Yesterday, I posted this video across my social channels.
That’s right. As much as we disapprove of how Congress is doing their job, there’s another- equally important – disconnect to consider as well.
Typical advocates are not government affairs professionals – and they shouldn’t be. In every meeting with a decision maker, the interests of real constituents should be front and center. And the human story behind those interests is always best served by placing real, tangible constituents in front of elected officials or their teams. There is simply no replacement for the lived experiences of a volunteer advocate who is passionate about a cause.
The downside, of course, is that volunteer advocates don’t get the repetitions in to really get comfortable with advocacy – at least not typically. From my view, it’s exceedingly rare that an advocacy organization will invest the time in helping their volunteers get those reps in. But for a would-be advocate, a few small steps can go a long way in helping you overcome that barrier to successful advocacy.
Know Your Team
If you’re participating in an in-person advocacy event, you’re likely to be assigned to a specific team that’s tasked with targeting an assigned set of decision makers. That team is your backbone for a day of advocacy. They provide logistics support and eliminate a few variables about what to expect in the conversation. As an advocacy day goes on, you can almost always witness these teams gel together.
Learning each other’s cues and quirks goes a long way in making an advocacy meeting a bit more predictable. By removing a few of the unknowns, your whole team will be more comfortable – thus more natural – in conversation, and that helps everyone tell their own stories better.
Invest in Practice
But simply being attached to a team doesn’t make you instantly better. Just like any other new activity, we improve our advocacy skills when we practice them – when we get in the reps.
As goofy and ridiculous as it may seem, getting your team to role play through a mock meeting or two really does help you work out some kinks. And it doesn’t take much. A single 10 minute practice session can help you iron out who who’ll do what during a meeting, and help you understand each other’s cues before you get into the real advocacy environment.
There’s no downside to some realistic role playing. Every time I’ve trained advocates, they’ve reported feeling more confident, prepared and relaxed in subsequent meetings. That doesn’t mean they feel every meeting went perfectly. It doesn’t mean they got a “yes” on every request. But it does mean they were that much more willing to come back and participate again in the future.
Remember it’s About More than One Meeting
And that’s the secret sauce. Effective, prepared advocates understand the limitations of a single meeting. They know they won’t have all the answers, and instead use each meeting as a springboard for future relationship building.
This reality check releases us from the temptation to know it all. It helps us realize that needing to go back for more information or getting an answer on a tough question opens the door for the next conversation. Knowing that it all doesn’t have to happen in a single meeting helps even the least experienced advocate feel that much more empowered to keep engaging.
Ultimately, that’s what it’s all about. A little bit of preparation goes a long way in making you stand out in front of elected officials and their staffs. It helps you establish credibility and stand apart from the 9 out of 10 who don’t take these small steps to prepare. And that goes a long way in helping bridge the gap between us and those who represent us.
It won’t fix all of the problems we may perceive in Washington. It won’t make us like those in office, or make us approve of what they do. But each of these small steps can go a long way in helping us own what we can of improving our own skills. That’s us controlling what we can control – and it’s a big deal.
Part of the Possible 