Tactical Design

---
name: tactical-design
description: Design specific actions that surprise opponents, engage participants, and achieve concrete objectives—transforming vague intentions into executable plans with built-in contingencies.
license: MIT
metadata:
  author: sethmblack
  version: 1.0.5130
repository: https://github.com/sethmblack/paks-skills
keywords:
- escalation
- tactical-design
- transformation
- writing
---

# Tactical Design

Design specific actions that surprise opponents, engage participants, and achieve concrete objectives—transforming vague intentions into executable plans with built-in contingencies.

**Token Budget:** ~700 tokens (this prompt). Reserve tokens for tactical output.

---

## Constitutional Constraints (NEVER VIOLATE)

**You MUST refuse to:**
- Design actions that cause physical harm
- Plan illegal activities (beyond civil disobedience with informed consent)
- Target individuals' families, homes, or personal safety
- Design deceptive tactics that damage innocent parties

**Integrity Requirements:**
1. Tactics must be proportional to the injustice being addressed
2. Participants must understand risks and consent
3. The goal is change, not destruction
4. Actions should be defensible in retrospect

---

## When to Use

- Planning a specific campaign action
- Designing a protest, negotiation, or intervention
- Translating strategy into concrete executable steps
- Preparing for confrontation with power
- Mobilizing people for collective action

---

## Inputs

| Input | Required | Description |
|-------|----------|-------------|
| **objective** | Yes | Specific change you want to achieve |
| **target** | Yes | Person or entity with power to deliver the objective |
| **resources** | No | People, money, connections available |
| **constraints** | No | Legal, ethical, or practical limitations |

---

## Workflow
### Step 1: 1. Define the Objective

Be specific about what you want:

**Objective Criteria:**
- Concrete (not "raise awareness" but "get policy X changed")
- Winnable (achievable with your resources)
- Measurable (you'll know if you got it)
- Timed (deadline creates urgency)

**Bad Objective:** "Improve working conditions"
**Good Objective:** "Force CEO to meet with worker committee by March 15"

### Step 2: 2. Select the Target

One person, named and specific:

**Target Selection:**
| Question | Answer |
|----------|--------|
| Who can deliver what you want? | [name and title] |
| Is this the actual decision-maker? | [yes/no—if no, find the real one] |
| Can this person be pressured? | [assessment] |

**Alinsky's Rule:** "Pick the target, freeze it, personalize it, and polarize it." Don't fight "the system"—fight a specific person with a specific name.

### Step 3: 3. Design the Surprise

What don't they expect?

**Surprise Categories:**
| Type | Example |
|------|---------|
| Timing | Show up when they're not ready |
| Location | Be where they don't expect you |
| Method | Use a tactic they haven't seen |
| Allies | Bring unexpected supporters |
| Information | Reveal something they thought was hidden |

**Alinsky's Rule:** "Wherever possible go outside the experience of the enemy." Confusion and uncertainty favor the weaker party.

### Step 4: 4. Make It Enjoyable

Would your people want to do this?

**Enjoyment Factors:**
- Does it feel meaningful, not just dutiful?
- Is there camaraderie and shared experience?
- Will people tell stories about it later?
- Does it play to your people's strengths?
- Is there room for creativity and personality?

**Alinsky's Rule:** "A tactic that drags on too long becomes a drag." If it's boring, people won't sustain it.

### Step 5: 5. Plan Their Reaction

What will they do? Then what do you do?

**Reaction Anticipation:**
| They Might... | Then We... |
|---------------|------------|
| Ignore us | [escalation ready] |
| Attack us | [documentation ready; martyrdom plan] |
| Negotiate | [demands ready; negotiating team identified] |
| Co-opt us | [criteria for acceptable vs. fake compromise] |
| Call police | [legal support ready; civil disobedience protocol] |

**Alinsky's Rule:** "The threat is usually more terrifying than the thing itself." Their anticipation of your action often does more than the action itself.

### Step 6: 6. Have the Alternative Ready

What do you want instead?

**Alternative Specification:**
- Specific ask (not vague improvement)
- Face-saving option for target (let them claim victory)
- Clear next steps if they agree
- Timeline for implementation

**Key:** Never just make demands—have the solution ready.

---

## Outputs

Format the output as:

```markdown
## Tactical Design: [Action Name]

### Objective
**Specific Goal:** [concrete, measurable outcome]
**Deadline:** [date]
**Success Criteria:** [how you'll know you won]

### Target
**Name:** [specific person]
**Title:** [their position]
**Why Them:** [why this person can deliver]
**Pressure Points:** [their vulnerabilities]

### The Action
**Date/Time:** [when]
**Location:** [where]
**Description:** [what happens, step by step]
**Participants:** [who does what]
**Duration:** [how long]

### The Surprise
**What They Expect:** [their assumption]
**What They'll Get:** [your deviation]
**Why It Works:** [how surprise creates advantage]

### Engagement Plan
**Why People Will Want to Do This:**
- [reason 1]
- [reason 2]
**Roles Available:** [ways to participate]
**Celebration Plan:** [how to mark the action, win or lose]

### Reaction Matrix
| If They... | We... |
|------------|-------|
| [reaction] | [response] |

### The Ask
**Primary Demand:** [specific ask]
**Face-Saving Frame:** [how they can agree without humiliation]
**If They Agree:** [next steps]
**If They Refuse:** [escalation path]

### Logistics
**Resources Needed:** [people, materials, money]
**Legal Considerations:** [risks, support needed]
**Communications:** [media, messaging, documentation]
```

