Robert B. Cialdini’s “Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion” should be read by every lobbyist and anyone dealing with civil servants and politicians. It would spare a lot of pain.
There may be another version entitled ” How Not to Influence People” going around.
Here are 5 things you can do today to up your game.
- Be Likeable – Don’t Insult People.
If you go and see officials and politicians and insult them by accident or design, don’t be surprised if you don’t get what you want.
I’ve sat in too many meetings when people have come in and thought insulting people, insulting someone’s friend/partners, suggesting an expert is a fraud, and old-fashioned racism and misogyny.
All those meetings led to the people doing the insulting, getting absolutely nothing, and usually ignored for the rest of the proceedings.
There is a way around this. You can stage an intervention. Host a rehearsal and open up a tirade of polite abuse, suggesting their evidence is worthless. It reads like gibberish, fit only for a post-doc panel discussion of 4 people, and has a loose relationship with the English language. You could go for a blunter approach if you like.
After a few minutes of abuse, people will be agitated. Stop, and say, “Now you know how x official/y politician feels when you meet with them”.
If they don’t change their ways, you are sure of one thing, you’ll never get any of the policy/political changes you wanted.
2. Practice Commitment and Consistency
I think this law is one of the most powerful. If you promise to deliver a report by x date and don’t, you can’t be surprised that it is ignored when you hand it over a year late.
I know of a large sector that participated in a many-year joint industry-NGO-government dialogue to prepare for a legislative proposal. The proposal that came out did not align with what they wanted. They then criticised the process. They reasoned that any conclusions/evidence that did not align with their worldview was wrong. Unsurprisingly, this led to most serious decision-makers on adopting the legislative file and ignoring their positions. This was inconsistent with all others who had participated – no one got everything they wanted – but all thought the process had been fair.
3. Honesty and Integrity
Officials and politicians must believe you practice the highest levels of honesty and integrity.
For a lobbyist, that means you must be consistently trustworthy.
For an organisation, it means you’ll be held responsible for the sins of your father.
You need to know this so you can understand how people are judging you.
You should be honest in all your communications. This means providing the complete data and evidence to officials and politicians that you use to support your case. If you paid for the report, say so.
4. Follow Richard Feynam’s advice
“The first principle is that you must not fool yourself—and you are the easiest person to fool.” Richard Feynman
I’ve sat in too many meetings in the Commission and the EP when people would come in and seem to have dropped intellectual honesty, self-awareness or critical thinking.
I recall one such meeting when some interests argued with great passion and authority that no substitute existed for something’s use, and if the measure came into force, we’d be entering the dark ages. This was confusing as it was clear from their competitors that substitutes did exist and were common. The measure came into force, and the dark ages have not yet come.
5. Practice the Golden Rules
I liked Edward Tufte’s advice below, which is good for meetings and public events.