Picking Your Shots: Advocacy & Politics
I grew up with sports: wrestling, footballs, swimming, track, and more. My athletic career culminated in college rugby at West Point.
I was always a 100% dive-into-the-action guy. In whatever sport, fervent activity was my main strategy and tactic. Rugby was perfectly suited to that mindset.
There was always someone that needed to be tackled or rucked (pushed) off the ball. The weaknesses of my fervent, but unstrategic efforts didn’t appear until playing international teams or in the college rugby playoffs.
My military training also made it clear that despite being over 200 years since Bunker Hill, I still hadn’t learned the lessons of combat patience or “wait until you see the whites of their eyes.”
One of my Ranger School Peer Evaluations put the issue most succinctly, “Ranger Kuntz is a strong Ranger, not a smart Ranger.”
The lesson of using strategically-timed effort instead of fervent overexertion didn’t sink in until I was advocating for better mental health screenings following military deployments after my stepbrother Chris’s death.
It was a grueling public fight with powerful politicians and organizations. I never done anything on that level before in my life. Yet, I didn’t have the time to give it the fervent effort that I thought I should.
I was a junior associate at a corporate law firm, only eight months removed from taking the Bar Exam. The main focus of my time had to be delivering billable hours for my firm.
I worked wildly hard in the first week or two of the advocacy effort. At that point, it was clear that for the first time in my life — I had to pick my shots.
This screening advocacy effort was a mouse among elephants on both the state and federal levels, so it had to fit into the overall political policymaking calendar and track the general tides of other organizations’ momentum.
Each investment my effort from myself or other volunteers had to be directed and specific.
Timing the shots worked.
Here is a list of all of the major milestones that from losing my stepbrother to the hidden wounds of war (March 4, 2007) to signing a bill on to systematize the mental health screening process around combat deployments for the entire Department of Defense (October 2010)
- March 4, 2007
- March 16, 2007
- July of 2007
- October of 2007
- Early August of 2008
- Late August of 2008
- January of 2009
- February of 2009
- March of 2009
- April of 2009
- October 2010
There were a series of targeted efforts scattered throughout those dates, but it wasn’t an every-day, all-day effort.
I had more time to work on it when I transitioned from practicing law to working for NAMI Montana, but NAMI Montana had pressing day-to-day priorities as well.
I had to get comfortable with letting situations develop and ripen until the time is right.
One of the biggest dangers to an advocacy effort or any organization is a leader’s need for constant activity — either to calm their own anxiety or to boost their ego.
It burns out the entire team, including the leader who keep dialing up the busywork.
You have to pick your shots.
p.s. I am reading Gautam Baid’s “The Joys of Compounding: The Passionate Pursuit of Lifelong Learning.” The book highlights many Warren Buffet quotes including this one. “In allocating capital activity does not correlate with achievement. Indeed, in the fields of investments and acquisitions, frenetic behavior is often counterproductive.” That quote was really helpful in shaping this post.
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The Treatment Scout website helps people find effective inpatient and residential care. It can also help you explore other intensive care options for mental health, addiction, etc. Find out more at http://www.treatmentscout.com/
NAMI Montana’s has a resource guide for every county in Montana. Check it out at https://namimt.org/montana-county-mental-health-resource-guides/
