Getting People Onside
Lobbying
Note: The following notes were written by a dozen people in four brainstorming sessions at the "Getting People Onside" workshop at LIANZA09 - I'm merely the scribe.
Note 2: When I originally wrote this up as a keyword people could talk about, I was thinking of intra-organisational lobbying, eg persuading a manager. In the workshop, people took it to mean more external/political lobbying. It being a participant-driven session, that makes them right and me wrong :-) - but I found it interesting to note that a lot of the thoughts people came up with below could apply intra-organisationally as well.
- Raise the profile of the library
- Identify target markets
- What their needs are and how can you meet them
- Offer an incentive - what's in it for them
- We are too meek?
- Make links with political parties
- Need to know who they answer to, what their steps are
- Know who has influence
- Who are the opinion leaders?
- Fit it into the organisation's strategic plans. Figure out how to tuck your plan (eg new branch library) into their plan (suburban revitalisation)
- Be very clear what you want and be able to explain it
- Document well, communicate widely and in different styles.
- Have a robust marketing strategy
- Be enthusiastic!
- Trying to find a voice
- Be visible
- Needs - what pushes buttons
- Political links
- People of influence
- Who are opinion leaders?
- Be clear on what you want
- Communicate often and in different styles
- Strong and robust marketing strategy
- Be enthusiastic
- Have a strong robust marketing strategy
- Advertise benefits
- Be open in communication and keep people informed
- Be proactive
- Identify target market - identify people, eg councillors, staff; lobby for each target
- Be enthusiastic
- Offer incentives
- Push yourself
- Make links with political parties
- Hook into their policies
- Target people of influence
- Who are the opinion leaders
- Learn the language and use it for management - basing argument on policies / plans. Go to meetings. Stratigic plan
- Be clear about what you want and what you want them to do
- Identifying stakeholders - who can make these decisions
- value to them
- marketing strategy
- networking -> fits into
- strategic plans -> see that plans are aligned
- Finding champions and getting their buy-in
- Communication, written skills - to make a clearcut business case proposal
- Tell a story, paint a picture, disover and create personal connections, so that they won't feel as if they are being lobbied
- who to lobby - targets - tailor messages to individual targets
- resistent staff
- allies - build your allies / network
- clear project brief / KPIs / outreach
- Identify different markets for your messages. Tailor that message so that it is attractive to them. They need to know that what they are coming for is critical/vital etc to their needs.
- Who do our clients/customers answer to / service / sell to?
- get statistics / info re background of your project
- telling a story / paint a picture / be relevant to the current situation
- find common ideas
- examine a politician's background and work with it to introduce your subject
- be positive / tell them positives
- turn politicians around! be charming, keep in touch / quick follow up
Don't waste a minute's contact with the big bosses - when you have the ear of people with the power (in meetings, in the elevator) then use it to get through your key message / ask for what you need
- Claudia Lux - personal success stories
- key phrases / phrase describes idea rather than long-winded report
- pitch @ emotions and personal connections - eg national library; background of MP - pull out hometown pics/images
- tailor/personalise - understand worth of library, how they help / can't live without
- follow-up - conversations etc immediate follow-up about passing conversation concretes client relationships
- clear project brief
- measurement
- getting an ally
- use all forms of communication
- research potential funders so we can know how to ask!
- enthusiasm
- raise profile
- different target
- management hierarchy
- customer
- council - meetings
- strategies - ie LIANZA - Labour ; not so many - national
- Need links
- think outside the box
- pro-active
- specific messages - hook -> value
except where noted
except where noted