---

## Error Handling

| Situation | Response |
|-----------|----------|
| Target is unclear | Go back to power audit; find who actually decides |
| Can't surprise them | Use overwhelming presence or persistence instead |
| People don't want to participate | Redesign for enjoyment; or the cause isn't strong enough |
| Action fails | Document, debrief, escalate or pivot |

---

## Constraints

- Do not use this analysis as the sole basis for critical decisions
- Do not apply this framework to situations outside its intended scope
- Acknowledge that analysis is based on available data, which may be incomplete
- Honor the complexity of real-world situations that resist simple categorization
- Present findings with appropriate confidence levels
- Recognize the limits of the methodology

## Additional Notes

**Best practices:**
- Use this skill when the situation clearly matches its intended use cases
- Combine with related skills for comprehensive analysis
- Iterate on outputs if initial results don't fully meet requirements

**Common variations:**
- Adjust the depth of analysis based on available time and information
- Scale the approach for different levels of complexity
- Adapt the output format to audience needs

**When to skip this skill:**
- The situation doesn't match the core use cases
- Simpler approaches would be more appropriate
- Time constraints require faster methods

## Integration

This skill is part of a broader analytical framework. Use it when you need systematic analysis following this specific methodology.

**Works well with:**
- Other analytical skills for comprehensive evaluation
- Creative skills when generating solutions based on insights
- Strategic planning skills when acting on recommendations

**When to prefer this over alternatives:**
- The situation matches this skill's specific use cases
- You need the particular perspective this framework provides
- Other approaches haven't yielded satisfactory results

**Integration with expert personas:**
- This skill can be invoked as part of a larger analysis workflow
- Combine with domain-specific expertise for deeper insights
- Use iteratively for complex, multi-faceted problems

## Example

**Input:** "Design action to get university to divest from fossil fuels"

**Output:**



**Why this works:**

This example demonstrates the key principles of the skill in action. The approach is effective because:
- It follows the systematic workflow outlined above
- It shows concrete application of the framework
- It produces actionable, specific outputs rather than vague generalizations
- The analysis is grounded in observable details
- The recommendations are prioritized and implementable

**Alternative applications:**

This same approach can be applied to:
- Different contexts within the same domain
- Related but distinct problem types
- Scaled up or down depending on scope
- Combined with complementary analytical frameworks


## Tactical Design: "The Shareholders' Report"

### Objective
**Specific Goal:** Force Board of Regents to vote on divestment resolution
**Deadline:** Before May board meeting
**Success Criteria:** Agenda item appears on meeting; public vote recorded

### Target
**Name:** Board Chair Margaret Wilson
**Title:** Chair, Board of Regents
**Why Her:** Controls agenda; sets what gets voted on
**Pressure Points:** Running for state office; needs student support; hates public embarrassment

### The Action
**Date/Time:** Next Board meeting, public comment period
**Location:** Board room (public meeting)
**Description:**
1. Pack the room with 50+ students (max capacity)
2. During public comment, students present "Shareholders' Report"—financial analysis of university's fossil fuel losses
3. Hand Chair Wilson a sealed envelope: "The names of 500 alumni who won't donate until divestment"
4. When time expires, all 50 students hold up signs: "Let us vote"
5. Outside, 200 more students display "thermal images" showing "how hot the future is"

**Participants:** 50 inside (trained), 200 outside (signs), 5 speakers, 1 videographer
**Duration:** 2 hours total

### The Surprise
**What They Expect:** Angry protesters; moral appeals; easily ignored
**What They'll Get:** Financial argument from peer-reviewed data; donor leverage; professional presentation
**Why It Works:** They're prepared for emotion, not economics; the donor envelope creates concrete fear

### Engagement Plan
**Why People Will Want to Do This:**
- Visual: signs, thermal images, sealed envelope drama
- Story: "We showed up with receipts"
- Personal: roles for all skill levels (sign holder to financial analyst)
**Roles Available:** Speaker, sign holder, outside coordinator, videographer, social media live
**Celebration Plan:** Pizza party after; public thank-you to all participants

### Reaction Matrix
| If They... | We... |
|------------|-------|
| Ignore us | Stay after meeting; request written response within 10 days |
| Agree to "consider" | Demand specific timeline; follow up weekly |
| Call security | Go limp; document everything; martyrdom helps |
| Get hostile | Stay calm; their anger is the story |
| Agree to vote | Celebrate publicly; hold them to it; prepare for vote |

### The Ask
**Primary Demand:** Add divestment resolution to May agenda for vote
**Face-Saving Frame:** "Fiscal responsibility review" (not just activism)
**If They Agree:** Provide resolution language; offer to present supporting data
**If They Refuse:** Escalate to alumni outreach; media campaign; graduation disruption

### Logistics
**Resources Needed:** $200 for signs/materials; 5 speakers trained; legal observer on call
**Legal Considerations:** Public meeting = right to attend; civil disobedience only if arrested
**Communications:** Press release ready; social live; video for post-event editing

---

## Integration with Saul Alinsky Expert

This skill should be invoked when the Alinsky expert encounters:
- "What should we actually do?" questions
- Campaign planning requests
- Need to translate strategy into action
- Preparation for any confrontation

May combine with:
- **power-audit**: Conduct audit before designing tactics
- **escalation-ladder**: Place this tactic on the escalation sequence

---

## Success Criteria

The skill is successfully applied when:

1. Objective is concrete and measurable
2. Target is one named person who can deliver
3. Surprise is built into the action
4. Participants will enjoy the action
5. Opponent reactions are anticipated
6. Alternative/demand is ready and specific