The Art of Persuasion
Pinnacle Communications training
Wednesday 18 April Workshop 3 your Stakeholder involvement
What are you communications objectives?
Change public opinion
Modify people’s
behaviour
Pitch for funding for an initiative
Influence legislation
Educate policy
makers
Examples of public affairs challenges
• Change legislation
• Maintain status quo
• Modify attitudes
• Head-off problems
• Secure consultation
Does lobbying differ geographically?
• Completely! It depends largely on the:
• Government or authority structures
• Processes/procedures
• Stakeholders and their importance on the process
What’s the issue?
• Determining if the issue is in fact a problem for your organisation
• Analysing the issue
• Establishing the best-case and worst-case scenario
Lobbying environment
Organisation
Opinion formers
Business partners
Trade & industry
Governments
Professional groups
Regional & local
community
Commercial targets
NGOs
Chambers of
commerce
Customers
Identifying targeted stakeholders
• Who are the opinion formers?
• How do they affect your lobbying efforts?
• Do any of these stakeholder groups change depending on whether the issue is local, regional or national?
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Stakeholder categories
•NGOs
•Consumer organisations
• ...
•Employees
•Management
•Contractors
• ...
•Media
•Analysts
•Commentators
• ...
•Customers
•Suppliers
•Partners
• ...
Direct Indirect
Latent Internal
What do we need to know?
Familiarity:
• what do they know?
Favourability:
• how do they feel?
Opinion drivers:
• what do they care about?
Channels of influence:
• who do they listen to?
Influence/Interest
The influence – interest grid
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Infl
ue
nce
Interest
High influence + high interest =high priority
Not interested + not influential
= low priority
The involvement – attitude grid
Involvement
Against For
Enemies: go out of their way to undermine you
Champions: go out of their way to support you
Neutrals not engaged; waiting to see how it goes
Cynics: criticise when opportunity presents
Willing helpers: happy to support if you engage them
The Case
• Develop many arguments:
• Employ the appropriate arguments to bring around undecided or opposition decision-makers to your point of view
Workshop
• What are you going to talk to decisions makers about?
• What is your message?
• What are your proof points?
Tactics - advocacy
• Advocacy and influencing
• Present your case in a way to lead the decision-maker to reach their own decision
Rules to lobby by
1) Align your interests with those of decision-maker
• Speak in terms of effects – effects on voters, employers and employees
• Understand role of media in consumer centric campaigns
Rules to lobby by
2) Do your research
• Know your issue
• Know your policy process, including the timing & rules
• Know your key stakeholders
• Know the key decision-makers, their background & when to call them
Rules to lobby by
3) Lobbying is about the exchange of information
• Be prepared to give the legislator information he or she can use.
• Provide evidence-based information
Rules to lobby by
4) Professionalism is the way to go:
• Ability to respond to new information is a critical step
• Never offer something you can later not deliver
• Provide full transparency of who you are, what you are there for
• Be able to spell out your position in a few sentences
Rules to lobby by
5) Be positive:
• Offer positive scenarios – why changing something is a positive step
• Make your case without being critical of others’ personalities or motives
• Explain why support is in the best interest of the decision-maker
Rules to lobby by
6) There are no permanent friends or enemies: • Don't take your traditional friends
for granted.
• Approach different political parties
• Lobbying is ultimately a business, albeit a very personal one
• Lobbying is in a special network –all the parts eventually work together at some point
Rules to lobby by
7) Build a bond, not a gap:
• Create easy, friendly, frequent communication with the legislators
• Prepare to devote energy and resources to maintaining the relationship
• Maintain active networking programme
Rules to lobby by
8) Be a partner:
• Look for allies among other organisations.
• Be accessible to legislators and other lobbyists if they have questions or need follow-up information.
• Insert yourself as a main protagonists of an issue
Rules to lobby by
9) Rome wasn't built in a day: • Aim for consensus rather than "victory"
• Settle for making progress toward your goal, getting the legislation passed, & fine tuning it in future
• Be prepared to build in pressure release mechanisms (review periods, sunset clauses, monitoring mechanisms, devolved detail to regulators, etc.)
• Keep the mission as main objective, be flexible on tactics
Rules to lobby by
10) Stay committed:
• Politics forms short term battles, but long term gains require years
• Continue building your base when the immediate issue is over
• Prepare systems that gauge your influence on the debate – refine and improve your approach during “down time”
How NOT to impress
2) Having unclear or inconsistent arguments & messages • Or arguments that do not relate to the appropriate policy
context
How NOT to impress
3) Being too technical or too fluffy • Match your communications to the style of the decision-
maker
How NOT to impress
5) Minimising or down-playing the decision-maker’s concerns
• Seek immediately to find common ground and keep it
How NOT to impress
6) Not knowing your decision-maker
• Tailor your messages and use those which you know resonate with your target
Key strategic approaches
Whether intending to inform, change attitudes or affect a change, techniques:
1) Thought leadership or policy shaping
• Expert with experience
• Non-lobbying element is greater
Key strategic approaches
2) Advisory
• Requires close relationship with decision-maker
• Advises decision- maker on debate, inputs from other actors
3) Coalition
• Wider entity
• Sharing information, combining strategies
Key strategic approaches
4) Grassroots – building up local support • Indirect lobbying
• More campaign mode lobbying
5) Changing the stage – about shifting debate to better arena • Delaying legislation for new
government
• Better for difficult issues that are no win for decision-makers
Campaign timetable
• Set a timetable for the entire campaign, based on regular deliverables and defined by resources available
• Co-ordinate with the legislative calendar
• The timetable should be agreed by all involved and not deviated from except when absolutely necessary
Assign tasks
• List all the tasks imaginable during the life of the campaign
• Assign all tasks to team members
• Set up a communications link to meet regularly
Constant checking & updating
• Continuous monitoring of legislative landscape
• After a campaign is launched, the legislative timetable is likely to change
• Keep up with changes because tools & tactics must link to the legislative landscape
Ethics
• Jurisdiction matters!
• Is lobbying regulated?
• Rules governing politicians, government officials and staff