HOW TO MAKE THE MOST OF EU PUBLIC AFFAIRS

Source: European Training Academy Webinar András Baneth, Director with Diederik Peereboom, Former Director at Burson-Marsteller now Secretary General of T&D Europe the European association of the electricity transmission and distribution equipment and services industry.

Original Text has been edited 

Public affairs is very much an overarching concept, which involves communication and lobbying and is basically the management of the external environment of organisations, companies but also non-profit organisations or even governments. Typically, they involve a series of activities ranging from government relations, communications, issues managements, corporate citizenship strategies, public policy often linked to the reputation of the organization but also stakeholders in terms of the dynamic and diverse environment that you are trying to manage when you are conducting public affairs.

1. Set Clear Objectives: The reason why it is so important to set clear objectives is that you need to know as an organisation, as a group and as a team, what you want to achieve, what is it that you are trying to do because there are thousands things you could do but the question is what you can do with your limited resources and within the time you have available. A really important aspect of designing any public affairs campaign is to think clearly through what the objectives are. People are often very enthusiastic and keen to jump into all sorts of activities that could be counted as public affairs activities without necessarily having thought them through carefully. This often leads somewhere along the process to a hiccup or difficult decisions having to be thought through, which does not really help the momentum of any campaign. Thus, the objectives provide you the focus of what you are trying to achieve but they are also very important because in the course of your campaign, they will allow you to see how much you have progressed towards reaching them. This in turn is important if it is necessary to modify your strategy whereas it can also be very motivational to see that there is actually some progress being made, thanks to the activities that one has conducted. Finally, at the end of each exercise, it will allow you to measure your success since in many organisations, there is a need to have a measurement of success to tell your superiors or your clients what is happening. Very often in Brussels, we tend to think of lobbying in terms of the legislative process. In particular, when there is a piece of legislation in the making, a lot of people start to lobby the European Commission at an early stage, which should always be done if you want to be effective. Then it moves on to the European Parliament and the Council of the EU, when it comes to legislation. One particular objective can be to have a certain piece of legislation introduced or -what happens more often- is either to introduce or to avoid the introduction of a particular phrase or a provision in a piece of legislation. It can also be non-legislative in the sense that you want to improve the reputation of your organisation among a particular set of stakeholders and you can do that via different ways but it can also be an objective which is not linked to any legislation. You can have broad objectives such as having a certain piece of legislation presented but it can also be much more limited. There can be different objectives which you can identify. It is not necessarily legislative although that is the easiest way to think about it. It can also very much be non-legislative. The importance is to think it through, make sure that you understand, make sure that your entire team -however big that team is- understands that you are all on one page and that you almost have them as a mantra. It will just facilitate your teamwork.

2. Develop a Compelling Story: When you have your objectives set, strategy forms a part of them and these two are very closely linked on how you want to achieve these objectives. Then, you are getting to the more political and creative aspects of public affairs. You need to develop a compelling story because you need to ask yourself, how am I going to attract the attention of the people I want to reach with my story so that they can help me reach my objectives? There are many different things but that is one of the fun things about public affairs; it is very much a creative profession and that is why the good public affairs practices are very much able to think outside the box. Therefore, if everybody is doing an event, maybe you want to consider doing something else instead of an event, maybe you want to do a webinar. But think outside the box; do not just follow the stream of what is happening and what is cool in Brussels in a particular case. That is the creativity part. Allow for creativity to be part of it and do not be afraid to show that. Secondly, especially in Brussels, it is very important to think politically. You need to understand that public affairs because of its definition, it is managing your external environment. You need to know what is happening in that environment and very often that means you need to be aware of what is happening in the society and what is on the political agenda and you need to be able to link to that. It is very important to be aware of that and teach your story with that in mind. The third thing which is very important is to back up your arguments. It is often not enough to only come up with statements that sound good; they need to have some sort of substance to back up your arguments in a form of a study or external expertise.  That is an important part of your story which is sometimes a little bit forgotten in certain areas. Finally, once you have your story, make sure you use it in different channels. Again that is something you need to factor into the development of your story because the channel limits you in a way or gives you more opportunities to tell your story. Having the different channels you can think of, a face to face meeting is different from developing a video or conducting your outreach through social media, or the traditional media. Therefore, you have to keep in mind how to best utilise those channels. The creative part which is really important, is that when you deliver through whatever channel you do it, make sure you do it with enthusiasm. Very often there is a lot of boring public affairs being conducted. Enthusiasm is a key element and it would actually help you to get your message across. Enthusiasm is something that sticks with people.

3. Understand the Process: Understanding the process is extremely important. It is very important that you understand the process whether it is the ordinary legislative procedure or the consultation procedure as well as knowing the editorial process if you want to get into a publication. It is not enough to only know the broad tricks. If you want to be effective in public affairs you need not only to know but to understand each step of the process in quite some detail. That is an important aspect just as it is very important to know the key actors and influencers of that process. Who are the key players in there and who are the people who may not be the key players but who are very influential towards these people? You need to identify each of them in a way that probably requires a special thought about how you are going to approach them, what is the kind of story that would be compelling for them and which part of objectives they could help you with. Public affairs and campaigning is different from academia or even perhaps from journalism. Public affairs is a very active profession. You need to think ahead. You do not take the process and developments for granted. You are trying to shape things in public affairs. If you know the process, think ahead and be proactive. Do not follow but shape the process. Approach a meeting proactively, contact the people who are going to be in the meeting and talk to them about what you think is important and what you think would be helpful for your particular point of view. Do not take the process for granted and follow it. Be a shaper rather than a follower. That really makes people stand out. Plan ahead and try to shape the process to really achieve your objectives.

