In the first two decades of the 21st century, community organizers were increasingly enlisted by progressive foundations to help increase voter turnout among the "low propensity" voters in their communities, especially people of color and young people, groups largely "invisible" to the mainstream election industry. In many ways, the organizers-including those in the Ohio Organizing Collaborative, the group at the heart of this case-welcomed this opportunity, believing that it would support and reinforce their traditional organizing work. With greater voting strength, they reasoned, their constituents would gain leverage to advocate more effectively for their communities. But the OOC soon discovered that the goals and protocols of the election industry diverged sharply from those of community organizers. Organizing work was a long game aimed at creating collective power through trust- and relationship-building. Electoral campaigns were fast-paced and laser-focused on getting to "50 percent + 1." This case follows the Ohio Organizing Collaborative as it worked to find more effective ways to increase voter turnout in target communities and, at the same time, to better align its electoral work with the OOC's community-organizing values. Like other community organizers across the country, they tried to bring the strategies of "relational" organizing into their get-out-the-vote (GOTV) work. Their experiments yielded results that were mixed, interesting, and pointed the way to some new approaches in future. In addition to the written case, the case package includes a podcast supplement in which Prentiss Haney, one of the OOC codirectors featured in the case, describes his own stop-and-start path to community organizing-and how community organizers recruited and supported him, as a young adult, in a way that eventually persuaded him of the value of political activism.
In January 2015, when incoming Massachusetts Governor Charlie Baker chose Linda Spears as his new Commissioner of the Department of Children and Families, he was looking for a reformer. Following the grizzly death of a child under DCF protection in 2014, Spears, a former front-line child welfare worker who had gone on to serve as vice president of a Washington D.C.-based child welfare think tank, was hired to review the case and assess what had gone wrong in the DCF system. Spears concluded that the blame did not lie with individual staff workers, but with a host of systemic problems, some the product of recession-era budget cuts. She recommended dozens of reforms. Impressed by Spears' assessment of the agency, Baker recruited her to come to Massachusetts, head the child welfare agency, and implement her proposed reforms-and he promised to give her his backing. No sooner had she arrived than three disturbing new cases-two child fatalities and one near-fatality-dealt another body blow to public confidence in the DCF. At this point, the Governor decided the DCF needed more than reform-it needed an emergency intervention and a very fast turnaround. He sent his Chief of Staff and "fix-it specialist," Steve Kadish, to collaborate with Spears in righting the state's child protection ship as quickly as possible, with a high-octane all-hands-on-deck staffing-and-reform effort, using a popular project management tool called Agile/Scrum. For Spears and her team, the attention from on-high was both a source of pressure and a rare opportunity to bypass some of the usual impediments to rapid change in state government. She decided to lean in, and that meant figuring out how to make effective use of Agile/Scrum-initially created to speed product development in the competitive technology sector-in a very different environment: an agency of social workers working with complex family struggles and kids in need of protection and services. HKS 2251.0.
