Once every 5 years people in Brussels become interested in how to get their policies on the EU public policy agenda.
Here is my checklist of what I think is needed.
A Checklist to get your issue taken up
1. Clear ask and solution
2. Evidence
3. Written down
4. Window of opportunity an idea whose time has come. Not too early and not too late
5. Allies in the right places
6. Plan to get you there
7. Resources to get you there
8. Story that resonates with people making the decision
9. Campaign to get it on the agenda
10. Lobby to get it on to the statute book
Chris Rose in his campaign bible, ‘How to Win Campaigns’, goes into details for what NGOs should do. I think his advice applies beyond NGOs.
You need to do all 10 reasonably well. It also takes time and you need to be trusted.
10 Pitfalls
That simple set of actions is surprisinly hard to pul off. Here are some of the reasons:
1. Evidende – lack of
2. Not knowing what you want
3. Not having any allies
4. Sounding like a post doc academic panel.
5. Stuck in internal meetings, often combines with belly button gazing. People not interested.
7. Ignoring the people who make decisions
8. Stepping in too early / late
9. Not having the resources
10. Unable to campaign and lobby
A Deeper Dive
1. Clear ask and solution
This is the hard part. You need an issue that a policy ask can solve. And you have a clear solution.
There are a lot of probems out there where public policy can’t help. Politicians can’t grow money on trees or create plentiful clean energy by the wave of a magic wand. Policy makers realise the boundaries of what they can deliver. Meet them there and not in fantasy land.
This is usually the hardest step. Most efforts at policy change never really move on from here.
2. Evidence
You need real evidence to support your policy ask.
It needs to be available at the right time.
It needs to be seen as credible and objective. Your expert can’t give off vibes of Erhardt Von Grupten Mundt from Thank You for Smoking.
The data you use needs to be available in the public domain. It needcs to be verifiable.
It needs to be clear for the intended audience.
3. Written down
I’ve discovered over the last 30 years that a lot of information, answers and solutions, are stored in some clever person’s head. And if it stays there, and they don’t share with you what it is in there, you are going to be stuck.
There are two ways around this. You either deploy a telepath to get the information out of their brains, or you make sure what you need is written down.
4. Window of opportunity an idea whose time has come. Not too early and not too late.
The chances to influence are few. They are not all sign posted.
If you step in too early or too late all your good work is likely going to go to waste.
You need to know the real timetable and engage then.
A lot of chances are missed because people are stuck in internal meetings.
5. Allies in the right places
You need to know the people holding the pen and making the decisions.
They need to trust you. Out of all things in this post, this is the most important. I’ve seen weak cases taken up because people trusted the messenger, and strong cases rejected, out of hand, because the messenger was not trusted.
You need to pitch your issue in terms of their values.
6. Plan to get you there
You need a plan – written down- that details how you will get from where you are to where you want to be.
If it sits in your head it won’t work.
7. Resources to get you there
Policy change does not happen on the back of happy emojis and thoughts and prayers.
A lot of campaigns to bring about change simply fail because they lack the financial resouces and know how to get the campaign over the finish line.
8. Story that resonates with people making the decision
If what you are asking for does not make sense to the people making the decisions you have no hope. And, when your technical experts get hold of an issue, they’ll work their magic, and take the passion and interest out of any issue, and turn it into turgid complexity.
There is a simple device humans invented to communicate ideas. It has been around for a long time. It is called ‘a story’. Use it. It works,
9. Campaign to get it on the agenda
If you issue is in policy/political wildnerness you need a campaign. If you policy ask is only a hot topic in one of the many policy fetish communities that inhabit the policy dark web, it will remain there for a long time.
10. Lobby to get it on to the statute book
Great campaigns often fail because the people behind them don’t know how to get their great ideas into legislative proposals and adopted into law. So, you can do 1-9 exceptionally well, but you’ll fall at the last fence.
Much of this is dealt with in John.W.Kingdon’s ‘Agendas, Alternativesm and Public Policies’.
There is no mystery to any of the steps. For each part below I have on my files checklists, templates, and SOPs, and examples of good and bad practice.
And, to do all of this well is hard work and requries patience. It takes at least a year’s worth of work.