Category Archives: Uncategorized
Five Reasons the NRA Won the Recent Gun Control Debate That Have Nothing to Do with Politics
This blog post first appeared on Forbes.com
No matter one’s position on gun control, there are lessons we can learn from the recent battle on background checks. According to Gallup, Over 90% of the public supports background checks for all gun purchases, yet the measure failed to pass the U.S. Senate.
According to most published sources, the reason is simple: the NRA has tons of money and threatened to…
From Tension to Trust: Building Relationships Across the Aisle, Part II
In Part One of our post on building trust, we wrote about the need for building trust with those whose philosophy doesn’t align with yours, and how the power of disconfirmation can accelerate that trust.
We’ll…
From Tension to Trust: Building Relationships Across the Aisle, Part I
Perhaps you have enjoyed good relationships with legislators, volunteers, and colleagues for many years — but those legislators aren’t in power anymore. Your most reliable volunteers are burned out. Your cooperative colleagues in other departments who you relied on to help with your government relations projects have moved on. Now what are you going to do? You know that successful influence requires relationships that are built on credibility. And a key element of credibility is trust. But there are nuances to building trust with individuals who are new to your environment. Read the full blog at K Street Cafe.
The April ROS Newsletter is Out!
Check out the lastest issue of the Roots of Success Newsletter:
The Upside of Under: What Big Organizations Can Learn from Their Smaller Brethren
I read with interest a recent study which showed that 90% of Americans have a good opinion of small business, and only 60% of them have the same warm feelings toward big business. As someone who has spent my professional life helping large for-profit (and non-profit) organizations maximize their influence potential in the legislative arena, this is not news. It’s pretty much an article of faith that helping “the little guy,” in this case small businesses, makes us feel better about ourselves. As it should.
There is a lesson here for large organizations ( and I will use the term “organizations” rather than simply “big business” because big non-profits are at risk also), and that is that small is the new…