In this political strategy case, Oni K. Blair, newly appointed executive director of a Houston nonprofit advocating for more equitable transportation resources, faces a challenge: how to persuade a Texas state agency to substantially redesign a highway expansion project, already decades in the planning, in and around Houston? When Blair was appointed head of LINK Houston, in August 2017, the project-to expand, modernize, and re-route a 25-mile stretch of Houston's north-south highway, I-45, from the downtown center to the outer beltway north of town-was entering its final planning stage. Supported by powerful state leaders and stakeholders, the project was intended to address I-45's safety and capacity problems, but critics questioned the plan on several grounds, especially given its adverse impacts on Black and Latinx neighborhoods-communities that had also borne the brunt of Houston's highway construction in the past, a common pattern in American cities in the mid to late 20th century. This case, centering the perspective of Blair, was written in two parts. In the A case, students learn about the design of the project, the benefits claimed by its proponents, the dangers flagged by its critics, the history of highway development in Texas, and the perspectives of residents in the Black and Latinx neighborhoods that would be most adversely affected. It ends with Blair's realization that TxDOT's public participation process will never lead to a serious reconsideration of the project's design and poses the question, what should she do now? The B case picks up as Blair and her colleagues assess the political landscape. Who are the real decision-makers? And who might be in a position to influence them? It traces their battle within Texas to persuade the state to re-imagine the project-a battle that will eventually include a lawsuit, federal intervention, and a controversial political deal. HKS Case 2252.0
In this political strategy case, Oni K. Blair, newly appointed executive director of a Houston nonprofit advocating for more equitable transportation resources, faces a challenge: how to persuade a Texas state agency to substantially redesign a highway expansion project, already decades in the planning, in and around Houston? When Blair was appointed head of LINK Houston, in August 2017, the project-to expand, modernize, and re-route a 25-mile stretch of Houston's north-south highway, I-45, from the downtown center to the outer beltway north of town-was entering its final planning stage. Supported by powerful state leaders and stakeholders, the project was intended to address I-45's safety and capacity problems, but critics questioned the plan on several grounds, especially given its adverse impacts on Black and Latinx neighborhoods-communities that had also borne the brunt of Houston's highway construction in the past, a common pattern in American cities in the mid to late 20th century. This case, centering the perspective of Blair, was written in two parts. In the A case, students learn about the design of the project, the benefits claimed by its proponents, the dangers flagged by its critics, the history of highway development in Texas, and the perspectives of residents in the Black and Latinx neighborhoods that would be most adversely affected. It ends with Blair's realization that TxDOT's public participation process will never lead to a serious reconsideration of the project's design and poses the question, what should she do now? The B case picks up as Blair and her colleagues assess the political landscape. Who are the real decision-makers? And who might be in a position to influence them? It traces their battle within Texas to persuade the state to re-imagine the project-a battle that will eventually include a lawsuit, federal intervention, and a controversial political deal. HKS Case 2253.0
The rapid, sprawling growth of the Mexico City megalopolis-combined with industrialization, a fast-expanding fleet of gas-fueled vehicles, and a location vulnerable to deadly thermal inversions-led to a serious air pollution crisis in the city in the mid 1980s. Having neglected air quality for many years, government officials prioritized it in the mid 1980s, attacking poor air quality with some energy and a five-year package of reforms to address the problem from different angles. They recognized, however, that most of these reforms would require several years, at least, to yield results. Eager to do something with more immediate impact-and keen, too, to signal to motorists the serious negative consequences of driving-they decided to add a driving restriction program to their package: the Hoy No Circula ("No Driving Today") program. This policy required all private car owners to refrain from driving one workday per week, based on the last digit of their vehicle's license plate. The simplicity of the approach was its selling point. It could be implemented almost at once at very little cost, and, policymakers reasoned, should result in an immediate 20 percent reduction in traffic, Monday through Friday. In fact, the idea was so appealing that many other developing countries followed Mexico's lead, enacting their own versions of Hoy No Circula in the years that followed. In this two-parter, the A case introduces Mexico City's air pollution problem at the time, and provides the rationale for enacting Hoy No Circula. The B case explains what happened once the policy was enacted, and how policymakers responded to some of its unforeseen consequences.
The rapid, sprawling growth of the Mexico City megalopolis-combined with industrialization, a fast-expanding fleet of gas-fueled vehicles, and a location vulnerable to deadly thermal inversions-led to a serious air pollution crisis in the city in the mid 1980s. Having neglected air quality for many years, government officials prioritized it in the mid 1980s, attacking poor air quality with some energy and a five-year package of reforms to address the problem from different angles. They recognized, however, that most of these reforms would require several years, at least, to yield results. Eager to do something with more immediate impact-and keen, too, to signal to motorists the serious negative consequences of driving-they decided to add a driving restriction program to their package: the Hoy No Circula ("No Driving Today") program. This policy required all private car owners to refrain from driving one workday per week, based on the last digit of their vehicle's license plate. The simplicity of the approach was its selling point. It could be implemented almost at once at very little cost, and, policymakers reasoned, should result in an immediate 20 percent reduction in traffic, Monday through Friday. In fact, the idea was so appealing that many other developing countries followed Mexico's lead, enacting their own versions of Hoy No Circula in the years that followed. In this two-parter, the A case introduces Mexico City's air pollution problem at the time, and provides the rationale for enacting Hoy No Circula. The B case explains what happened once the policy was enacted, and how policymakers responded to some of its unforeseen consequences.
