It is always worth considering what behaviours you need to demonstrate to ensure that you operate effectively in public affairs. Some of these focus internally within organisations, others are required as part of wider stakeholder engagement. Using the behaviours at the right time will increase your chances of success.
Too often in public affairs, the emphasis is just on the political. That can lead to a narrowing of focus and an obsession with the individual politician – who is up or who is down?; Parliament – what is being said?; and the media – what coverage can I secure?
Instead, it should be about the behaviours needed to secure effective engagement which leads to the influence on policy that you are seeking. So, despite its importance, it not just about the politics of a situation.
- Finding information – this behaviour not only means taking the time and effort to find the information, but also needs to be based on a clear understanding of where to find it as well. This type of information, often delivered by a monitoring system, is the life-blood of public affairs. Without this knowledge, organisations would not have a clear understanding about where it should concentrate its efforts and when.
- Summarising information – very often in public affairs we deal with complex issues and / or ones with a history and a long tail. Being able to bring all of this together and then summarise for senior executives and political stakeholders is a much-valued behaviour.
- Proposing solutions – some public affairs campaigns focus on blocking proposals and this can be required in some scenarios. Most, however, need to be based around the proposal of a solution. The solution will need to reflect what is realistic and deliverable both for the organisation itself, in political terms and also in relation to the policy (or Parliamentary) process.
- Testing arguments – it is also important that information and solutions are critiqued robustly. The arguments and the messages need to be tested to breaking point before they are put out to stakeholders. Everyone has to have faith in the points being made and if they can be easily rebutted then there is a problem and a solution will be further away than ever.
- Delivering information – the need to be able to deliver information is a behaviour that needs to reflect the nature of the stakeholder being engaged with as well. The delivery needs to speak meaningfully to the audience in a way that understands the pressures on them and, fundamentally, gets them to do something that they can actually do.
There are, of course, many other types of behaviours as well and a rich array of books which look at them in much more detail. This list is intended to help you focus on what is important in public affairs, and the types that inform our work. There are more personal behaviours about the need to work in teams, deal with colleagues and crucially develop those coming into the profession.
I’m always happy to learn about others as well.