Knocking Before You Plan: What Campaigns Miss When They Skip the Groundwork

The doors were real. The lists were accurate. The message was polished.

Still, it did not land.

We knocked. People opened. Some smiled politely. Others closed the door before the second sentence. We had the materials, the talking points, the field plan. What we lacked was alignment with the people we were trying to reach.

It was not a script problem. It was a listening problem.

And it was not the first time I had seen it.

The Temptation to Skip Ahead

In strategy conversations, time feels scarce and pressure feels immediate. Leaders are often told to go big or go fast. In that rush, it is easy to conflate planning with readiness. Polling results, message grids, and digital ad plans are useful tools. But none of them guarantee resonance without grounding in lived context.

Too often, campaigns mistake coordination for connection.

They mistake projection for participation.

They plan in a room and wonder why it does not work in the field.

This dynamic is not just anecdotal. Behavioral researchers call it the curse of knowledge. Once we know something well, it becomes difficult to remember what it is like not to know it. Campaign professionals steeped in polling and policy often forget that resonance begins where the audience actually is.

The truth is simple. Strategy that ignores the ground it stands on is almost always unstable.

What Groundwork Really Means

Groundwork is not a buzzword or a ritual. Done well, it is a disciplined inquiry process. It asks questions like: What is the local terrain? What relationships already matter? Where is the trust? Where is the exhaustion?

It means slowing down to ask not just what we want to say, but also who we are speaking with and what they are already saying.

Sometimes the insights are logistical. Canvass routes that ignore apartment buildings. A church network that got left out of outreach. Meeting times that conflict with people’s actual lives.

Other times, the insights are historical or emotional. A message that lands in one place crashes in another. A leader trusted by one community carries baggage in another. These are not mistakes. They are realities to be respected and navigated.

Groundwork requires curiosity, discipline, and deep respect. That is what it means to build strategy from the ground up.

A Story That Changed My Approach

Years ago, I worked with a regional campaign in a lull. Volunteer interest was flat. The message felt off. The energy just was not there.

At first, the team blamed seasonality and voter fatigue. But when we began talking to community members outside of our usual lists, a different picture emerged.

Our message sounded good on paper. But it rang hollow. Worse, it reopened old wounds from a past initiative that had over-promised and under-delivered.

The message had been tested. The strategy was approved.

But it had not been grounded.

We paused. We listened. We adapted. Language shifted. Messengers shifted. The coalition approach shifted. Slowly, trust and traction began to return.

They did not need a totally new strategy. They just needed a better starting point.

They did not need a rebrand. They needed an approach that began with people, not with materials.

Why This Matters

We live in a moment where people feel spoken at, not spoken with. Trust in national institutions is at historic lows. As of May 2024, just 22 percent of Americans said they trust the federal government to do what is right most of the time. That number has declined steadily for years.

Trust in local leaders and community-based institutions remains higher. But only when connection is built intentionally.

What works in Washington or on a donor call does not automatically hold up on the doorstep.

Grounded strategy does not mean abandoning structure. It means anchoring that structure in the complexity of real people and real places.

It means co-creating with communities, not just testing them.

It means treating local knowledge as strategic insight, not scenery.

It means building for dignity, not just for efficiency.

That is the work I believe in. And that is the work I support.

One Small Shift

If you are preparing to launch a campaign, design an initiative, or revisit a strategy that is not landing, ask these questions.

Who have we actually spoken with? Who are we assuming we understand?

What would it take for people to believe this effort is different?

What if we started from trust instead of tactics?

Groundwork is not glamorous. But it is where real strategy begins.

And there is data behind it. Studies of deep canvassing have shown that respectful, values-based conversations can shift attitudes in ways that last. Follow-up research has confirmed that these effects often endure, especially when those conversations center personal stories and shared values.

When people feel heard, they are more likely to listen.

If your team is navigating these questions, I would be glad to support you.

Learn more about how we approach Strategy from the Ground Up.

References

Birch, S. A. J., & Bloom, P. (2007). The curse of knowledge in reasoning about false beliefs. Psychological Science, 18(5), 382–386. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9280.2007.01909.x

Broockman, D. E., & Kalla, J. L. (2016). Durably reducing transphobia: A field experiment on door-to-door canvassing. Science, 352(6282), 220–224. https://doi.org/10.1126/science.aad9713

Kalla J.L., Broockman D.E. Voter Outreach Campaigns Can Reduce Affective Polarization among Implementing Political Activists: Evidence from Inside Three Campaigns. American Political Science Review. 2022;116(4):1516-1522. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0003055422000132

Pew Research Center. (2024, May 6). Public trust in government: 1958–2024. https://www.pewresearch.org/politics/2024/05/06/public-trust-in-government-1958-2024/