relationships, structure, strategizing
and action.

The process of organizing is dynamic and constantly developing. The organizer’s canvas is
a visual aid that help organizers think creatively around the organizing process. It allows the
organizer to focus on individual leadership practices whilst keeping track of how these
practices flow into one another to create the greater whole.

The canvas has the following features:

● Colours
● Heart, head and hands perspectives
● Sections and subsections
● Throughlines

Written and designed by: Benedict Hugosson in collaboration with the Leading Change
Network.
Colours - building power & using power
The colours on the canvas may be pretty but underneath they relay important concepts.
Working from the top to the bottom, the colours shift from colder blues and greens to warmer
reds and oranges. Organizing passes through the two phases. Firstly, building power
through story, relationships and structure, and secondly, deploying power through strategy
and action. On the canvas, the colder colours represent building power, whilst the warmer
colours represent using power.

Written and designed by: Benedict Hugosson in collaboration with the Leading Change
Network.
The heart, the head and the hands - people, power and
change.
Organizing is a process that engages the entire body, the heart, the head and the hands. It
requires us to use our hearts to evoke emotion, find common values, and inspire hope in
others. Organizing is also a practice of the head, through engaging others in common
strategy. It also requires us to to engage the hands, through combining with others in taking
collective action to bring about the concrete change that we want to see in the world.

These aspects, the heart, the head and the hands, are represented on the canvas through
the corresponding icons found in every section. Whilst no one section is totally one body part
or the other, the icons give us a starting point in which to start engaging that section.

Sections and subsections - the 5 leadership practices.

The canvas is divided into seven different sections. These sections are a deep dive into the
5 leadership practices found in organizing. These can be found below, with both reference to
the five leadership practices and descriptions.

Section Leadership Description

Practice

Public Narrative Story Incorporates the story of self, us and now.

Relationship Relationships Looks at both key activities for relationship

building building and how one can turn shared values
into common interests and resources.

I am organizing who Structure Provides a common purpose for the team.

to do what?

The snowflake - Structure Provides space for assigning leadership

Name (role) positions (with roles) to individuals. Facilitates
the building out of the snowflake/distributed
leadership structure.

Power & strategy Strategy A space for creating common strategy, looking
at power relations and resources, and
breaking down the change into a tangible and
Written and designed by: Benedict Hugosson in collaboration with the Leading Change
Network.
 concrete goal.

Tactics & timeline Strategy Focuses on breaking down strategy into

specific tactics, positioning them on a timeline
and assigning goals to each phase of the
campaign.

Task design & Action Provides space for creating tasks that
commitments motivate others to join us through motivational
task design. Looks also at how we will present
our ask so that more and more people join us
in collective action.

Each of these sections have their own subsections, reflecting both the depth and breath of
the content covered in the canvas. These subsection can be treated as individual sections,
to be brainstormed around, or a simple way of dividing up content after a brainstorming
session on the larger section piece.

Throughlines - key concepts running through individual sections

If you look closely, certain sections have been divided into subsections, not by dotted lines,
but by words. These are the throughlines. They represent key concepts of utmost
importance for the entire section, regardless of how many subsections the section has been
divided into. These throughlines can be found in the sections ​Public Narrative​ and ​The
Snowflake.​ The key concepts central to these sections are:

● Public Narrative:
○ Challenge, Choice and Outcome
○ Hope and Values
● The snowflake:
○ Purpose, Norms and Roles

Written and designed by: Benedict Hugosson in collaboration with the Leading Change
Network.
When to use the canvas
There are no specific do’s and don’t with the canvas. It is a creative work tool that is flexible
enough to be used in a variety of settings with a variety of goals. Here are some
suggestions:

Context Purpose When How

Training ● Provide a ● At the start ● Project it big on

shared ● Regular the wall
framework intervals ● Handouts
● Give an ● Reflection ● Drawn on large
overview of sessions sheets of paper
organizing ● After that the team
● Provide a brainstorming gathers around
common thread ● Presentations
and direction
● As an agenda

Team ● Launching a ● Team kick-offs ● Project it big on

building & team ● Regular team the wall
development ● Developing meetings ● Handouts
strategy during the ● Drawn on large
● Onboarding team’s life sheets of paper
new team span that the team
members ● Onboarding gathers around
● Coaching new team ● Presentations
● Revising members ● Online
strategy ● Evaluation collaborative
● Provide buy-in points or tools for
and common milestones brainstorming
purpose ● Team retreats and
● Facilitate a or gatherings documentation
learning culture ● Coaching
sessions or
team capacity
building
sessions

