Fast Track: Navigating Narrative Strategy, Power, and The Case for Justice
What if the fastest route to justice isn’t the longest march but a smarter strategy? What if it were possible to move our nation forward faster on the road to justice – even in the face of the current headwinds?
FAST TRACK is dedicated to the simple idea that we can have the just future we want and we can get there faster by deploying more thoughtful narrative, power building, and CaseMaking strategies.
In both published book form and in a video master class series, this book will challenge everything you think you know about narrative change, power building, and the case for justice.
Why this book. Why this Master Class. Why now.
The stakes are high. Communities are navigating polarization, resource constraints, and attention scarcity.
FAST TRACK distills decades of practice helping mission‑driven organizations create winning narrative strategies, build bridges between unlikely allies, build more power, speak truth to power and build public will.
Fast Track offers a bold roadmap for changemakers who are ready to stop inching forward and start accelerating real transformation. This isn’t a book about waiting. It’s a book about forward motion—moving with clarity, with courage, and in the service of community.
What you'll be able do after reading FAST TRACK:
Build a stronger and more effective narrative strategy that aligns with the case you're trying to make.
Accelerate the pace at which you can build power and create sturdier bridges of understanding that align more allies behind the work
Use strong casemaking and power building strategies to center social justice as part of your case.
Fast Track is a wake-up call for anyone committed to social justice but tired of spinning their wheels. It invites courageous leaders and good troublemakers everywhere to rethink how social change actually happens—and how we can make it happen faster.
Fast Track Master Class
Introduction to the Green Light Chapters on Narrative
Inside the Book and the Master Class
FAST TRACK takes you on a three‑part journey from clarity → alignment → action.
Part I - Green Lights
Tools for navigating narrative strategy, learning how to remove roadblocks, reframe stories, and unlock momentum in movements that feel stalled.
The Chapters:
🟢Narratives Are Traffic Signals to Justice
🟢It’s Not About You, It’s About We
🟢Who the Heck Talks Like That?
🟢Why Would Anyone Carry a Cell Phone?
🟢Your Opposition is Your Opportunity
🟢Stop Cutting the Edges Off the Ham
🟢Give Me A Hundred, I’ll Save You a Million
Part II - Fast Scooters
Part III - Airport Runways
A wake-up call on power and organizational readiness, challenging readers to ditch the clunky vehicles of incrementalism and instead ride with agility, adaptability, and alignment toward systemic change.
The Chapters:
🛵 We Can’t Go Back, But We Can’t Stay Here!
🛵 Who’s Holding the Mic? The Voices That Elevate Our CaseMaking Faster
🛵 Building Solidarity Before We Build Public Will
🛵 Changing the Energy in the Room
🛵 The Strategic Plan is Dead, Your Organization Needs a Case Statement
🛵 Centering Race and Equity as Part of the Case
A high-altitude perspective on lifting the nation's consciousness, exploring how race, equity, and historical redress must be centered if we’re serious about building a future where we all thrive.
The Chapters:
🛫 Racial Justice Needs a Runway and Pull Away from the Gate: Name the Elephant
🛫 Begin Your Taxi: Name the Opportunity Gaps
🛫 Accelerate Down the Runway: Position the Case for Racial Equity
🛫 Prepare for Lift Off: Reparations to Unite Our Future
🛫 Restricted Airspace and the Pivot on Race: How to Think About the Runway Now
Join the Fast Track Discussion Series
Be a champion for FAST TRACK. Get updates, shares the strategies, help put the strategy tools into the hands of the people around you who need to hear them.
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Share your examples of using the FAST TRACK strategies to win
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Hear from others around the country also using FAST TRACK strategies
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Participate in private Q&A salon sessions with Dr. Manuel
