“It is not the strongest of the species that survives, nor the most intelligent that survives. It is the one that is most adaptable to change. “Not by Charles Darwin
In sales, if your sales people don’t make sales, you move them on. You replace them with sales people who can make sales.
When you pitch, if a potential new client does not want someone on the team, you move them off the team.
In lobbying, if your lobbyist annoys the very officials and politicians you need to have on board, you’ll move them away.
When the policy/political environment changes, you can evolve your language to respond to the new demands, or you can go and hibernate, until the tides turns back.
John Kingdon wrote about having a proposal and supporting evidence sitting in the filing cabinet for when the window of opportunity turns up, often out of the blue.
So, it came as a surprise to me to learn that many people in Brussels still live in the fairy tale land of the Green Deal. Their position papers, letters to the Commissioners, messaging, look and feel, still mirrors that old agenda.
They seem unaware of the political agenda mandated by the European Council, supported by much of the European Parliament, emphasized by the Draghi report, and increased by domestic and geo-political pressure has switched.
They use a language and evidence points that no-longer resonates with enough key people. It is as if they only want to talk to themselves or their fellow travelers.
It is common mindset to many. Over 28 years, I’ve seen the same brain fog descend on all – including parts of industry.
The consequence is the same. Interests are ignored by the policy/political agenda for the next 5 years, and often for longer.
I hope that interests have at least told their funders that business as usual is likely to fail.
Some however continue prosper. Those who adapt their language to speak to the values of the new agenda, find their existing policy asks co-opted and adopted. I’ve worked for them. They are the very few whose agenda was continued over time, in different guises.
If people don’t want to adapt, they could at least hibernate for the next 5 years.