Positivity is a can opener for bike & transit activists to use when petitioning
A smaller version of Rebecca Solnit’s “hope is an ax”
Last year I wrote “A tactical breakdown of effective flyering,” but yesterday I had an experience that reminded me that I left out a key element to the story. Yesterday, I spent an hour collecting 22 signatures to put a safe street infrastructure funding measure on the local ballot. During that hour, a guy who gladly signed the petition saw me get totally ignored by the next people I approached. I didn't think twice about it and had moved on to getting other people's signatures. But afterwards the first signer stopped me and asked “how do you keep up the positivity when people blow you off like that?”
That is such a key question because petitioning is not about having one successful conversation. Petitioning is about trying to have hundreds of conversations in order to have dozens of successful ones. To effectively petition, knowing how to stay motivated is just as important as knowing how to have an effective petitioning conversation.
I told him that positivity is a tool and it's a choice. I recognize that I'm interrupting people's Sunday morning to talk to them about my thing, so I’m assuming they’ll ignore me. That means every productive conversation I have and signature I get is a win. Deeply understanding that makes it a lot easier to stay motivated and keep going. I thanked him for his encouragement and went back to the business of collecting signatures.
But for you, I want to elaborate on this answer. Strangers have every right and reason to ignore petitioners and they make frequent use of that right! People are going about their busy lives, and so it is on us, the petitioners, to make it worthwhile for others to stop and chat. This is one of the powers of positivity. It’s nice to be around positive people! It’s a lot more compelling to chat with a positive stranger than a negative one.
To these strangers, I’m just some random guy with a clipboard. If I approach them as some random surly, frustrated, angry, bitter or otherwise negative guy then they probably won’t ignore me— they’d run away from me. Positivity is both non-threatening and enticing.
Positivity can also be disarming. People’s guard is up around strangers, and a positive approach can help you overcome that while petitioning. I was petitioning on a gorgeous Sunday morning in a lovely crowded park, where tons of people were picnicking with friends and family. Great to have so many people to approach, but the people were engrossed in their experience of the park and not looking to chat about traffic violence with a stranger. So I took my positivity and used it as a can opener. I put on a big beaming smile and delivered my opening line:
“Hey, I’m rudely interrupting you to talk about traffic circles cause it should be safer to cross the street, are you registered to vote?”
Silly? Yes. Effective? Also yes. By being positive and acknowledging up front that I was doing a slightly rude thing by interrupting, we were able to hop right into the conversation. Additionally, I think the acknowledgment of the rudeness might be viewed as a sign of respect and helped create conversation openings too.
It is important to understand that positivity doesn’t mean naive, shallow, or denying of harder truths. Personally, I find the sort of positivity that pretends things are ok when they are not to be a bit unsettling. I’m positive that there are a lot of bad things in this world that need fixing. I’m also positive that we can fix those things to make the world a better place for everyone. Positivity isn’t always the right attitude to bring into an action, but when it comes to petitioning, positivity is a plus.
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