Artful Passage of Montana Senate Bill 29
[A conversation with Senator Lynda Bourque Moss from the LS archives circa 2011]
The Legislative Minefield
Passing a bill that mandates new behavior is exceptionally difficult. When that bill involves alcohol sales, industry power, and public safety, it is almost impossible.
Senator Lynda Moss inherited a complicated challenge: the Responsible Alcohol Sales and Service Act. In Montana, mandatory bills are often killed by cries of "too much government," and the liquor industry has the power to make or break any politician’s career. Lynda knew that the typical approach—amending flawed laws by adding or deleting text in a backroom—would end in a stalemate.
Shifting the Focus: What Works Now?
The purpose of Appreciative Interviews is to “Discover and Build on the Root Causes of Success.” Rather than focusing on differences among rivals, Lynda illuminated what was working to address the problem.
In Appreciative Interviews, participants tell each other stories about how they successfully faced a challenge and identify what made them successful. In less than an hour, a group can identify the conditions essential for its success. This structure generates momentum and insights for positive change, and shows that social support is key to success.
Lynda took an unlikely path. She convened a room of rivals: MADD (Mothers Against Drunk Driving), tavern owners, convenience store associations, the Highway Patrol, and the Department of Revenue.
Instead of starting with the conflict, she used Appreciative Interviews. She didn't ask for compromises; she asked, "What works now?" This simple reframing sparked a mosaic of success stories:
Tavern owners shared how they reduced their own liability.
MADD mothers shared what actually prevented tragedies on the road.
Law enforcement shared what worked to manage the aftermath.
The Facilitator, Not the Law-MAKER
By tapping into the collective imagination of the room, Lynda shifted her role. "I was more a facilitator than a law-MAKER," she recalled. "Unlikely parties came together. All the amendments came from them, not me."
Through these stories, the group discovered their own Min Specs—the absolute "must-dos" required for everyone to share responsibility. They moved past the politics to three essential pillars:
Mandatory, Accountable Training: Including personal fines and license threats to give the law teeth.
Flexible Requirements: Respecting the reality of part-time workers.
Core Behavioral Skills: Training servers in the difficult social skill of simply saying "no."
The Result: A Groundswell of Ownership
Lynda introduced a new pattern for creating legislation that staffers recognized as novel and productive.
The pattern supporting passage of Senate Bill 29 was a ripple, easily copied to create bigger waves.
Because the bill was owned by the people it would impact, it developed a life of its own. In the final hour of the session, when a procedural threat emerged that could have killed the bill, senate staffers—who weren’t even directly involved—stepped forward to save it.
The inclusive, constituent-driven process had made the legislation something new. It wasn't "Lynda’s bill"; it was their bill. SB 29’s passage stands as a testament to the power of transforming divergent, siloed perspectives into a single, unstoppable wave of momentum.
Liftoff Questions
Where in your current work are you facing an apparent stalemate between opposing factions or competing commitments?
What changes if you stop asking "What do we need to compromise on?" and instead invite rivals to explore "What is already working?"
Stripping away all the baggage and politics, what are the absolute minimum requirements (Min Specs) needed to move your initiative forward together?
