When unpopular decisions are made by government it can be all too easy to say that they have failed or simply do not understand. But the failing may really be closer to home…
Governments, if they are doing their jobs properly, should always be making decisions. Some of these come out at the time of set-piece events – spending reviews, budgets etc. Whilst others, such as Rachel Reeves’ recent growth speech, arise more out of an immediate political necessity.
When the decisions do not go the way that an organisation wants there can be a kneejerk response that the government ‘did not reflect our concerns’, ‘did not listen’, or ‘have ignored us’. It may be that none of those are true. The reality of government is that they face a huge number of often competing claims on their time, money, attention, and policymaking.
But rather than ranting about how poor the government is, we should always be prepared to challenge ourselves and really try to dig away at why the government came to the decision that it did.
Start by asking yourselves a series of questions:
- Did we reflect the motivations and priorities of the government? Did we really understand what the government was seeking to achieve by considering it previous statements, manifestos, consultations, speeches etc?
- Were we too inward facing? Did we focus on just thinking about our own case rather than the challenges that government would need to think about?
- Did we provide sufficient and robust evidence to make our case? We may have convinced ourselves (which may be all too easy) but did that transmit to other audiences?
- Did we have other organisations onboard and were they the type of organisations that government listens to?
- Was our reputation strong enough with government so that they would believe what we said?
- Did we pay attention to the position of competing interests, and respond to and challenge them in the eyes of government?
- Have you leveraged public opinion at the right time and in sufficient quality and quantity?
- Did you think about the need to develop long-term relationships rather than simply creating noise to attract immediate attention?
The simple fact is that any policy position or campaign is in competition with many others. When government does not make the decision you want, it may be that your position was not strong enough. Maybe the campaign was not good enough to win through. That can be extremely difficult to consider and accept. But a period of reflection puts you in a better position to go again and go again more effectively.
An initial government decision is also rarely the end of the discussion. It is the starting point for a longer, more detailed process over the course of months or even years. All these stages need to be engaged with as well.
Rather than blaming government when it does not make decisions you like, think about ways in which you could have been more effective.