Narrative-first, evidence-driven

Back to playbooks

Use when: you don’t know what to do, or you want clean leverage without spiraling.
Output: one clear ask + one measurable outcome + one next step.

This is the default move: turn emotion into something useful.

The promise

You don’t need to be a policy expert. You need to be:

• specific
• calm
• consistent
• measurable

Steps (10 minutes)

1. Name the problem (one sentence, plain words)
2. Pick one decider (the person/body that can actually move it)
3. Make one ask (action + date)
4. Define success (metric + timeline)
5. Offer one tradeoff sentence (optional, shows seriousness)
6. Make the next step easy (yes/no by date, staff contact, 15-minute call)
7. Log it (so you can be consistent)

Common failure modes (avoid these)

• Too many asks
• Vague asks (“do better”)
• Motive-mindreading
• “Here’s my whole worldview” emails
• Anger freelancing

Quick examples

• “Publish monthly data on permitting timelines and reduce average time by 25% within 6 months.”
• “Add two inspectors in the next budget cycle and report backlog weekly until it’s cleared.”
• “Hold one public work session before the vote and share staff analysis in advance.”

Done is better than perfect

One ask sent > ten hot takes.

Back to playbooks