Strategize and Target in a Rapidly Shifting Environment

Even if you’re the US Chamber of Commerce with essentially unlimited resources to spend to ensure your policy agenda wins the day, you focus your resources on the legislators, voters, and advocates that you need to move.

If you’re not the US Chamber of Commerce (and if you’re reading this, you’re probably not), strategically targeting your efforts isn’t optional – it’s vital.

But how do you plan for and build strength in strategic ways when the political landscape is fluid, and the power players today might very well be the also-rans after the next election?

There’s no perfect answer to this challenge, but we’ve worked with clients in three ways to help mitigate the risk of uncertainty and facilitate nimble decision-making if and when the ground shifts underneath the strategy.

1. Don’t skip power mapping.

Knowing really is half the battle (thanks, GI Joe). Be sure you know in as much detail as possible who’s most powerful at different stages of the process, who and what influences those powerful people, and who their opponents are. Without a power map you can’t target strategically, and when the ground shifts you don’t have a baseline against which to measure the changes.

2. Identify killer dependencies.

Is your key champion (for example, the legislator you’re counting on to carry your bill) in a swing district or coming up on term limits? Do you know who’d step in in their stead – and are you cultivating that person, too?

Too many policy defeats are clutched from the jaws of victory because an advocacy campaign has relied too heavily on too few nodes in the power map. Target, but do so in a way that perserves your flexibility in the event of seismic shifts in the landscape.

3. Use scenarios.

When making long-term investments based on short-term realities – i.e. hiring field staff in target states or districts, investing in list-building in key geographies or demographies, building out messaging to move specific legislators – first work through scenarios. In a structured way, answer the “what if we’re wrong?” questions. Aside from the obvious – things like your champion losing his or her re-election – how will you know you’re off course? What are the first five things you can do to course-correct?

Our team includes a specialist in scenario thinking. If you need help with this piece, please don’t hesitate to get in touch.