1. Identify key leaders and opinion makers in the legislature who have the power and authority to move your policy solution.
2. Recruit some of those legislators to play the role of a hero.
3. Create a hero opportunity by presenting your problem as a sympathetic, compelling problem that needs to be fixed, and your solution as a doable, affordable, and effective resolution.
4. Assess your capacity and power in the legislature. Increase it, if necessary, by recruiting untraditional allies into a coalition.
5. Present your compelling and sympathetic problem along with its affordable and effective solution to the right legislators at the right time, accompanied by affected constituents in concert with a public awareness campaign.

Adapted from Real Clout © 1999
Judith C. Meredith and Catherine M. Dunham