I once made the joke that the only thing spreading faster than Covid-19 is the proliferation of blogs on “how to lobby during Corona times”. You can find a piece here and here and here and here and here. Instead of writing yet another one, I wanted to give some pointers on how to lobby in general during times of Fear, Uncertainty, and Doubt. In the crypto sphere also known as FUD. I have been through a couple of crises myself both big and small. The two most obvious are the Financial Crisis of 2008 and the Corona Crisis, but also the E.Coli Cucumber Crisis and the March 2016 Brussels attacks. And being a Dutchy I have witnessed more government implosions than people from most Latin-American countries. In the Netherlands we had a government collaps or near-collaps in 1999, 2002, 2002, 2005, 2006, 2010, 2012, 2021. From these times of high uncertainty, I have taken away some pointers that I want to share with you.
Act business as usual
In the midst of a storm, a lot of processes will come to a grinding halt. Managers, politicians, staffers; everybody will stop to see what will come next. I am not different. In March 2020 when Corona reached our shores, I literally said; “I am not going to have meetings online with parliamentarians”, and that I “prefer to wait it out”. In times of FUD, meetings will be postponed and so will events and parliamentary debates. However strange it might be to carry on as business as usual, this is exactly what you need to do. You will need to find ways and workarounds to stay in touch with key decision-makers, politicians, and staffers. Absolutely continue having meetings. In 2011 during the E.Coli Cucumber crisis, I needed to reach civil servants from the ministry to bother them for a relatively small favour while the same people were managing a national crisis. Of course, it felt awkward nagging them for something small. But they don’t call it special interest for anything. The Dutch have a nice saying to describe the attitude: Een plaat voor je kop hebben (roughly translated as having a plate before your head). Planning advocacy events should also go ahead as usual albeit in a hybrid or online form. The big difference between business as usual and times of FUD is that the group of relevant decision makers narrows down extremely. Decisions are centralized within a small core group and most of the things files become Chefsache. Trying to influence the formation of a government or the coalition agreement will only work if you know someone in the room. The same goes for a crisis like Corona or disasters. Trying to influence the ring around the core-group might work but really is second best.
Seizing the moment
When a government resigns abruptly many will wait for the elections period to start or even worse, wait for a new government to be formed. Moments in between governments still provide for opportunities, at least in two ways. First, there is still some room to get things done under the radar before the next government moves in. Needless to say, this cannot be a controversial issue, unless you are a street magician and have the magic powers to make elephants disappear. Having said that, I was surprised that in April 2021a caretaker government in the Netherlands allocated 4 billion worth of projects. I have also witnessed caretaker ministers hand out smaller “presents” to constituencies or try to nudge policies to their likings in the final seconds of their mandate. The second opportunity that presents itself are elections and subsequently the incoming government. Especially if the government resigns abruptly, there will be turmoil to organise party manifestos, candidates, campaigns. In this turmoil, it becomes easier to have an impact if you did your homework. For example by having your position papers ready and having mapped out important candidates. Doubling down on contacts with civil servants positioned in high positions also yields dividends as civil servants gain in importance as they prepare the documents for the incoming government. Another way to seize the moment is by adopting the new and different tools and skills that the situation calls for. All praise goes to the organisations that transformed meeting rooms into studios at the beginning of the pandemic. While a lot has been written on how to lobby during Corona, I wish someone would have given me an advanced course in Teams instead of flaunting generalities.
Staying human While seizing opportunities and pushing through during moments of crisis should be your default attitude, it doesn’t excuse you from staying human. You can’t ignore that the world is burning and be totally insensitive to what is going on. You might need to change tone or tempo. You also need to be sensitive to the pressures people are operating under. And last but not least, you will also need to guard your own mental health.