Amyisms
Amyism #89 Resting the Roots
“Keeping your advocates active ‘all year’ isn’t a best practice. It’s a prescription for clinical issue fatigue and ultimately, advocate burnout.”
“Grassroots advocacy is an activity, grassroots influence is a result. Give careful thought to which one you emphasize, recognize, and reward.”
“There is a bias in our profession for volume metrics over value metrics because they are elementary and easy to obtain. Value metrics measure the tactics that predict your legislative results, grassroots engagement and PAC fundraising success. Volume metrics just measure how much an activity is conducted, regardless if it leads to your intended result. If you don’t know the tactics that predict your paramount results, which should be changed minds and changed behavior, you can’t properly measure what matters.”
“Despite declarations to the contrary, no dramatic PAC or advocacy program transformation happens with one tactic. When building an influential advocacy program or large PAC, there is no single event, no grand video, no solitary viral tweet, no ‘killer app,’ no single meeting that transforms your program. Rather, it occurs through consistent thinking, testing and honest evaluation. The consistency produces the momentum that leads to the transformation.”
“It’s intellectually lazy to appropriate materials and messages from other advocacy and PAC campaigns. The sloth is compounded when the messages are deemed as ‘new’ or ‘disruptive.’ Superior political engagement professionals devote earnest thought and exertion into their engagement strategies and messages. Those who copy and paste their way to engagement via the thought leadership of others put their professional brand as an ‘expert’ clearly up for grabs.”
“Government Relations staff cannot, and should not, serve as an organizations’ primary advocacy and PAC evangelists. Every advocacy and PAC leader has a “why” regarding their engagement. It’s our job to find it, bring it to life, and teach them how to communicate it in a compelling way.”
“Your research methodology matters. Asking someone why they do or don’t give to your PAC, or do or don’t participate in your grassroots advocacy is meaningless. There is a difference between what people think, what they tell you they think, and what they actually do. Knowing the difference impacts your ultimate results.”
“Legislators who agree with your cause may cite your social media messages as an authentic influence on them, while those opposed cite the same messages as inauthentic ‘noise.’ Both characterizations cannot be true. To increase your social media authenticity and hence it’s influence, you must have real, credible advocates on the ground pressing your case.”
“Organizations love to talk about their strategy because it conveys that nothing they do is random. However, basing your PAC, advocacy or communications strategy on an untested, evidence-free premise is just that – a ‘random plan’ rather than a ‘strategic plan.’ The premise is the holy ground, because an untested premise leads to the wrong strategy, the wrong tactics, and ultimately, a failed outcome.”
“Every PAC should have a purpose beyond the transactions of collecting and distributing money. A Purposeful PAC ® drives emotion, emotion drives commitment, and commitment drives contributions. Is your PAC a Purposeful PAC ® or a transactional PAC?”
“Shallow government relations metrics like email response rates, followers, PAC receipts and the number of lobbyist meetings prevents getting fired. Meaningful metrics that demonstrate your results, and the value of those results to your stakeholders, gets you promoted.”
“If you measure your government relations operations and outcomes against your industry or profession ‘average,’ you will remain average.”
“We increasingly see many campaigns that are deemed successful due to ‘increased awareness.’ It stems from the idea that ‘every little bit helps.’ Every little bit helps, however, is a fall back position when the campaign doesn’t do anything else. We know from social psychology research that there are eight steps to persuasion. Awareness is step two of eight. There is much to persuasion beyond ‘awareness.’ “
-Kelton Rhoads, Ph.D
“The mediocre grassroots leader commands. The superior one demonstrates. The great one inspires.”
“Your PAC recruiters are asking people for personal money, for a political cause, with no immediate return (if any) on their investment. That’s why they must become proficient persuaders and master motivators. You can’t achieve that with a slide deck of PAC fundraising do’s and don’ts.”
“No one in a large organization believes everything they read and hear, no matter how many catchy slogans, hashtags and banners in the hall. They believe what they see and experience. The role of a similar exemplar is one of the strongest influences on whether they will join your cause.”
