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 decision-makers

• Direct targets

• Indirect targets

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

Message - audience matrix

Stakeholder audience

Think now Should think Basic message Proof

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

Do’s and don’ts

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

1) Come in too early or too late

• Know your policy process and timing

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

4) Being long-winded

• Get straight to the point

• Bring a clear position paper

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

Conclusions

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

Public affairs campaigns

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

Ethics

• Jurisdiction matters!

• Is lobbying regulated?

• Rules governing politicians, government officials and staff

EU

• Access to Parliament regulated

• Public register of lobbyists

• Members’ code of conduct