Locating Internal Advocates

You may think that a particular group or organization would benefit from a civic reflection experience. However, if there is no strong advocate for civic reflection within the group, convening a conversation is extremely difficult and may waste time and resources.

To bring people to a conversation, it is essential to find someone within the targeted group or network who is respected—"one of their own"—and who believes that significant conversation around fundamental questions will help that group move forward. We call such persons internal advocates.

Internal advocates can help you identify likely participants, shape the conversation in appealing ways, and articulate questions for the discussion. Internal advocates can also extend personal invitations to potential participants that carry much greater weight than the most articulate impersonal invitation.