🪞 Mirror mirror on the wall, who's the most influential of them all?

Today’s guest is the head of policy at one of the top 100 UK companies by market capitalisation. We agreed to keep the interview anonymous so they had more freedom in what they could say.

The conversation covered: how you can shape outcomes at events that you aren’t able to be at, what makes a good trade association, how this FTSE100 uses its access to capital markets to give civil servants what they cannot get, and why net zero is dead.

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Tom

The power of the vignette

Working with HM Treasury can be incredible–if you get the right person. Obviously you go in with the economic argument. Your beginning, middle, and end is the economic argument. And if you can’t do that, you shouldn't be having the meeting. 

Maybe 30% of the proof points we use with the Treasury are from Reuters, Bloomberg, the Financial Times or something with comparable credibility. And then the remaining 70% are vignettes from the real economy and interactions with the capital markets, because that’s what civil servants can’t easily get. 

They can get the stats readily enough, but stats don’t really change anyone’s mind, particularly in a one-to-one meeting. It’s those anecdotes and cautionary tales that get cut through.

Trade associations: what makes a good one?

The worst trade associations do their own thing. Their mission drifts when there are changes of leadership.  They don’t consult with their members or encourage input. They don’t notice inactive members or members that have gone quiet; they take you for granted. A strong indicator of a bad trade association is if you are a member and you have no idea who to pick up the phone to.

Every year I have to justify the £20,000 or £30,000 membership fee for a trade association. What you need going into that meeting is the collateral that demonstrates the value the trade association delivers. The good ones are always on top of that, making sure that it’s really easy for me to make that case.

The best ones are when you have someone that feels like they’re part of your team. You can pick up the phone and bounce ideas off each other. You can cook things up together. 

The think tank gold standard…

E3G* are brilliant. They’re always in the right place at the right time saying considered and sensible things. They just nail it time and time again. They’ve got this hall of fame: the Transition Pathway Taskforce, the Powering Past Coal Alliance*, the Global Climate Action Agenda. They’re in the top five globally in terms of think tanks. They don’t have the brand recognition outside of the wonk circle, but I don’t think they need it.

They are influential because they don’t try to do everything. They have this precision focus on the key things that can cause a modal shift. 

I know it can be hard for think tanks, because you don’t get to choose who pays your bills, and they might want to cover different ground. But it’s the hallmark of a good think tank that they’re able to persuade those that pay the bills to come around to their way of thinking, and to get them to back those ideas.

* E3G and PPCA are clients.

Net Zero is dead

On the Outrage and Optimism podcast, Christiana Figueres was talking about how ‘net zero’ is the least motivating phrase ever. What does it even mean? It doesn’t mean cheaper bills. It doesn’t mean cleaner air. 

There’s so much upside that we could capture. We should articulate something that is more positive, that makes you want to move towards it rather than move away from it.

We need to learn from the communication tactics of those that are against net zero. When you watch some of their speeches and public broadcasts, even if it’s not your political cup of tea, you feel yourself buying into it because it’s so well thought through. 

Net zero doesn’t cut through… the question is what we do instead.

How to shape events from afar

A lot of people who want to be at COP aren’t going, whether because of logistics, budget cuts, or concerns about being seen on the ground during the sustainability backlash.

If you can’t be at big multilaterals, you need to be imaginative about how you can get your ideas on the table. If you’re looking at COP next year and you think you can’t go, what are the preceding forums leading up to that where decisions are made? Is it the African Climate Summit in the first half of next year? The UN General Assembly? New York Climate Week? IMF annual meetings?

Which government departments can you work with that will be sending people to COP or whichever multilateral it is? Brief them in person ahead of time with a leave-behind that says ‘this is what we would ideally like to see and why’, with those economic vignettes alongside. That constructive approach lands really well in my experience… and put those trade association memberships to work! 

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