4. Be Informed: Make sure that you are informed, that you have your information. In other words, publicly available information from the media, from press releases, from the Commission or governments’ news items, from the latest features or from leading figures that relate to your issue. But also intelligence, which is not something you will find by looking at the screen on your computer. Intelligence is what you get through your contacts. It is your contacts’ insights, at places where people decide or discuss your issues. It is extremely important to understand what the relevant developments are and how they impact on the position of your particular issue. So ask yourself, what is happening today, although it takes different way of looking at news with your objectives in mind. Then interpret the consequences; if something is happening, what it means. What will be the impact, what will be the consequences for my particular campaign and as an immediate second thought, what needs to be done? Can we leverage it? Is it a new hook for my story? Do we have to come out and push back? Again, it is an act of engagement with the news, an active engagement with your external environment. It also includes what potential opponents you are going to have. How could they use this? How could they use new developments to push their case and make life more difficult for you? It is an extremely important part of public affairs to keep your eyes and ears open to the external environment. Actively think about how you can use the developments for your campaign and how you can mitigate some of the activities. Some of the intelligence that you get comes from a good network people from inside the institutions in terms of the legislative procedure. Often and especially if it is a key note speech or a high-profile event, Commissioners tend to outline their thinking and their ideas in a speech. Therefore, a speech could be viewed from an intelligence perspective as a strategic indication of where they want to go. This can give a head start to many organisations because this is not something they would naturally look at, maybe only if a journalist picks it up, but if it is overlooked, it could be a hidden channel. In terms of collecting your information, you tend to use all effective and efficient means of gathering your information and in today’s world, Google alerts are a good way of doing this. So they can be very useful to stay up to date like certain online services that gather and collect information. It is certainly one of the tools that it is being used in public affairs for those who want to keep up to date and be aware of what is going on. Yes, that is certainly something that is part of the whole tool set.

5. Maintain a Network of Contacts: The next aspect which is extremely important for an effective public affairs campaign is your network of contacts, meaning your organisation and each member of that organisation.  It is something that relates both to if you talk about the legislative procedure and to being linked to people who take the decisions, thus the politicians and the decision-makers. That is of course very important. On the other hand, there are also the people around you. People who may share what you are actually trying to achieve, maybe for different reasons, but they want to get the same text in a piece of legislation adopted as you do or who share a common cause and are prepared to help you. Very often this means that you have a potential to search for allies and build coalitions. Of course, a lot of coalitions, trade associations or existing relationships between different organisations already exist whereas there are certain natural and longer term coalitions. But sometimes there are also unusual gatherings, the so-called ad hoc coalitions on a specific issue where all of a sudden you see NGOs with certain industries coming together to make a case for the same result. This again is something which links to thinking outside the box. Do not necessarily limit yourself to the people you know because sometimes your best ally is the one you have not thought of but is there. It is a good idea to think carefully about who else might be interested without necessarily being part of the process that you are involved in. Many people are prepared to help many organizations. Of course, you need to be prepared to do the same for them at some point in the future, since nothing comes for free. In summary, the idea is to form a choir of different voices. Thus, try to work with others who share the same outcome and if different people pass the same message but from a different background that usually tends to strengthen the message and starts to shape the environment in which your objective becomes more achievable.

6. Avoid Complacency: Avoid complacency, is basically a little bit of a warning, of an alert. This is something that can happen if a campaign goes really well. Your typical example is when you have been campaigning for an outcome of a vote and the Plenary of the European Parliament in Strasbourg votes and you get the results that you were hoping for. You need however someone to keep the team sharp and see the outcome through until the very end, constantly asking questions of what can still go wrong and what is next. At the last minute, at the stage when no decisions are being made or about to be made, things can still change because of translation issues. Always think what can still go wrong and keep checking it. Then get ready for the next cycle. What is next once you concluded the campaign? What are we going to do next? This is very much a warning; even if it all goes well; keep a close eye on the ball until it is really done. Even if the main thing is a success, you still need to keep track of the details which can come at the later stage several months later, thus avoiding complacency.

7. Build a Strong Team: In order to do a public affairs campaign, you need a team of people with a variety of skills and a variety of personalities. You need  an analyst who can analyse what would be the best outcome for the organization that is going into the public affairs campaign. You also need a good strategist but also someone who is very good on procedures and understands the details so that you have that resource and you do not have to spend time discovering it. In addition, you need a strong networker or even more than one. You need subject experts so that you can quickly get information and reply to questions that may arise from decision makers, journalists or other interested parties. You need a very creative person -almost an artist- to help you come up with those original compelling stories, visuals, etc. You need to have at least one good storyteller, someone who can tell the story, who can make people listen so that your story comes across. You also very much need a leader of such a team to keep the internal organisation aligned and also play the role of paranoia, constantly asking “Yes, it sounds that it is going in the right way but what can still go wrong? Have we checked this, and check it and check it again?” The above indicate that you need a team with such a skill set and you need to organise it very smoothly, which requires a clear and regular internal communications to make sure everybody is aligned and keep the motivation up because nothing motivates like success. If you see progress that means you have set your objectives right and you track them appropriately. You can actually see that your actions do make a difference and that this motivates a team and brings it together, which only enhances the effectiveness of your public affairs strategy.