Lobbying is hard for a simple reason.
You think that the people making the decision (one of 200 odd people if it is legislation) share the same or a similar worldview that you have on the issue.
You are going to find it hard to comprehend that not everyone else does not agrees with you, for the same reasons as you.
And, you may get upset that most people – including the decision makers – don’t share the same viewpoint as you.
You will likely get worked up and start saying these people are devil worshippers or fools, who should not work on a file unless they have the same 25 years of experience as you, and agree with you on every footnote.
If you want that degree of intellectual consistency, I’d recommend joining a cult. There may be some brainwashing to go through, and slogans to learn, and maybe a highly selective book – L. Ron Hubbard has some classics – to memorise. But you’ll learn consistency.
Do you worship Sunny Starscout?
It is like you are a passionate believer in the life and work of my Little Pony. You work, maybe live with, equally passionate people (obsessed?) about the life and times of Sunny Starscout. You spend many internal meetings at work discussing My Little Pony, and spend even more internal meetings with other fellow believers. Yet, one day, you learn that other people don’t know about Sunny Starscout. And, when you go and tell them about her, they roll their eyes and demonstrate at best indifference.
You’d likely get annoyed and maybe angry. However passionate you convey your beliefs in Sunny and the Mane Six, people just show indifference. Your 20-page position papers don’t manage to shift interest your way.
If you switch out Sunny Starscout for your pet issue, you may start to glimpse why decision-makers run away when you engage them on your favourite issue.
How can you escape from Equestria?
The first step is that you need to realise that the magical kingdom you work in is make-believe.
Only then can you escape the cultish groupthink and realise that other people (the people making the decisions) see things differently, usually a lot differently.
After that, it is plain sailing.
You identify the people making the decisions.
You seek to understand how they see the issue. And, yes, there may be some with maps of Equestria in the office.
Then you provide your now sanitised points, with objective and evidence, to the people making the decisions.
If you are really interested in winning, you’ll do two more things.
You will present the case to the right people, at the right time, and in the right language (language that speaks to the individual), with viable solutions. No reading out of statements of faith.
And, if you are very, very serious, you’ll speak to their values.
What I’ve realised since escaping from Equestria many years ago is that many people want to stay there. It is a magical place. Sunny and the Mane Six make many happy. They just don’t win legislative, policy and regulatory decisions. Then they contend it is the hidden forces of the Legion of Doom at work,