“A recognized, manipulative influence tactic is a failed influence tactic.”
— Kelton Rhoads, PhD
“The medium is not the message. The message is the message. The medium merely moderates the message.”
— Kelton Rhoads, PhD
“While ‘evangelism marketing’ is all the rage, and evangelism about your cause is essential, smart grassroots leaders know the real victory is in finding and creating converts for their cause, because converts are the most persuasive evangelists.”
“No matter what you want from your work – a vibrant grassroots program, a big PAC bank account, or victories in the legislature —- it all comes from other people.”
“Are you recognizing victories or behaviors? One key to motivation is creating an environment where the desired behavior, regardless of the result, is recognized.”
“Motivation is largely intrinsic. Your job is to create an atmosphere conducive to self-motivation. Blanket approaches don’t work.”
Tactics
“People are generally unable to distinguish a successful tactic in a failed campaign, or a failed tactic in a winning campaign. People over generalize, and assume any tactic used in a failed campaign is a bad one. Whereas a successful campaign blesses every tactic used.“
–Kelton Rhoads, Ph.D.
“Questions or challenges and even sometimes hostility about your PAC are signs of interest. Prepare for the objections. When you hear only the crickets, then you know you’re in trouble.”
“Your best grassroots advocates know the difference between just being kept busy and meaningful engagement. The only real way to retain people is with meaningful engagement.”
– Betsy Vetter
“You will not win more issues, gain more grassroots participation, or raise more PAC money by doing things ‘reasonably well most of the time.’ You can’t dabble in excellence.”
“There are no new PAC objections known to mankind. The crime is not in the objection, but in us not being prepared to welcome, validate, and have a dialogue about them. . . .and to forget that we are answering a person, not a question.”
“You can have the best advocacy plan for your grassroots volunteers, but if they aren’t persuaded that they need to get off their computers and in front of their legislators, it doesn’t matter. Do your volunteers know why face-to-face contact with opinion leaders and legislators is the platinum standard of persuasion?”
“Advocacy is not persuasion. One is the activity, the other is the result. Just like spending a lot of time in your doctor’s office doesn’t make you a neurosurgeon, advocating doesn’t make you persuasive.”
“When people in power call for ethical standards…odds are, those ethical standards are designed to keep them in power.”
–Kelton Rhoads, Ph.D.
“When you can’t convince your own stakeholders to support your issues, and you have to pay someone else to manufacture grassroots support, wouldn’t that be one of many red flags about your message, messenger, or culture?”
“Despite the fascination with social networks, they aren’t a secret grassroots weapon. The groups that have social capital among their members will have the edge. That was the case prior to online networks, and it’s true today. In a world of hyper – abundant social networks, social capitol is the “killer app.”
“Teaching people how a bill becomes law or the structure of a Congressional office doesn’t get to the end result, which should be grassroots persuasion, rather than just grassroots advocacy. Your training should be rigorous, challenging, and fun. The more we sweat in training, the less we bleed in battle.”
“Your PAC can’t be like the crazy aunt or uncle who you keep in the attic but never talk about.”
— Meaghan Killion Joyce, International Paper
“When we know what brings the greatest return, but do not do it, we have to ask ourselves if we really believe in what we are doing, or just doing what is easy. We get a short-term rush, but not as many long-term gains.”
“While it is nice to know what other similar organizations are doing, when we benchmark we can become benchparked. The numbers tells us what is expected, not what is exceptional. How do we know, for example, that the average corporate PAC participation rate of 18% should not be 50%? To obtain higher performance, you have to investigate exceptional performance rather than average performance.”
“Believing in your cause and the impact your work makes is not essential if you are a transactional leader. If, however, you are persuading busy executives and opinion leaders to engage in your cause, belief is not an option. Many government relations professionals are transactional leaders v. transformational leaders, and stakeholder apathy is the result.”
“Before you can motivate others, you must be consumed with the cause yourself. Before you can move them to action, you must be inspired. To convince them, you’ve got to believe.”
