🥊 Do you have a visceral argument?

Last chance saloon… We’re running a Policy Unstuck Live at 12:30pm (UK) today with the United Kingdom’s former Secretary of State for Education, the Rt Hon Gillian Keegan.

I’ll be joined by Sarah Murray, Head of Politics and Public Affairs at Save the Children, and Reza Schwitzer, Director of External Affairs at AQA, in asking Gillian what it’s really like being a senior minister—and what the lessons are for those trying to influence them.

You can register for the event {HERE}. I hope to see you there.
—Tom

Rules and norms are not the same thing

My wife is from Cairo. It's a place I know very well, and the traffic is nuts. But while Cairo traffic looks completely nonsensical to start with, it has an absolute logic to it. It’s a product not of the written rules, but how drivers interpret what it means to drive in that city. Over the years and through millions of interactions between drivers, norms start to emerge about how you drive there. 

The same thing happens in politics. Most countries have similar institutional structures but their politics works in entirely different ways. It's the product of human beings trying to make sense of the problems they need to solve in that particular country, and bending the institutional rules to fit them.

When you're trying to work out how an organisation or system functions, you need to understand the difference between what the rules say and what the rules mean. It is in that gap that power lurks and where you should be trying, if you can, to exploit it.

You think you want stability, but…

It’s stability, predictability, and consistency that are the characteristic strengths of the UK’s political system. But those elements can also become limiting. Acemoglu and Robinson, in The Narrow Corridor, talk about a “cage of norms” where things are held together, but can also narrow the range of possibilities. So while stability and norms provide order, they can also constrain necessary political change.

What’s your visceral argument?

One of the things I talk about in my book is that politicians, like all human beings, are not motivated by one single thing at any one point. Nobody is entirely egotistical or altruistic–as the neuroscientist Robert Sapolosky argues, reciprocity and altruism are evolutionarily inseparable. 

It’s why effective advocacy must combine intellectual and emotional appeal. It’s not enough to point out a problem–you need to offer a solution that speaks to both individual incentives and broader political values.

→ Greg’s book, Inside the Political Mind, draws on his experience of working with hundreds of politicians in more than sixty countries. He argues that political reform efforts often fail because they ignore human behaviour and focus too much on institutional design rather than understanding how politicians actually operate within informal political culture. It’s a great read and perfect bed time reading for a Policy Unstuck subscriber. You can read more about it and buy it on Amazon.

Focus on the ‘Three Ms’

Most people think politicians are only concerned with doing things that win them votes. Actually, there are three questions they subconsciously ask themselves before taking a position on any issue: is it electorally advantageous, does it fit with social norms and will it be personally rewarding? 

If you’re trying to influence them, you yourself need to consider “Three Ms” before any approach: 

1. what matters to them;

2. what motivates them, and;

3. what they’re trying to manage right now. 

Put yourselves in their shoes, and consider “what have I got that can help them with those three things?” Rather than simply giving them another problem to manage, offer them a fix, and you're much more likely to be invited back.

Avoid moral superiority–meet people where they are

Campaigners often assume others should care as much as they do about their issue, and if you don’t, you’re somehow morally inferior. But most people just don’t care as much, and that’s not a moral failing. Effective advocacy means meeting people where they are, not where you wish they were.

Messages get lost in the middle

The most effective public engagement goes to the extremes: either very big or very small. Tell a personal story that connects on a human level, or speak to broad global change. The middle is where messages get lost. I’ve found this has held true in over 60 countries I’ve worked in. People care about their families, their friends, and the quality of their daily lives. Wherever you are, connect to those core concerns. That’s what makes people listen.

Real reform starts small

Reform tends to happen at walking pace. Some of the most lasting political reforms come not from grand gestures, but from smaller, often overlooked changes. Looking back, both in the UK and in international contexts, it’s these modest interventions that prove catalytic. When Robin Cook [former Leader of the House of Commons in the UK, among other roles] led a series of low-profile reforms in Parliament, they quietly reshaped how the Commons works. That’s how real reform spreads.

No funding, no policy

Few other countries concentrate so much power in their finance ministries as the UK. During Queen’s Speech negotiations, you’d meet with every government department to hear what they wanted to include. But a key question was always: has the Treasury signed off the money? If not, the policy could not move forward… No funding, no policy.

Thank you to the 46 subscribers who have referred colleagues to this newsletter. If you know someone who would benefit from this newsletter, send them your custom referral link by clicking ‘Click to Share’ below and copy/paste your link into an email/ WhatsApp/ Teams message.