The most effective way to get what you want to be taken up is to tell a story.
You can get everything else right, great evidence, solutions, position papers, submissions, a great campaign team, and superb execution, but if your story does not convince and persuade the audience of decision-makers whose support you need, your hard work is not going to pay off.
See this post on identifying your audience.
Storytelling has been around us for a long time, at least 30,000 years.
Instead of telling stories, many lobbyists prefer using Powerpoint, Excel files, and long position papers.
Using a story to sell your policy ask is not easy, but it is a lot more effective than all other techniques I know of, except for telepathy.
A story is the best way to sell an idea. Used well, a story can reach people and win them over.
I start from the premise that most people don’t know or care about your issue and point of view. You have things stacked against you from the start. So, you need to find a way of getting your audience to listen to and be interested in what you are saying quickly.
And, this is not for the small group of experts who know and care about your issue. It is not for your experts. Your job as a lobbyist is to persuade a small group of decision-makers (usually not more than 150 people) to throw their support your way, or at least, abstain. You don’t need to use persuasive stories with your own side. After all, if decision-makers saw the world as you or your client did, you would not be working to persuade them.
Confessions of an ex-Policy Wonk
I learned political storytelling the hard way. I’m a reformed policy wonk.
I realised that the best way to get political and public interest in an issue was not to publish another report or position paper but to tell a simple story.
Blue Fin Tuna overfishing in the Mediterranean became about a battle of good v. evil or the battle between the future of a majesty species v the Mafia/ Colonel Gaddafi.
I’m sure IUU, non-respect with MSY rules, and quota double counting, were big issues to many, but I found the only way that enough important people would be willing to step up was to tell a different story.
When you are telling a story to promote your public policy ask, it has to be based on reality. It can’t be creative fiction.
Once I got into it, I could not turn back. Find a way to explain fishing discards in the North Sea. What better than a celebrity actress, Gretta Saatchi, appearing in a nude fish photo shoot, in the Daily Mail a day before the Fisheries Council?
Stories take many forms. There are stories that convince, motivate, connect, explain, lead, impress and sell. They all have different elements you can use. Everyone is familiar with them, we grew up with them.
A storyline that hooks people can take is telling people about a rule and showing someone breaking it. People don’t like cheats and rule-breakers. Most people think the rules need to be applied to all.
When a Scottish fisherman broke Norwegian rules by dumping cod at sea and the video found its way to Norwegian prime-time news as EU fisheries negotiators came to Norway. It helped re-frame the issue and helped push the case for introducing similar rules in European waters.
French quota overfishing and the non-application of pay-back rules played well and led to the rules being enforced.
There are many ways to tell your story so it lands with the audience you are trying to persuade.
Some of the key stories you’ll tell.
A lot of your stories are about persuading non-experts. You need to get someone else, often someone you have just met, that they should trust you, and back you.
This is not easy.
You can try the tried and tested data dump, and slide deck, and maybe bring out some 70-page academic article/study you wrote during your post-doc. Whilst this is common, I’ve never seen it work.
I think there are some easier ways to make your story convincing.
-
The Magic Number 3.
Before you have told your story to an official or politician ask yourself this question “What three things do you want them to remember after you have finished telling them your story”.
Don’t go in and say “I’ve got 15 things to talk to you about”. If you do, they are likely to shut down. I’ve sat in those meetings, it does not work.
If you embark on a modern form of cognitive overload and waterboard the official or politician with too many ‘points’, they’ll end the meeting remembering none of them.
If you give them 3 points, that are linked, and flow, they are going to remember them, and more likely be persuaded by them.
3 points are fortunately about the same number of main points you can get on an A4, font 12, page, and Index card.
-
That’s Funny ….
A good way to tell your story is to combine data and visuals to help you see and show links between things that are not on the face of it obvious.
Highlighting contradictions
When working on fishing subsidies I came across a list of the beneficiaries of Europe’s industrial fishing fleets. With a bit of digging, a list of how much these vessels had received from the EU and EU national governments, and their picture (they were all large).
So, when we met with officials and politicians who supported continuing subsidies, I could say “That’s funny, can I show you how is getting most of the subsidies”. Most pulled their support for continued subsidies on the spot. We put the name boats, a picture, and the amount they got online. It was more interesting than an Excel file.
Highlighting coincidences
We highlighted the coincides that fishing fleets that were both profitable and sustainable all used a similar property rights regime. Even governments who opposed the system admitted that it was funny that the correlation was so strong.
-
Tell A Story With Data
If you want people to remember the data, tell them a story about the data.
Most officials and politicians won’t understand the raw data dumped on their desks.
Even if you make the data visually compelling, your audience may not digest it.
Here are some things you can do to help the data get digested by the intended audience.
-
Zoom Out: Tell a story that goes from a big to a little picture. We found this trend [zoom out] and for example [zoom in\
-
Detective: Show them the source of the data /evidence you are using to come to you used to come to your conclusions. If it comes from the organisations/experts they tend to use, you have the needed social proof.
-
Data Sceptic: Many officials and politicians can be sceptical about the data, some downright hostile. It helps to recognise this going in. Data won’t set you free.
I’ve seen many disputes where both sides shroud genuine policy disagreements around an interpretation of the data. I think it is easier to just acknowledge the real source of the divergence and move on beyond the data.
Knowing this, it is smart to acknowledge this, and ask yourself “What alternative conclusions can be drawn from the data”. It will at least help you get to grips when you present some data and find it used back against you for not supporting your case.
You need to make sure that the data you are using is not from the realms of fantasy and it needs to be accurate, credible and publically available.
-
Trust Me, I’m An Expert
If you are holding yourself, or your client, as an expert, you need to live up to the characteristics that we expect from an Expert.
An expert needs to display those characteristics/ values. An expert will show an independence of thought and action, and do the right thing even when it goes against the interests of those they are speaking for.
I’ve found the experts who have the reputation of paid mouthpieces of interests have little to no credibility with decision-makers. They are like Erhardt Von Grupten Mundt from the Academy of Tobacco Studies (c/o Thank you For Smoking). These are the experts who are happy to disprove gravity.
You want an expert who’ll give their personal expert view even when it does not align with the client’s view.
When commissioning an expert, there is one question that filters them out: “If I ask you to change the results because I don’t like them, will you do that?” The correct answer is “I’ll correct any factual errors, but otherwise no. You can publish the report, without using our name”.
I remember working with an expert at IFAW on Oil Spill legislation. He’d brought lessons from decades of working on oil spills in the USA. He gave his professional view on what worked and what did not work. His advice was taken up.
When at WWF, we commissioned a mid-term review of the CFP. The report was by the best experts we could afford to evaluate the scheme. We published the report even though a number of conclusions differed substantively from WWF’s view. Later on, the Commission appeared to co-opt most of the conclusions.
__________________________________________________________________________________
This is part of a series of posts. It is the product of a lot of practice and reading. I’ve been influenced by Chris Rose, How To Win Campaigns, (Chapter 2); Joseph Campbell, The Hero’s Journey; Christopher Vogler, The Writer’s Journey; Steve Rawling’s Storytelling Tactics; Jonah Berger, ‘Magic Words; Frank Lutz, Words That Work.
Dear Aaron,
Having become a regular reader of your posts, I want to thank you for explanations like the one in this entry.
This ability to expose complex issues through simple language with such clarity is quite a virtue. In fact, I had my mother read this post and she understood much of it.
Honestly, you should write a book compiling the topics you talk about in this blog, for those who want to be great in the future.
Thanks again