The Flint water crisis, which began in 2014, is widely regarded as a textbook example of structural racism and injustice. This teaching case provides a close examination of the building blocks of the catastrophe, some all-too-familiar in American history and others, more particular to the time, place, and circumstance of Flint in the 2010s. The case begins by tracing the economic and racial history that made Flint especially vulnerable to the crisis, then describes the string of decisions that resulted in the dangerous contamination of city tap water, followed by the battle by residents of Flint (and later, by outside allies and scientific experts) to force official government recognition of the disaster followed by changes to the city water system. The voices of the Flint residents are featured, alongside the decision-makers. The first section of the case summarizes the intertwined events, familiar to students of American racial, urban, and industrial history, that led once-booming Flint to become financially strapped and majority-Black. It describes the nature (and criticisms) of Michigan's evolving Emergency Management system. It explains the Flint water system and the reasons behind the fateful choices both to change the source of Flint's drinking water and to bypass standard safety precautions in making that change. The case then details the battle by local residents to force government officials to recognize and address the contamination of the drinking supply amid a cascade of devastating revelations about bacteria, carcinogens, and high lead levels in the water. The case ends in October 2015, with the announcement by Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder that Flint would be re-connected to its previous safer and pricier water source, Detroit's Lake Huron system.
As incoming President and CEO of the National Urban League in 2003, Marc Morial believed that promoting racial equity in corporate America was a natural part of the organization's remit. In the latter third of the 20th century, the NUL had helped individual African Americans secure employment in a number of major industries, but these successes were hard-won, time-consuming, and, most frustrating, isolated. Morial wanted to push corporations to move beyond their one-off diversity improvements to institute sustained, systemic advances. Yet how exactly to do that was not so clear. Despite its longtime relationships in corporate America, the National Urban League did not have any obvious leverage to push its diversity mission. But Morial found a way to increase the NUL's bargaining position in two ways: one, by joining forces with other civil rights groups and two, by seizing on moments when a company needed permission for an acquisition or merger. This leadership case focuses squarely on Morial and his thinking. It includes descriptions of Morial's personal and family background in New Orleans during the 1960s, a time of racial change and difficulty, and it includes background about the history of the National Urban League and its challenges to meet the 21st century civil rights landscape.
This leadership case package, a written case with a podcast supplement, describes the biggest challenges to confront four-star Admiral James G. Stavridis during two of his tours of duty-one as commander of U.S. Southern Command, or "SouthCom," the U.S. Defense Department's regional command for Central America, South America, and parts of the Caribbean) and one as the military commander of NATO (North Atlantic Treaty Organization). Stavridis came to SouthCom with a reform agenda. Understanding that he had a short window to act, he tried to impose certain cultural and organizational changes on the Command, relying on traditional military top-down compliance. He got compliance-but only temporarily; his reforms were rolled back as soon as he left the Command. Learning from this disappointment, Stavridis took a very different approach at NATO. Appointed Supreme Allied Commander of NATO in 2009, Stavridis immediately confronted a crisis: the U.S.-led Afghan mission was failing and losing support from NATO leaders. What's more, NATO was not a top-down organization. Decisions were made by consensus-and skills of persuasion were consequently paramount. The written case relates Stavridis' reflections about the challenges he faced in SouthCom and at NATO, and the strategies he employed to address them. A 20-minute podcast supplement ("Reflections on the Inner Life of a Leader: Adm James Stavridis in Conversation with Prof. Robert Wilkinson," transcript available) features a more general discussion about tricky challenges in leadership-such as how to deal with a person with whom you deeply disagree; how to structure key processes to gain agreement, how to keep emotions in check in difficult moments; and what personal practices help to keep an extraordinarily demanding life in balance. Case Number 2195.0
In 2012, the New Jersey Institute for Social Justice-an NGO dedicated, in large part, to criminal justice reform-led a campaign to enact a new state law in New Jersey known colloquially as "Ban the Box," which barred employers from automatically screening out persons with a criminal record when filling a job opening. The Institute had tried to pass such a law four years earlier, but in the face of concerted opposition from the business lobby, the measure had failed. The Institute decided to try again-this time with a smarter, more effective strategy. The case provides brief background on mass incarceration, the barriers to reentry for people with a criminal record, the rationale for the Ban the Box movement, and then provides a behind-the-scenes look at NJISJ's strategic thinking and internal debates. This includes information about NJISJ itself-what strengths and weaknesses does it bring to the table? What considerations will likely sway the state legislature and incoming Republican Governor Chris Christie? What approach to take with respect to employers? Which interest groups to tap, and how? What tone should the messaging take? In negotiations over the language of the bill, how far to bend?