Campaigning ● Developing a ● Campaign ● Project it big on

campaign creation the wall
● Keeping focus ● Campaign ● Handouts
during a launch ● Drawn on large
campaign ● Regular sheets of paper
● Revising strategy that the team
strategy meetings gathers around

Written and designed by: Benedict Hugosson in collaboration with the Leading Change
Network.
 ● Regular ● Evaluation ● Presentations
check-ups points or ● Online
● Finding gaps in milestones collaborative
the campaign & ● Regular tools for
troubleshooting intervals during brainstorming
a campaign life and
span documentation
● When entering
new phases in
a campaign
● When the
campaign gets
stuck or
realities
change

Coalition ● Creating ● When bringing ● Project it big on

building common coalitions the wall
purpose together ● Handouts
● Safeguarding ● When ● Drawn on large
against coaliations sheets of paper
fragmentation fracture or that the team
● Combining conflict gathers around
organisations ● When roles ● Presentations
with different become ● Online
tactical unclear collaborative
repertoires tools for
● Specifying roles brainstorming
and grounds for and
co-operation documentation

How to use the canvas

Canvases can be used by a group, to generate ideas or fine tune them, whilst making sure
that all necessary parts of a great whole are present. Below you will find the standard
process for a brainstorming session in a small group.

Standard brainstorming session

This brainstorming session can be repeated for every section or subsection on the canvas.

1. Gather your team (5 mins):

a. Hand out post-it notes and pens.
b. Explain the purpose of the exercise.
c. Explain the process.
2. Brainstorm (5-10 mins):

Written and designed by: Benedict Hugosson in collaboration with the Leading Change
Network.
 a. Work individually.
b. Write one idea per post-it note.
c. Generate as many ideas as possible.
3. Presentation of ideas (5 mins):
a. Ask each individual to present their ideas.
b. Place the ideas in a brainstorming space (a white board or a large sheet of
paper).
c. Cluster similar ideas as you go.
4. Discussion (5-10 minutes):
a. Facilitate a discussion of the ideas presented.
b. Standard questions include; how similar/different were the ideas and why? Is
there anything missing? What could take these ideas to the next level?
5. Prioritizing (10 minutes):
a. Ask the group come up with evaluation criteria for selecting ideas. These
should be presented as a sentence i.e. ​Ideas should be actionable right away​.
Create as many criteria as needed. A good starting point is at least three
criteria.
b. Ask the group to vote of the their favorite idea. Each person has 5 votes that
can be distributed over the ideas any way the person sees fit.
6. Record the results (5 minutes)
a. Ask one person to record the results on the canvas.

Existing training tools

The Leading Change Network has a large selection of training tools that can be used in
conjunction with the canvas. It is recommended that these be the foundation of the work
done on the canvas. These workshops provide a more comprehensive overview of the
organizing knowledge and can be especially useful for those new to the craft of organizing.

Below you will find a table with an overview of the canvas and how these sections relate to a
standard 2.5 - 3 day training session. The syllabus and training manuals can be found on the
Leading Change Network website​. You will need to be a member to access these worktools.
You can join the network and become a member ​here​.

SECTION TRAINING MODULE

Public Narrative ● Story of self

● Story of us
● Story of now & linking

Relationships ● Building relationships

We are organizing who to ● Building leadership teams

do what?

Written and designed by: Benedict Hugosson in collaboration with the Leading Change
Network.
 The snowflake - Name (role) ● Building leadership teams

Power & strategy ● Strategy I

● Strategy II

Timeline and tactics ● Strategy II

Task design and ● Action

commitments ● Story of now

Thank you
A big thank you to the Leading Change Network for helping develop the canvas. A special
thank you to Rawan Zeine, of the Leading Change Network, for the work she did pushing the
canvas forward and making sure the product was tiptop. Also, a special thanks to those
Leading Change Members that contributed to the two workshops done on the canvas. These
people are Edith, Kim, Jake, Anand, Cecilia, Salma, Carolina, Megan, Matt, Rasha
Marco, Celine and Tamar. Without you guys, this would not have been the canvas it is today.
Finally, thank you Marshall Ganz for introducing us all to the craft of organizing.

If you have feedback on the canvas, feel free to email ​benedict.hugosson@gmail.com​. If you
would like to translate the canvas into your language, please contribute ​here​. You will find
source files for Illustrator here.

Written and designed by: Benedict Hugosson in collaboration with the Leading Change
Network.