“We have to get in front of them again.”
“We need more people in this meeting.”
“They really need to hear this from a lot of people.”
“Say it louder.”
These are a few of my least favorite lines to hear from advocacy organizations. Even though they’re not always wrong.
There are absolutely times in politics and advocacy when a show of numbers – a groundswell of force – makes a difference. There are moments – usually fleeting – when mobilizing a lot of people makes an impact. But I believe those moments are too few and far between for you to rely on them for the issues that matter most to you.
As cathartic as it can be to find yourself surrounded by the crowd of energetic voices all singing the same tune, all too often it accomplishes little more than if you were standing alone screaming into the void. Our job as advocates is to do better. We owe it to our cause to think differently about what moves the needle.
And it’s not more volume.
No, what moves the needle in politics is the same as what moves the needle in so many areas of our lives: adding value. Need to convince someone to buy a product? Show the value it adds to their life. Need to bring someone into your faith community? Demonstrate the value your faith adds to life. Want someone to give you their time so they’ll consume your content? Value. Value. Value.
And the unspoken reality of politics is that, regardless of the depictions we see in the media, decision makers everywhere need the same thing – credible voices who add value to the debate. Not folks looking to make a scene. You do that by showing how your solutions, your causes, connect to what matters most to them and helps forge a path where consensus can be built.
Practically, this requires us to look at our issue from different perspectives (e.g. both major parties at a minimum) and determine what aspects of the proposal would matter more two who. Connecting our issues to their priorities forces us away from a one-size-fits-all strategy when it comes to communicating our solutions. That activity alone helps us humanize both the complex nature of our issues AND the people we’ll be engaging on the topic – in the same exercise.
As I’m writing this week’s post, Capitol Hill is reeling from a series of body blows. A rough week of negotiating to prevent a possible government shutdown. Only to be followed by internecine conflict within the majority party. Leading into what promises to be a dramatic fight for the Speaker’s gavel in the US House of Representatives. But all of that is ephemera.
On Instagram today, a commenter went back to one of my old videos – made during the high drama of the rounds of voting that ultimately led to now former Speaker McCarthy’s selection. They asked if I still thought that there was value in people telling their story – in sticking to this kind of mindset. If you have read any of my pieces here before, there’s a good chance you know the answer: hell yes.
The latest from Capitol Hill is just a different flavor of the week. Regardless of all that frenetic activity, advocates are charged with taking their message to elected officials and helping them understand – and care about – solutions to real problems. You don’t achieve that goal by getting distracted by, or adding to, the cacophony you’ll here in DC right now. You do it by distilling difficult topics down to actionable asks.
I know, because I just had a few of my own asks advance – even just a little bit – in the midst of all this drama.
Effective advocates stick to the strategies I help teach, and they keep showing up. Because it’s not our job to play on the partisan field that moments like the last few weeks provide. Our job is to play our game, control what we can control, and find ways to make it easier for the players to move our agenda forward.
That’s why this week, I want you to think about the causes you champion. How do you talk about them? Do you focus solely on what you can control? Take a moment and place your issue – and your ideas – in the context of your target. Are they more concerned about other issues right now? Well, how can your proposal fit their needs in this moment and in the unknown moments to come? How can your stance help advance what matters most to them?
It’s not comfortable to do this. We want our issue to be top of mind. But the reality is we rarely, if ever, are. Being better in this space means understanding that screaming about our issue doesn’t make it more valuable to someone else. But aligning our issue to their interests can. That’s how we add value, not volume.
And those two are simply not equal.
Part of the Possible 