📜 The ten commandments of policy impact

At the start of this year, I sat down with my colleagues Natallia and Johnny, and we took the lessons that we had learned from this interview series and combined it with our policy communications experience. We’ve called it the Ten Commandments for Policy Impact.

Rather that dictating how to do things, we thought it more helpful to identify the questions that you need to ask - and ensure you have good answer to - as you are planning a policy campaign. In this newsletter we’re sharing the first five sets of questions from this list.

If you find them useful, please do take the poll at the end of the newsletter and let us know. And if you want to get the second five, recommend this newsletter to someone who would find it interesting and you’ll get a copy of the full document in your inbox.

I hope it’s useful,

Tom

1. Be clear what you want to achieve, define it tightly, and ensure you have the internal ability to deliver on it.

• Is your policy goal Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-bound (SMART)?

• How can you prioritise this work? What do you have to say ‘no’ to in order to achieve your objective?

• Is your wider organisation bought into this goal? If not, why not? What can you do to bring them onboard?

2. Understand the process through which your objective is attained.

• Have you written down - in technical and practical detail - the process through which your policy goal will be obtained? For example, is primary legislation required, and if so, are there any existing legislative vehicles that you could use.

• Is funding needed - and if so from which source, public and/or private?

• What are the timing and key policy windows you need to consider?

3. Know who holds the power - and who holds power over them.

• Who will ultimately be the decision-maker(s) on your policy goal?

• If funding is required, who are the decision-makers for that funding? Who are the individuals or organisations that advise or influence those decision-makers?

• Who are the individuals or organisations who matter to those advisors or decision-makers, both in terms of those who would be supportive of your policy proposal, as well as those who would oppose it?

4. Empathise with the people in the process. Know what they care about, and why.

• Have you created demographic and psychographic profiles for each of the individuals/organisations you’ve listed above?

• In those profiles, have you answered questions like: what do they want their legacy to be? What will get them promoted? What work have they done previously that they are likely to be most proud of?

• What are the things that will be keeping them up at night?

5. Build the right coalition for the job, not the one that is easy, or that you want to build.

• Knowing what you know about who is influential over your decision-makers, who are the individuals and organisations that you need in your coalition? Be creative.

• Are you clear on what your coalition partners will want to get out of your policy goal? Consider how you may need to adapt it.

• The most effective coalitions are built around a clear goal. The goal comes first, the coalition comes second. Do not create a coalition before you have clarity on the goal - but ensure you can ‘sell’ that goal to coalition partners.

If you found these five sets of questions useful - or are likely to find the full set useful when planning your next policy campaign - refer this newsletter to a friend and we’ll send you the full list.