There is a school of thought that the geeks shall inherit the earth but that rarely seems to be the case (apart from Mark Zuckerberg). Knowledge and understanding of an issue is needed but good advice and strategy development is built on wider thinking. Do not just stick to the politics in public affairs.
There are some that have an encyclopaedic knowledge of candidates, constituencies and election results. All this is good and useful and shows that you know your politics. But good campaigning advice should draw more widely from a variety of sources. This means bringing in knowledge that may not strictly count as politics. This can be gleaned from a variety of sources and the best programmes are developed if they take these wider contexts into account.
A good dose of popular culture or an understanding of issues likely to come up in the future that are not even on the political radar yet can make all the difference to a campaign. Looking at issues in the narrow confines of political parties, Westminster and Whitehall, or Holyrood or Cardiff, may not provide the resonance a campaign needs. It can fail to make it, for instance, a postbag / inbox issue for politicians.
Here are a few ideas of where you can gain some wider inspiration.
- Newspapers – don’t stop at the front pages or the political pages, read the whole thing. It is also not just about the business pages but take a look at the culture section or what makes families tick in the weekend papers. The recruitment sections are not just there to see what jobs you aspire to but also show which organisations are changing teams which could mean a change in behaviour or approach.
- Podcasts – there are some brilliant podcasts on offer and they are free to listen to! You can stick to the political ones but why not graze more broadly? You never know what you might find.
- Talk to people outside your normal circle – some of the best insight and thought that I get comes from people who wouldn’t consider themselves to be involved in politics. If public affairs people just talk to themselves then this lessens their ability to think beyond politicians. It is the public affairs equivalent of engaging with ‘real people’.
- Read – good political biographies, across all the parties, can provide real insight into how decisions are made and how government works. Without wishing to sound too much a political geek, the Crossman Diaries remain essential reading in the same way that Yes, Minister remains essential viewing. Similarly programmes such as Decision Time on BBC Radio 4 draw in voices and opinions that you may not always encounter if you stick to the news and main political programmes in TV. But also add in blogs and journals and you can start to gain the wider perspective needed in campaigning. Don’t be put off by academic journals either. The one that I am on the practitioner panel for, Interest Groups & Advocacy, makes a particular effort to make the pieces accessible to those from the industry as well. It ‘seeks to stimulate academic and professional debate about the pursuit of political change in all its forms.’
All this should happen from the very start of a career in public affairs. Getting into these good habits from the very outset can only help. Many choose to focus on politics and even worse their ‘own’ political party. That can be fine in a bigger team but for many of those operating in-house or in smaller consultancies that can potentially narrow the range of the advice.
This is really a call for a wider perspective in campaigns and engagement. Being a political geek isn’t all bad but a public affairs campaign needs to demonstrate a bit more depth if it is to be successful.