You can’t lead a public affairs project simply thread by thread, because there are many “threads” to catch.However, when you manage to grasp them all and find the right path through the maze of numerous variables, all parties involved will benefit from the results.
The “win-win-win” variant – beneficial for business, social environment, and administration – is the most desirable outcome of public affairs activities. The key to success, as in classic public relations, lies in relationships. However, you can’t build them without a solid analytical approach, detailed monitoring, and a flexible strategy adapted to the changing environment.
Check out the “who is who”Mapping stakeholders (both individual partners and organizations), their affiliations and mutual connections is key to formulating an effective strategy. It’s not enough to know exactly who is responsible for what because in decision-making processes the human factor is also important – sometimes even more so. Personal motivations, aspirations, and concerns, as well as relationships between individual stakeholders, have a huge impact on whether procedural paths are straightforward or rather bumpy. Only when the mapping is complete, reliable, and regularly updated can we anticipate different scenarios and adapt plans A, B, and often also C accordingly.
Identify the needsThe PR classic takes on even greater importance in PA. If you want to drive your environment to a specific behavior – support for an investment, a legal change, or acceptance of certain decisions – you must first look at business plans through the eyes of your stakeholders. If most residents of municipality X are farmers and a car factory is to be built nearby, the argument of creating a thousand specialized jobs won’t convince them. When decision-makers fear the social consequences of a given legislative solution, help them implement a strategy to build acceptance for that action. Only by thoroughly understanding the characteristics of the environment can you reach your audience with appropriate arguments, language, and thus build in them the sense of security necessary for effective change implementation. How to gain this perspective? A good practice is to start the project with opinion research. Qualitative research is especially valuable here – depending on the specifics of the task, individual interviews (IDI) or focus groups (FGI). They allow you to best “look inside the heads” of the target group, understand their point of view, learn their needs, and tailor communication accordingly. This knowledge pays off at every stage of the project, as it helps influence not only behaviors but also attitudes.
Link the valuesWe already know that a public affairs strategy must primarily address the needs of the target group. However, it is difficult to be authentic in relations with a partner if the organization does not engage in dialogue consistent with its own values and identity. Therefore, while on one hand we need to calibrate our point of view according to the recipient’s perspective, on the other hand, we must skillfully combine it with our organization. More and more corporations starting their operations in Poland understand that they cannot simply impose their value system but must build mutual understanding in a two-way manner – by learning the local specifics and conveying information about their own identity. However, this is not always obvious. It still happens that foreign corporations try to build relationships with the environment based on their own cultural patterns, which, when transferred to the Polish context, instead of understanding, generate additional conflicts. In such cases, intercultural communication must be an integral part of public affairs consulting and include not only the external environment but also the internal organization.Control, even if you have no influenceIs it possible? From the perspective of public affairs strategy, it is not only possible but necessary. The keyword here is: anticipate. On one hand, we draw from the basics of crisis communication and, based on available data, generate possible scenarios of event development. Such communication “pessimism” pays off when we operate among many variables independent of us. Secondly, since public affairs strategies unfold within a network of many stakeholders and relationships, we must take care of all the puzzle pieces. Even when one stops working, we can then influence another and thus cover the gap. And finally, it is worth noting that to achieve public affairs goals, actions are often conducted over several years. Sometimes an action taken, for example, at the beginning of a project, turns out to be key to achieving the effect several years later. Therefore, we must remain alert to the long-term effects of our actions (and potential omissions).MonitorMonitoring for public affairs activities cannot be confined to a drawer labeled “keywords.” One must become familiar with the Public Information Bulletin (and anyone who has had the chance to browse municipal BIPs knows that UX is not their strongest point) and/or the Journal of Laws, while also staying alert to statements from decision-makers during parliamentary, municipal, or regional sessions. For more complex legislative projects, close cooperation with legal or industry departments is necessary. The public affairs expert should be vigilant about what in the documents may raise concerns among stakeholders and prepare an appropriate response. Another important area is monitoring the media, social media, forums, as well as meetings of parliamentary committees, city councils, or public stakeholder presentations. Monitoring also has a second aspect—ongoing verification of results. If the strategy is built on research, it is worth repeating it regularly to notice changes. When such a tool is not available, it is advisable to regularly do a results checkpoint based on the KPIs established at the outset. The intensity of public affairs projects can be high, so it is even more important to find the moment to verify whether we are still on the right course and, if needed, appropriately adjust it.