Soon after Myanmar's longtime democracy crusader and opposition leader, Aung San Suu Kyi, was released from a long house arrest and elected to the country's parliament in 2012, intercommunal violence began to escalate in the western state of Rakhine between local Buddhists and Rohingya Muslims. Over the next five years, the long-persecuted Rohingya minority faced increasingly violent waves of attack, culminating in a humanitarian catastrophe in August and September of 2017 characterized by indiscriminate killing, mass rape, and the wholesale incineration of villages. To the shock of her many admirers around the world, Suu Kyi did nothing to try to prevent or stem the military-led attacks, nor did she condemn the military after-the-fact, instead accusing international monitors and fact-finders of spreading false reports. This case explores the evolution of anti-Rohingya sentiment in Myanmar and details the escalation of intercommunal violence against the Rohingya between 2012 and 2017. It describes Suu Kyi's reaction to the growing Rohingya crisis in these years, and ends with assorted theories about why a leader long revered as an icon for democracy, symbol of peaceful protest, and crusader for human rights-having finally become her country's civilian head of state-would choose not to take a stand against the brutal campaign against the Rohingya. Two other HKS cases explore earlier periods in Aung San Suu Kyi's evolution as a leader. "Icon of Hope" A/B (HKS870, HKS871) focuses on Suu Kyi's transformation from an expatriate living a quiet life in Oxford, England to an opposition leader and icon for democracy and human rights. "Aung San Suu Kyi, Seizing the Moment: Soaring Hopes & Tough Constraints in Myanmar's Unfolding Democracy" (HKS746), focuses on Suu Kyi's swift and challenging evolution from human rights icon under house arrest to de facto prime minister in 2016.
This 9-page version of Seizing the Moment primarily differs from the original in omitting a 4-page section that describes the early, confusing stages of Myanmar's democratization process. This leadership case is set in the spring of 2016 and gives students the chance to grapple with the difficult challenges confronting Myanmar's opposition leader, Aung San Suu Kyi, after a rapid turn of fortune took her, over a period of six years, from longtime prisoner of conscience to civilian head of state in Myanmar. The case describes the nature of Suu KyI's political role in Myanmar during her many years of house arrest and then shows how that role shifted in the years following her release. With freedom and an increase in formal power came new dilemmas, for example, whether to take an oath to a problematic Constitution, how to manage her star power vis-Ã -vis Myanmar President Thein Sein, and how to address intercommunal violence between Buddhists and Rohingya Muslims, an unpopular ethnic minority in Rakhine state. (See HKS case Fallen Idol? Aung San Suu Kyi & the Rohingya Humanitarian Crisis (2139.0) for a more detailed treatment of this last issue, which devolved into a desperate humanitarian catastrophe in August and September of 2017. Another two-part HKS case, Icon of Hope A/B (1685.0, 1686.0), focuses on Suu Kyi's early adult life and transformation from an expatriate living a quiet life in Oxford, England to an opposition leader and icon for democracy and human rights.)
