Don’t shoot from the hip

by

President Carter’s Chief of Staff, Hamilton Jordon, was infamous for shooting from the hip. It harmed the Carter Presidency.

Early on in Brussels, I learned never to shoot from the hip. I spent months re-launching a report for a client that had been shot down by the Commission. It was politically dead on arrival.

The background was that after putting a considerable amount of time, resources and money, a report was launched to the press. The Commission performed a brutal demolition of the work, and the cause it sought to promote was set back by years.

I was brought it to rehabilitate things. It worked.

From this, I learned the following:

  1. Never go out unless what you say is watertight.
  2. Use real experts, not fake experts. They cost more, but they are worth it.
  3. Hand over the draft report to the Commission before it is launched.
  4. Give the Commission the opportunity to give feedback on the draft report.
  5. Remove any errors they identify.
  6. If the report does not add up, pull it.
  7. Preferably, before you start work on the report, ask the Commission who they would use to prepare the report, and retain them.
  8. Don’t hire anyone who will alter the report’s findings,  if you don’t like the findings.
  9. If the study goes against you, publish it. It will come out anyway. The world is too small.
  10. Publish a study, warts and all. If it looks too good to be true, it is.
  11. Publish the good, the bad and the ugly. If you try and come across as a supermodel, people will know you are faking it, and you have used digital airbrushing to make yourself look good.
  12. If you don’t have the evidence, don’t make it up.
  13. If you don’t have the evidence, go back to the drawing board.
  14. If you know the ‘evidence is out there’, but you can’t find it, but you know it is in the ether, it is a sure sign that you are delusional.
  15. Make sure you get the report and evidence to the right people and the right time. Publishing it the day after the deciding vote is pointless.
  16. Bring in an editor to make the report look amazing and understandable.
  17. Use charts, infographics, and visuals in the report.
  18. Put an executive summary and key findings up at the front.
  19. Bring in the expert author(s) in for the media launch. Make sure they get some media training.
  20. Brief the Commission about the report in advance in a face to face. No-one likes surprises.
  21. Host briefings for Perm-Reps, MEPs, Commission officials and stakeholders. Make sure they are separate. They are more open when they are not in front of each other.