A Simple Test I Use
Is there a sure thing to know if a campaign you are going to work is going to succeed or flop before you spend a cent? I believe there is.
I use a simple, but highly effective technique, to know if you stand a chance of getting what you want.
My simple test is to ask for a copy of a written ‘lobby plan’. Those plans that are clear, well considered, and brutally objective, tend to lead to victory.
If there is no written plan, the chances of success are at best low.
For reasons that are still not clear to me, many lobbyists and campaigners reject the idea of using lobbying plans.
Checklist Approach
I prefer to use to a checklist approach.
It’s an approach that works well for other professions, including aircraft pilots and surgeons.
These checklists have done much to improve safety and save lives for many and improve quality.
The use of checklists is often resisted by ‘professionals’. They’ll often claim that the situation they are dealing with is ‘unique’ or ‘special’. These claims are usually wrong.
For example, if you chunk down the steps in the journey of a EU Directive, from idea to publication, there are around 109 steps.
In practice, there are around 38 key proceures that I use frequenly. I use flow charts to chunk them down.
Many of those steps provide an opportunity to intervene and to influence the process.
Many of those individual steps have particular ‘rules’ of procedure, that if used knowingly, can assist your interests.
This goes for both ordinary legislation and secondary legislation (delegated acts, implementing acts and Regulatory Procedure measures). Indeed, some fields of legislation, like financial services or energy efficiency, have their own ‘special’ procedures.
Indeed, in every area I have focused, from fisheries to chemicals, a lack of understanding of the key steps will neuter your work from the very beginning.
For example, in fisheries, the stocks for many North Sea fish stocks are agreed to under a bi-lateral fisheries agreement between the EU and Norway. Whilst the EU may meet in the last days before Christmas at a Fisheries Council to agree quotas for the North Sea, many of the key decision have been taken under the EU-Norway Agreement.
Most EU laws are secondary legislation. I estimate around 97%. The procedures for adopting secondary legislation is much different from ordinary legislation. Yet, as many lobbyists a mono-focused on ordinary legislation, they overlook the contrasting voting rules for secondary measures.
This means that too often people step in at the wrong time, with the wrong arguments, and miss the chance to influence.
Why you need a lobby plan or why you should listen to Karl Rove
I could begin and end very quickly by simply citing Karl Rove.
“ First come the message and the theme. But, after you have agreed on what the message is, and what the theme is, you then need to sit down and write out a plan”.
As he simply puts it “If you have no plan, you will lose.” And, whilst, his comments are directed to political campaigns, they are just as relevant to lobbying.
In fact, I think his wise words (and I say this coming from a different political tradition, deserve copying:
“ The length of the plan may be a lot shorter and a lot more concise depending on the type of campaign.
But, you take the elements of the campaign and reduce them to writing and to numbers, and spread them over a calendar so that you have a concrete idea of what it is that you’re going to do and when you’re going to do it, and how much it’s going to cost.
Campaigns that plan tend to be campaigns that have a greater propensity to win because it means that they’ve made conscious decisions about what’s necessary to do, and when to do it, and to make certain that they have the resources in order to execute that plan.
It starts with the message and the theme and you need to take those ideas, what is that you want to talk about, and plan them out, when you’re going to talk about them, and how you’re going to talk about them.
All of this has to be agreed upon at the beginning of the campaign and committed to paper and then reduced to numbers (how much are you going to spend).
You have to follow through and evolve. … If you have no plan, you will lose. “
Whilst I don’t agree with is politics, I agree with his method.
Clarify your chances of winning early on
Putting your ideas and thoughts about how to deliver them on paper is powerful. Lazy thinking and incoherent jumps of logic are exposed. It’s only through putting thoughts down onto paper that the strength or the weakness of your case is exposed.
Snake oil salesmen, often masquerading as cheerleaders of a cause, may through the spoken word, whip their supporters up into a frenzy, and their wallets open up, to support their lobbying campaign.
The trick when you meet them is to ask for a copy of their ‘lobby plan’. Any such plan, will often expose that weakness of the case.
Circulating a written document in advance of a meeting gives others the chance to soberly consider the proposed path of action. This often leads to input that strengthens the plan and increases the chances of winning.
Helps you know what you need to do
The simple advantage of a checklist is that it spells out the steps that you need to take and in what order to take them.
In the heat of the moment, you are prone to overlook things you need to do. Sometimes you may overlook something important.
For example, in seconsary legislation, you are unable to include new ‘essential elements’ that change the enabling legislation. These are technical decisions that can’t stray into the realm of policy making.
Any attempt to alter the legislative agreement of the enabling legislation should be blocked.
