The PICO Model

Submitted by Ryan Dowell Baum on June 17, 2007 - 4:08am.

The PICO model of community organizing begins with relationship. One of PICO’s ubiquitous organizing principles states it clearly: "Power is a product of relationship." This is not just any sort of relationship, however. Says Jim Keddy, an experienced pastor in the PICO network, "…our stress is on building public relationships, based on common self-interest, trust, and values…The goal of our relationships is to help develop leaders for public life…"

The development of these relationships starts with the 1-to-1, an intentional conversation between an organizer and a member of the community of about half an hour to an hour in length, designed to gain an understanding of the person’s deepest values, their fears, their beliefs, and their anger. Put succinctly, the 1-to-1 allows the organizer to get an idea of a person’s “issues.” Another PICO principle says: “Organizing is about people; people are about issues.” When communities have a clear sense of their common issues—-their common self-interest—-they can move on to their next step: research.

In the research phase, the Local Organizing Committee (LOC) and its members learn all they can about the issue they have chosen to work on, meeting people and educating themselves so that when the research is done, the LOC can accomplish the next step in the organizing process: the action.

An action is a public confrontation with a public official or institution. During an action, hundreds or even thousands of people are invited to be present for a discussion of the issues with those in power and to demand that the grievances of a community be addressed. The denouement of the action comes with the "pin," when a member of the community asks the key question of the present official: Will you work with us? Yes or no? In this moment, a striking message is sent. In the words of PICO organizer Rev. Don Stahlhut, it is this: "You have the opportunity to be a hero or a villain tonight. You choose." The official is free to work with the organization to address the issues in question. If that happens, a new and fruitful relationship is formed.

The next step is the evaluation, where the community ascertains the degree of success achieved by the action. This step is a particularly important one, for it is very easy for community members to be beguiled by the adrenaline rush of an action, without waiting to see whether or not the official confronted is true to his or her word. The action is not a success if there is no follow-through. As one of the PICO principles puts it: "The action is in the reaction." As part of the evaluation, the organizer and LOC members go back to doing 1-to-1s in order to determine the ways in which individual community members have been affected, or not affected, as a result of the action. The 1-to-1 is, after all, the organizer’s primary tool for the gathering of information within the community. PICO principle: “When in doubt, do a 1-to-1.”

These steps work together in a cycle so that community members are engaged in 1-to-1's, research, action, evaluation, and back to 1-to-1s, until their issues is effectively addressed

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