Team Building and One-on-Ones

The main focus of the campaign effort across the country, especially in swing states like New Mexico, is to build what are contrivedly called Neighbourhood Teams. In a departure from what has been done in previous campaigns where they organised along local electoral divisions called Precincts, the Obama campaign has thrown tradition out the window in favour of a system which aims to combine strong Republican precincts with strong Democratic precincts. The thinking is that the many volunteer Democrats in the strong precincts can help the smaller cohort in the weak precincts.

To build teams, first team leaders need to be identified. As you might imagine, this is an arduous process and involves ringing around many listed Democrats who often have no interest in taking your call. When a team leader is eventually identified, he/she is invited in to the office to have a "one-on-one" with the staffer that recruited them. A one-on-one involves exchanging "your story" with the staffer i.e. who you are, where you're from, why you got involved in the campaign etc. and then being trained in on what it is to be a team leader. Being somewhat out of the ordinary here in New Mexico and because I have been deemed to have an inspirational story, I have been asked to do a few one-on-ones. Talking oneself up and giving one's life story is certainly American but very un-Irish. Needless to say, I have been quite embarrassed doing the one-on-ones.

Once the one-on-one is over, the next job is to assemble the team. To do this, a house party is scheduled usually in the team leader's house. Over nibbles and refreshments everyone tells their story, including the staffer and team leader and the team leader and then they plan their first volunteer act together. Below is a photo of a team meeting I ran the other.

The whole affair from an objective perspective is a very self-affirming and gratuitous exercise but Obama's number crunchers certainly did their research because it does seem to work. People generally come away "empowered" and "fired up" (to use the Obamanology) and it acts as a tool to galvanise teams of strangers. The only problem with the system is that it has mostly ignored the local Democratic Party politburo structures and stepped on a lot of egos; something which may not be so bright considering the bitterness of the primary campaign and of course the fact that Hillary won in New Mexico, albeit by a small margin. But as I have come to learn here in Albuquerque, Team Obama always knows best.