Yet, on the odd moments when political expediency, lead the Commission to ignore their narrow discretion, to see either the Member States, the European Parliament, or an individual Member State challenging the measure once it has got through. It has happened. Running down a blind alley can be avoided.
I find the process coldly sobering. Many do not like this. I do. I find the harsh bite of political reality (or procedural and legal reality) helpful.
The alternative for me is like going into a morphine induced never world. It may be pleasant, but it masks a underlying condition, that will soon enough appear. It is, in my experience, better to know the reality of the your political condition from the very start.
Why most skip a lobby plan
There are many reasons why you may not prepare a lobby plan before you start work. I’ll consider the most obvious.
First, you are a thetan, whose abilities to discern the future are not of this world. As you can walk through walls, shoot fire from your finger tips, moulding EU legislation and policy to your will is child’s play.
Second, you may believe in telepathy. If you write a position paper, the thoughts and ideas laid out on paper will mysteriously filter through to the men and women making the decisions. All you need to is write out the position and your work is done!
Third, you may be put off by sitting down for a 5 hours to write out the plan, find out who you need to meet, find the evidence to support your case, and craft your message to words that persuade your target audience.
Yes, it is hardly fun. But, with some good music and coffee, your work is done quickly enough.
Finally, you have worked yourself into a frenxy of self-belief. You don’t need a plan, because the ‘animal spirits’ tell you that you are going to win.
Whilst ‘animal spirits’ may have guided Keynes and others, I prefer to rely on less meta-physical forces.
What’s in the checklist
A checklist provides a sober and objective set of steps.
When you go through the checklist, I find it helpful to do so like a surgeon with a detached analytiscal framework.
The finest regulatory scientist I know has the ability to separate his personal views, and look at the issue just as if he were on the other side of the table. At times, his assessments are off putting. He is able to predict with unnerving accuracy the points that will come up, the best (and worse) responses, and how to present the case. It is like he is able to get inside the head of those making decisions. He does this with the ability to separate this analysis from what his personal view point may be.
Background
[] What is the issue about – short descripition
[] Short background about the proposal’s development
[] What type of legislation/policy are you dealing with:
[] Ordinary,
[] Secondary
[] Delegated
[] Implementing
[] RPS
[]Policy
[] What stage is the proposal
[] Pre-adoption within Commission
[] Post -adoption First reading, Second Reading, trilogue, conciliation
[] Why are you working on it
[] Short description why the issue is important. You can’t work on everything.
[] Ownership
[] Who owns the project
[] Who is paying for the project and how much does it cost
[] Who signs off on any positions
[] Who is the team implementing the work
[] Who decides on any changes in the position
[] Your Goals
[] What is your real goal?
[] What is your policy objective
[] What are your advocavy goals
[] Research Phase
[] Have similar votes happened in the recent past?
[] What was the outcome
[] What lessons can be learned
EU Vote Watch is a very useful resource here.
[] Before you start talking to anyone you need:
[] What are your key messages
[] What is the evidence to support your key messages
[] How will others respond to your messages/case?
[] How will you respond to them? Base everything on the reasonable worst case scenario – the toughest questions will come up.
[] Research what your opponents are saying. What’s your response to their position.
[] Do you have the backing of the ‘key influencers’ who will carry your message?
[] Material/ key documents you should have
[] Narrative
[] One-pager / leave behind
[] Key messages
[] Q&A
[] Amendments
[] Letters
[] Legal opinion (if needed)
[] What supporting evidence do you have:
[] Data
[] Study commissioned
[] Study published
[] 3rd Party review
[] Rebutals to other studies
[] Who decides and infleucnes
[] Power analysis: list your potential allies and opponents
[] Identify the hidden ‘decision’ makers
[] List them – key 200/500
[] Verify their position
Social Network Analysis – knowing who makes the decisions
It may be stating the obvious, but you are not trying to persuade everyone to back you.
You just need the majority you need for that vote.
This means you need to focus on trying to bring together coalitions of MEPs and Member States. You don’t need them all.
If you identify in advance who you need to influence, both in terms of Brussels and the national capital, your job is going to be a lot easier.
It practice, whilst this list may be 500, there are around 200 your need to focus on and 20 who are core.
The challenge is that they don’t publish their names online, and rate their importance.
You’ll need to speak to people, look their details up, and put it down on paper.
Answer these 7 Questions
When you are dealing with public policy there are 7 questions you need to have the answers to. These 7 questions are the same 7 the European Commission ask themselves:
1. What is the problem and why is it a problem?
2. Why should the EU act?
3. What should be achieved?
4. What are the various options to achieve the objectives?
5. What are their economic, social and environmental impacts and who will be affected?
6. How do the different options compare in terms of their effectiveness and efficiency (benefits and costs)?
7. How will monitoring and subsequent retrospective evaluation be organised?