After 30-plus years in sunny Brussels, I’ve seen some good and dreadful requests for support.
The Good
A good request for support goes something like this.
The decision has not been taken, and ideas are fluid; you are stepping ahead of time. There is a chance to influence ideas and move the needle.
If asked to turn things around from the cliff edge at 2 minutes past midnight, I’d recommend an honest assessment of the lateness of the hour.
Stage 1: Research.
Stage 1 is essential. It is usually ignored. All successful political campaigns have a major element of research at the start.
It helps identify at the start your likelihood of success and what you need to do to move the needle.
The challenge is that you need a 2nd opinion to get an accurate assessment. The impacted person, looking for support, may have a jaundiced view and may not be the best placed to know what the real issues are.
Stage 1: Research Elements
- An honest assessment of your case, the likelihood of success, and recommend how to improve your chances of success. I’ve never known the initial assessment to be accurate. Important shortcomings that, if not corrected, would have guaranteed defeat.
- Identify the windows of opportunity to get what you want (beyond miracles)*You’ll need a hook – a legal vehicle to get what you want.
I prefer agnosticism to wild belief in the intervention of higher powers – real or imagined – when making plans for the future.
- What do past votes/precedents suggest the outcome will look like?
- Trust assessment. If you are not trusted, it is going to be a high mountain to climb.5. Have the right evidence to change public policy and political decisions. You need this at the start. It needs to be credible. If you get this wrong at the start, you’ll flounder and fail.
Stage 2: Recommendations
- Put down on paper a plan to get you from where you are to where you want to beLikely to include some of the following 10 products/Services.
1. Key Decision-Makers-Influencers Mapping. If you don’t know who is making the decisions that affect you, and they change throughout the journey, your chances of success are curtailed.
2. Values-Messaging Alignment Playbook. Adapt what you want to say so it makes sense to people making the decisions. There is no point just speaking to yourselves and fellow believers. If they were enough, it is unlikely you’d need any help.
3. Persuasive Submissions. Most submissions in Brussels, e.g. positions papers, are gibberish. A well-written submission will stand out. Become the unicorn.4. Road Map – a detailed plan of how the decision/law you are trying to influence is really made, and the few windows of opportunity to influence it are key. If you don’t know the steps to get to where you want to be, the chances of getting there are at best low.
5. A sober assessment of the strength of your evidence, studies and solutions. If your case and evidence are weak, the chances of success are small. It is best to get this right at the start. Learning halfway through that your case is weak and evidence ignored, is a painful experience.
Stage 3: Get Stuff Done
- Work to be done to increase your chances of success.
Make your case land with the decision-makers.
Make sure what needs to be done gets done.
That means less internal self-talk in internal meetings and having a deep focus on persuading the people who make the decisions/vote.
30 years +
After 30-plus years, having worked for all sides, I’ve learned that if you want to bring about positive change:
- Mindset. No bursts of wild optimism. Grim realism. Success is not delivered by faith in the cause.
- The need for the right resources (evidence, solution and finance) at the start. If you don’t have the resources to do it right, for the long term, don’t start.
- Have slack to redeploy. Have 20% slack in the system. Important issues will come up. Have the capacity to step in.
Lessons Learned – Not What To Do
Do stuff for the sake of it – delivering paper leaflets to MEP’s post box.
If little to no hope, let people decide if they want to spend the resources and the heartache doing it. Just put it down in writing.
Self-belief that you are right and others are wrong is hardly ever going to be enough to carry you to success.
Step in late. When the political/policy death knell has rung, there is little to be done. That you can’t hear it does not matter.
Cheerleaders and the inexperienced – those who have not guided others across the burning coals safely a few times – will tell you what you want to hear, but they’ll not get you to the political/policy salvation you are seeking. They’ll commiserate with you.
You can ignore advice. It is your choice. The results are yours too.