“Organizations measure what is important and do not measure what is unimportant. Smart government relations professionals know that what gets measured gets attention, so those who welcome and even initiate metrics will have more organizational clout and resources than those who do not measure beyond the number of emails sent and PAC receipts.”
“We can either recognize our volunteer grassroots and PAC advocates when it’s convenient for us, or engage in the principle of strategic spontaneity to maximize our grassroots and PAC allegiances.”
“When you meet with your legislators, do they congratulate you for your grassroots prowess, or do they admonish you to develop your grassroots prowess? Listen to what they say, as well as what they don’t say to determine your true grassroots effectiveness.”
“Many psychologists refer to the human mind as a dark stage lit by the single spotlight of conscious attention. That’s why it’s smart to have the guy running the spotlight on your payroll.“
— Kelton Rhoads, Ph.D
“As influence agents, we must learn to think in story, talk in story, and present our arguments in a narrative form. Because story can persuade and inspire where reason and logic and argument fall flat.”
— Kelton Rhoads, Ph.D.
“Organizations (and politicians) tend to believe that science is optional. It’s not. If you run ads and they don’t work, it doesn’t matter how you spin it; they didn’t work. We may have all sorts of business and theological reasons to challenge a piece of science, but denying the reality of a tested universe never leads to a positive outcome.”
— Seth Godin
“Instead of shopping for lightening bolts and trinkets to motivate your advocates, analyze the context of your legislative and organizational situation. Develop strategies and tactics based on your current context, not on what is most expedient or convenient.”
“The most common mistake in motivating Key Contacts is thinking that they are similar to the general public and treating them that way.”
“When we think of ‘solicitation,’ the mental picture hardly conjures up welcoming images. By removing the ‘s’ word from your PAC vocabulary, you will subtly alter your PAC’s image. Think of recruiting, instead of soliciting, for PAC membership.”
“Allegiance to your cause isn’t an entitlement. The organizations that foster an emotional allegiance strategy will have more committed, fervent advocates than those who assume that a dues payment or a paycheck equals commitment.”
Grassroots Advocate Retention
“It’s not how many grassroots advocates you find, it’s how many you keep that matters.”
— Laura Feldman
“It’s a mistake to believe non-contributors who tell you they need to ‘learn more about the PAC’ before they will contribute. You educate them, and they still don’t contribute. That’s because people are not educated to contribute, they are persuaded to contribute. The link between educating someone and persuading them is weaker than you’d think. There is much to persuasion beyond education.”
“The notion of relying solely on scheduled formal recognition is flawed and leads to missed opportunities to increase grassroots and PAC productivity. It’s more important what you do in the informal recognition moments, rather than the extravaganza-laden events & ceremonies.”
“The politics of implementation cannot be ignored. Do you have internal support for your efforts? If not, do you have a strategy to gain that support?”
“Just like any company is known by the quality of its customers, so too is a government relations department known by the quality of its grassroots or PAC stakeholders. Potential PAC and grassroots members are attracted to reliable, successful brands. If you aren’t happy with the quality of your stakeholders, you need to alter your brand.”
“When you relentlessly tout only what your new technology does instead of your insights and strategies, you instantly and unwittingly devalue your personal brand.”
“Not all rogues should be summarily dismissed from your grassroots efforts. One of the reasons the rogue exists is because he or she does not know better. It’s our responsibility to teach them to know better so they do better.”
“Our digital communications tools are one way we can create a grassroots community, instead of being a substitute for it. Are you utilizing the medium to create espirit de corps, or only to ask for favors?”
“It is irrelevant what we think is the most efficacious or compelling way to convey important issues to our grassroots and stakeholders. They will determine what is relevant. We must listen.”
“As you begin your grassroots work, I am convinced that the most critical decision you will make is your attitude toward your volunteers.”
“Evangelism is a process of getting people not just to join your cause, but to believe in it so much that they are compelled to make converts for you because they believe it is in the potential convert’s self-interest, not just the interest of the organization, to join.”