Supplement to case KS1267. The U.S. choice to go to war with Iraq, beginning in March 2003, was enormously consequential. This two-part case, developed for an HKS course called "Power Shifts: Understanding Global Change Through History," goes back in time to trace the evolution of American policy toward Iraq prior to 9/11, and the shift in thinking that led to war with Iraq during the administration of George W. Bush. The two parts of the case cover different parts of the chronology. While each could be used on its own, they are intended for use together. The (A) case, subtitled "The United States & Iraq, 1980 to 2002," briefly summarizes US policy toward Iraq after World War II, in the context of the Iran-Iraq War, and during the Persian Gulf War. It describes the frustrations inherent in the "aggressive containment" approach in the decade following. The case describes Bush Administration thinking about Iraq before 9/11, and the shift in thinking after that attack, including tensions within the Administration. The case ends in September 2002, with a tense battle between Vice President Dick Cheney and Secretary of State Colin Powell over what President Bush should say about Iraq in his upcoming September 12 address to the United Nations. The (B) case, subtitled "The Road to War, September 2002 to March 2003," begins with the President's address to the UN, and continues with the Administration's efforts to persuade the U.S. Congress and the United Nations that Iraq was manufacturing WMD, the simultaneous pursuit of a diplomacy track while preparing for war, and negotiations with a critical U.S. ally, British Prime Minister Tony Blair. The case ends with President George W. Bush's ultimatum to Saddam Hussein-that he and his sons leave Iraq within 48 hours, or face war with the United States. Case number 2131.0
The U.S. choice to go to war with Iraq, beginning in March 2003, was enormously consequential. This two-part case, developed for an HKS course called "Power Shifts: Understanding Global Change Through History," goes back in time to trace the evolution of American policy toward Iraq prior to 9/11, and the shift in thinking that led to war with Iraq during the administration of George W. Bush. The two parts of the case cover different parts of the chronology. While each could be used on its own, they are intended for use together. The (A) case, subtitled "The United States & Iraq, 1980 to 2002," briefly summarizes US policy toward Iraq after World War II, in the context of the Iran-Iraq War, and during the Persian Gulf War. It describes the frustrations inherent in the "aggressive containment" approach in the decade following. The case describes Bush Administration thinking about Iraq before 9/11, and the shift in thinking after that attack, including tensions within the Administration. The case ends in September 2002, with a tense battle between Vice President Dick Cheney and Secretary of State Colin Powell over what President Bush should say about Iraq in his upcoming September 12 address to the United Nations. The (B) case, subtitled "The Road to War, September 2002 to March 2003," begins with the President's address to the UN, and continues with the Administration's efforts to persuade the U.S. Congress and the United Nations that Iraq was manufacturing WMD, the simultaneous pursuit of a diplomacy track while preparing for war, and negotiations with a critical U.S. ally, British Prime Minister Tony Blair. The case ends with President George W. Bush's ultimatum to Saddam Hussein-that he and his sons leave Iraq within 48 hours, or face war with the United States. Case number 2130.0
The SEKEM initiative, headquartered in Cairo, Egypt, was an unusual social enterprise by any standard. It produced organic products; provided health, education and arts programs to the local community; and-more broadly, sought to create a sustainable community that explicitly cultivated the human potential of its members. It reflected the vision of its charismatic founding director, Ibrahim Abouleish, who had run SEKEM with his son, Helmy Abouleish for more than 30 years. In 2017, SEKEM marked its 40th anniversary-a time for celebration, and also of transition for the initiative. Some of its challenges were typical of any organization at midlife. But for SEKEM, these were coupled with the loss of SEKEM's passionate leader, Ibrahim Abouleish, who died in the summer of 2017. In addition, SEKEM faced the challenges of operating in a country that had, in rapid succession, experienced a revolution, military coup, and economic collapse. The case details the history and evolution of this unusual social enterprise and tells of the dilemmas facing Helmy Abouleish and his leadership team at this critical juncture. Case number 2126.0
