From time to time, I’ll meet someone who faces a disaster brought on by some legislative or regulatory decision that has just happened or is about to happen.
Sometimes the person recognises what is going to happen and asks for help. Most of the time, they don’t. They seem blissfully unaware of what is going to happen.
This is my simple checklist on what can be done.
Step 1: Have they moved on from the first stages of grief
These are the 7 stages of grief:
Stage 1: Shock and Denial
Stage 2: Pain and Guilt
Stage 3: Anger and Bargaining
Stage 4: Depression, Reflection, and Loneliness
Stage 5: The Upward Turn
Stage 6: Reconstruction and Working Through
Stage 7: Acceptance and Hope
If they have not moved quickly through stages 1-4, there is little that can be done. They need to know what they are facing and that there may be ways to avoid on minimise the impact.
Step 2. You need to help them embrace political reality.
If the problem has moved to stage 4, you need to tell them where they really are.
If the law is being adopted in the Official Journal in 2 days, come clean, and admit that the chances of stopping it now are getting theoretical.
Your challenge is that there will be many fellow lobbyists and lawyers masquerading as faith healers and claiming redemption at this later stage is certain, just if the person hands over a large cheque.
I’m not denying political miracles can happen, but I’m just always cautious about their likelihood of success.
If they know the realistic chances of success, you will sleep better.
Step 3: Can you identify the people making the decision.
On any ordinary legislative file, there are give or take 250 people deciding/influencing the decision in the Eu 27.
It really helps to know who they are. This is for 3 simple reasons.
First, you need to know who to contact to make your case. You don’t want to spend your time scrambling around digging information up.
Second, you or your network may already know some of the key decision-makers. You can speed up your chances of success by calling them to see if they will support you.
Third, you can amend the language you to support your case know what makes these decision-makers and influencers tick.
Step 4. Can you identify what is really driving the issue.
If you can understand what is really driving the issue you’ll be able to adapt your case.
I’ve found over 25 plus years why someone thinks is driving a course of action is rarely the real reason. People dream up, develop wild conspiracies, and ignore what’s being said, to suit their own world view. If you get drunk on the fumes of the inner babble you’ll never get to the real reasons.
This seems to a curse when a group of people get together. Locked away for days on end the group psychosis leads to David Icke conspiracies that would usually only be seen in a padded cell.
Step 5: Do the people making/influencing the decision trust you.
If the people making the decision don’t trust the person under challenge there is little that can be done.
Trust gets you the benefit of the doubt.
Sometimes you’ll be able to sway decision makers if you intervene on another’s behalf. But, be careful that the trust others have in you is not burned.
Step 6: Does your position speak to the audience.
A lot of arguments for a position seem to fall into one of 4 camps:
- Don’t do this, because it will cost me a lot of money, even though Society will benefit.
- The language used is so complex that only 3 other people in the world have any idea what is being said.
- If you do this, the world will end/we will all leave Europe/we will all starve.
- It is a bad move, but I can’t give you any real evidence or data to support what I’m saying. It is secret.
These are surprisingly common. I don’t know any case of them working.
I think the only way to persuade anyone is to identify their values, adapt your language to your audience, bring data and evidence to the table, and tell a good story.
You’ll notice I’ve not mentioned Social Media. I do so for a simple reason: I don’t think it works. I think it is useful to alert constituents about an issue and they can then reach out to their elected politicians. But, all the officials I know are too busy to spend time on Social Media. One of the most influential people in my field puts their success down to ignoring social media. And, after the London Mayoral election, I sense these are tools for marketing and creating an echo chamber.
Step 7: Do you have the right people to help you.
The answer in my experience is that most firms and NGOs don’t have the right people on staff to help them in these crisis circumstances.
I’ve met a few company political trouble shooters. The late Simon Bryceson spent many years politically saving companies and organisations from themselves. Simon and his like were rare individuals who could work across the political-corporate-NGO worlds. Simon came from the world of NGOs and politics, before switching to political consultancy. They are a small band. One of the most accomplished came from academia and government, to aid a multi-national through many challenges.
You’ll not find these people in marketing, legal or regulatory.
Step 8: Do you realise this is a political campaign.
If you face a major political hurdle you need to treat it as a political campaign. If you treat it is a regulatory or technical issue, your chances of success are near to zero. But, as that is the zone of comfort for most (in both firms and NGOs), most go down the wrong path.
If you don’t recognise the political nature of your challenge, you are lost.
If you think your challenge can be overcome by Tik-Tok campaigns and marketing, you are lost.
You need to run a political campaign. And, as you have not run or won a political campaign, you need to bring people onboard to do it for you.
Step 9. Do you have the resources?
It is easier and cheaper to stop an issue at the start.
But, if the problem has metastasised, you’ll need to spend time and resources.
Here most fail.
Campaigns in the EU 27 are not cheap. Start at €500K as an entry price.
Step 10. Are you serious about winning?
If you want to win, you need to have total focus on the one issue at hand.
This means dropping other things.
It means flexibility and a shift to action. You’ll even need to cut down on internal meetings by at least 95% and spend your time meeting the people making and influencing the decisions you want to change.
If you follow these 10 steps, your chances of getting what you want go up 10 fold.
Most don’t move beyond step 1- stage 1.