Rabbits caught in headlights
As a lobbyist, you need to see through other people’s eyes, especially the eyes of those whose support you need.
When you can do that, you can understand why other people behave the way they do. When you can convert what you want to say and do into someone one’s perspective, it is likely that they will back you.
It is an easy process to go through and the results are amazing. It helps you to get the right policy or political outcome a lot of the time.
For reasons that are still unclear to me, in Brussels this technique is hardly used.
Instead, most lobbying induces flashbacks to my two years in Hull and nmy uncompleted PhD programme.
A then colleague thought the best means of persuasion was to talk to someone about their doctoral research in linguistics in the Courtroom. The person he was speaking to bore the striking image of a scarred rabbit in the headlights. When a gap in the monologue of post-modernism verbiage abated, the rabbit ran as fast as she could to safety.
I’ve seen similar scenes repeat themselves over the last 25 years. Lobbyists thinking that the best line of persuasion was to emulate an acutistic savant let out the academic cloiseters for their annual field trip to political reality. It is all too common but I’ve never seen it persuade. It seems to persuade supporters but never the real mark – the person making the decision.
A Political One Night Stand
When people give you a free pass of political support, take it and shut up. You don’t need to care why they are supporting you. Politicians and officials have told me they’d support us or oppose us because who was backing us and a lot of other reasons not linked to the issue at hand. Politics can be a tribal game.
Again I have flashbacks to Hull to a good friend who decided to throw away a perfectly simple threesome with two Swedish air hostesses who approached him for a nice evening of consensual debauchery. Whether it was the vibe of pride night or sobriety, he thought the best way to seal the deal was to chat to the two beautiful air hostesses about his doctoral research into the rule of law. Even when reminded by the air hostesses that they were not interested, and only wanted to retire to their hotel room, it was not enough to block the impassioned explanation of an non-Marxist academic. He left alone that night.
Once you have support, bag it, and move on to get more support. You don’t need to know why they are giving you support on a vote. Treat it as a political one night stand, take the support, and don’t try and convert them to your way of seeing things. It’s likely going to lead you to walking away with no support.
If you want to moral, and accept only the right type of support, from fellow believers, you’ll go home alone.
Be Agreeable
Human behaviour is not hard to understand. People move towards what they find agreeable, and away from what they find disagreeable.
One of the most successful lobbyists I knew got so much done because he was agreeable. Being agreeable, being able to communicate with officials and officials, and make the complex understood was his secret weapon. It led to doors of Commissioners and Ministers always being open for him.