A recent edition of the Freakonomics Radio podcast encouraged listeners to ‘think like a child’. They suggested that when it comes to generating ideas and asking questions it can really be fruitful to have the mentality of an eight year old. That is a lesson for public affairs as well.
Whilst not necessarily suggesting that you should take your public affairs advice from an eight year old, taking thinking back to its basic building blocks can prove really useful.
The business as usual, or ‘that’s how we do things’, mentality can lead to sloppy political thinking and can mean that opportunities for engagement are either not identified or are lost.
Some of the best thinking and advice can often be the most obvious but sometimes it is overlooked as it is considered as being too simplistic.
There can be a tendency to overcomplicate matters and look to more complex solutions and campaigns where these are not required.
Overcomplicating matters can be less effective and will cost more. So start simple and build your way.
Think about these points:
- Who to talk to – and talk to them first.
- Consider a solution that is easy to implement – not a change in the law, not primary legislation, otherwise you are making things too difficult for government. Think about the implications of your solution in terms of ministerial agendas, Parliamentary time etc.
- Keep it in one government department – the more you open things up, the more likely disagreements are. Simple can sometimes be best.
- How are people going to respond and how are you going to respond to them? This isn’t quite the ‘elevator pitch’ or ‘Twitter pitch’ but the ability to express your case precisely and then be able to answer questions about it.
- Keep the stakeholder list as short as possible, not as long as possible – having friends and allies can be useful but start with a short close-knit group and stakeholders. They are more likely to be motivated and know that they need to do things otherwise there is no-one else to help.
So campaigns can benefit from being well-targeted rather than all singing and all dancing from the off.
Sometimes, even internally, the pressure to show activity can lead to complexity which may result in worse outcomes or no outcome at all.
So don’t be afraid to be a bit like your eight year old self and keep things simple and obvious. It might just pay-off.