In the lead-up to the United Nations' 2015 climate summit in Paris, excitement ran high and so did anxiety. Negotiators hoped for a new international agreement, the first such effort since the disappointing collapse of negotiations six years earlier in Copenhagen. But the text of the agreement was still subject to debate. This case focuses on the efforts of one mid-level participant in the process, Josefina Braña-Varela, policy director for Forests & Climate at WWF. Her focus: to try to ensure that forest protection received a specific mention in the Paris Agreement. Two years earlier, national delegates had added a set of rules and standards called the Warsaw Framework for REDD+ (Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation) to the international climate regime. Under this framework, developing countries could qualify for payment in exchange for reducing deforestation or forest damage, or for introducing practices such as sustainable forest management. But participation in the program was entirely voluntary. It remained to be seen whether developed countries would provide enough funding to make it work, and whether developing countries would be willing to adopt policies to measure and reduce deforestation and forest degradation. In this context, Braña-Varela thought it crucial that the Paris Agreement send a signal that delegates viewed forest preservation not a side concern, but as an objective as critical as the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions from fossil fuels. Some negotiators were leery of doing so, however, for an array of reasons. The case provides enough background for the reader to understand the tensions over this issue, then follows Braña-Varela, a one-time forest negotiator for Mexico, in her new role at WWF. The case shows the strategic choices of a respected, but not especially powerful, figure, as she tries to influence a complex international process. Case number 2118.0
Regional governance, by contrast to municipal or state control, is the best level of government to tackle certain public functions-or at least, so it seems to most urban planners. Yet in many parts of the United States, it is all but impossible to build the political will to shift from local to regional governance. This decision-forcing case (which includes a video supplement, HKS Case 2093.0) places students in Detroit during the city's financial crisis and bankruptcy, events that set the stage for the controversial 2013-2014 negotiation to create a regional water system in greater Detroit. Set after an initial round of negotiations has collapsed, and a second effort is about to begin, the case challenges students to step into the shoes of the negotiating team, including the City of Detroit, three suburban counties, and the state of Michigan. It describes how Detroit's 2014 financial crisis and bankruptcy created an opportunity for regional governance, and also created conditions that made regionalization difficult. The case explores the history of distrust in city-suburban relationships, tensions over Detroit's management of the water department, the role of an outside emergency manager in setting negotiations in motion, and the reasons the first round of negotiations collapsed acrimoniously. A video supplement provides critical background on the reasons for Detroit's evolution as a majority-black city and the deterioration of its relationships with its majority-white suburbs, including racial discrimination, white flight, economic disinvestment and the controversial mayoralty of Coleman Young in the 1970s and 1980s. Case number 2114.0
In the first two decades of the 21st century, Copenhagen has vaulted to international attention for its enthusiastic bicycle culture and infrastructure. While it's tempting to dismiss this accomplishment as inherently easy because it took place in a city and country known for socially liberal politics, this case-by summarizing the history of cycling politics and policy in Copenhagen since the 1970s-shows that the evolution of Copenhagen as a bike city was neither quick nor easy, and that the city wrestled (and continues to wrestle) with many of the same conflicts that have hampered efforts to promote biking in other cities around the world. In so doing, the case invites a more nuanced analysis and discussion of the actual keys to Copenhagen's success. Case number 2113.0
In 2014, U.S. President Barack Obama called on Congress to raise the federal minimum wage from $7.25 per hour to $10.10. To the surprise of no one, Congressional Republicans blocked the move, as they had a similar proposal the year before. Seeing little hope of federal action, wage activists turned their sights on state and local governments. Riding a tide of popular support, dozens of jurisdictions voted in hikes in their own state and city minimum wage levels between 2012 and 2016. Focusing especially on the American South, which had historically opposed the minimum wage, the case uses this wage struggle as the point of departure for a review of the issues and arguments raised in this longstanding public policy controversy. Presented as a friendly overview of economic thinking for non-economists, the case explains why liberals and conservatives view the issue of income inequality so differently, why they disagree about basic wage data, and why they vigorously dispute the impact of minimum wage laws on low-income wage earners. Case number 2099.0