It seems common sense to act rationally, and to accept political reality.
Acting rationally means not terming anyone who disagrees with you as ‘irrational’.
What is clear is that many lobbyists let emotions infect their thinking. This leads us to see things in ways that only plays to our ego or worldview.
It helps to try and subtract your emotions /client’s interests from your thinking. If you don’t put a guard up, you’ll cloud your judgement.
Be Politically Realistic
Just because you, or your client, want something to be ‘true’, does not mean it is so.
If you constantly face 650 MEPs and 24 Member States voting against your preferred position, you need to realise the political game is up.
It is surprisingly easy to find out if what you want is politically realistic. VoteWatch Europe allows you to check similar votes.
If you don’t trust the data, why not speak to the people voting on your issue. Speak to the people in Brussels and in the national capitals. It will help explain how and why they are going to vote the way they are. It is good to speak to them for quite a while before they vote. It will give you a good sense of whether you have enough allies to carry the day or face political defeat.
A lot of people believe all that is needed is that they speak to the close circle of political groups and think tanks who already agree with them. It is a dangerous approach. And, if you do, check how often that political group is on the winning side of votes in general, and on your issue in particular. If they are the political fringe, ignore their proclamations that victory is just around the corner.
What to do if what you want is unrealistic.
If what you want is unrealistic, there are three things you can do.
First, you can continue, ignore that defeat is likely, and run very fast into a brick wall. If you do this, it is best to inform your colleagues/clients, that this is the case. If you don’t let them know, they are going to get an unpleasant shock when defeat comes knocking or crashing through, the door.
Second, you can better understand why what you want is unrealistic. From those learnings, you can re-adjust your strategy and often who and what you say. I’ve found this is a successful course of action. It is only after you understand why you keep losing, that you re-assess, and see if you can alter to secure a win.
Third, you may realise that what you want is not available in the current policy cycle or the window of opportunity is closed. If that’s the case, think about if you want to sit this cycle out, and come back better prepared next time around.