“One of the keys to keeping good volunteers is to improve your services for those who are using them, instead of worrying about who isn’t using them. Find out what makes your active participants stay with your program
and do more of it.”
“Your ultimate results are revealed in your daily routine. Tell me what you want, show me your weekly calendar, and I’ll tell you if you’ll get it.”
“Pay attention. Act on what you hear and observe, not from what you believe or hope. Your volunteers will tell you how to keep them engaged if you pay attention.”
“Check the background of your sources. If they haven’t done it before, they can’t do it for you.”
“Grassroots measurement is more than just numbers. What is the value of a credible, trusting relationship with a legislator? What is the organizational price of a strained relationship with a legislator? The soft stuff is the hard stuff.”
“Motivating your grassroots advocates during the tough times is infinitely easier if you adhere to a strategic approach to recruitment at all times.”
“There are no accidents. Behind every bad result there is a worse strategy (or none at all!)”
“It’s intellectually inconsistent to encourage your grassroots advocates to develop and maintain relationships with key legislators yet ignore your own advice when it comes to working with your advocates.”
“In the good old days, anyone could get participation in their issues with lots of money and lots of members. Now, the differentiating factors are leaders who can persuade and motivate more than the other side.”
“Who you spend time with speaks volumes about who you value. Show me the grassroots or PAC leader who slights their volunteers in public, and I’ll start drawing white chalk lines around that program.”
“We won the award for the best overall grassroots program from our national trade association. However, I didn’t want us to be remembered as the “has-beens” of grassroots in our industry.”
–John Stowell
“It’s amazing how the wailing and gnashing of teeth over lack of communication from the grassroots ends when someone on the government relations staff is actually held responsible for finding out what’s going on in the district.”
“It’s not about the data base, it’s about getting people to believe.”
–Tiffany Adams
“Many organizations believe that because “we sent an e-mail” communication has taken place. If that was the case, why don’t candidates just send an e-mail saying “I’m running for office, vote for me?” Why doesn’t McDonald’s send an e-mail saying “We have hamburgers for sale, please buy one?” You have to communicate through a variety of means to make your message stick.“
–Jim Beck
“Everyone throws this term around, but few know what it means. If you aren’t making sure your volunteers’ contributions are recognized and USED, you don’t know what ownership is, and they don’t feel it.”
“Please stop referring to your employees and association members in combative terms such as “targets” or “segments.” How about simply “customers?”
“Watch out for the dinosaurs in our industry. If the message hasn’t changed in two years, it’s obsolete.”
“The legislative process is a highly organized one. How can we expect to impact it unless we have an organized process in place?”
–Dimon McFerson, Former CEO, Nationwide Insurance
“Wherever your focus is at work, that’s where your program is, also.”
“People will come to you for the cause, and stay for the leader.”
“Your grassroots advocates have a choice. Since they decided to voluntarily advance your cause, choose your favors carefully.”
“Do you think you have CEO Support? Take the party test: if you and your CEO are at an event, would you be able to talk to him or her without having to introduce yourself? If the answer is no, double check the CEO’s support of your program.”
“Do you have ‘ego walls’ or ‘advocate walls?’ Show me the pictures in your offices and I’ll tell you whether you truly have a grassroots advocacy culture.”
“You can’t fake it. You can’t make someone feel important if you don’t truly believe they are.
–Jim Beck
“If you have the latest technology, you should be using the time you are saving to innovatively thank your high producing grassroots volunteers.”
“We have to constantly look at ways to alter the nuances of our programs. The political climate changes too rapidly to be content with executing and implementing your programs the same way year after year.”
“Word of mouth from a grassroots evangelist beats 50 communications from your CEO. Nothing recruits better than a satisfied volunteer.”
“A terrible thing happens when your senior managers do not know about your program–nothing!”
“Electronic communication tools do not create grassroots momentum. People do.”
“If you want to have something you’ve never had, you must be willing to do something you’ve never done.”