Following in Angela and Karine’s footsteps, the third installment of Summa’s five keys to government relations success is all about sticking to your script–a feat easily said and more difficultly carried out.

Whether you’re a regulated industry, an NGO, industry association or independent business, you inevitably have more than a couple issues you’d care to discuss with decision-makers. When you land the opportunity to make your case,  it’s an exercise in self-discipline to stay focused and on-message.

Stakeholders with one or two focussed and considered priorities will find more success and see quicker results than those who sit down with a laundry list of grievances, concerns and requests. Those who refine their ask to a concise, relevant and effective message tend to gain even more traction.

Resisting the urge to throw all your issues on the table in the first meeting and to refine a tight message around identified priorities is an important element to professional government relations.

Message discipline and clarity breed success. Be clear in your communications, use plain language and ask for exactly what you want.

Karine started off our ”Five Keys” series earlier this week and has passed the proverbial baton to me.

Key #2 – Understand your brand and promote it

Even though branding is a chapter in every marketing textbook I had much to learn when I started working at Summa. Couple reasons: First I majored in Geography (ask me about plate techtonics !) ; secondly my previous employer was all brand.

Now with product placement in everywhere, social media, digital advertising, and the age of the Obama brand  branding is more prevalent than ever. We all have our favorite brands  but when it comes to messaging your brand the key is your elevator pitch.

Explain your brand – the essence of who you are – but keep your story short and clear. If your audience doesn’t grasp the acorn they will not fathom the oak (Rudov).

So before you speak to government ask yourself: Who are you ? Why should government listen to you ? Why are you credible ? Who says ? Tell your story so the right people hear it, support it and are compelled to act for you. (Sidebar: pet peeve of mine: avoid unnecessary quotes)

What is your favorite brand ?

Over the years, Summa has provided clients with all kinds of advice about how to get heard in Ottawa—in a nutshell, our success has been providing businesses, NGOs and other organizations with the right strategy to deliver their message with the urgency and savvy required to compel action.

Recently, we challenged ourselves to come up with just five key elements to government relations success. Over the coming days we’ll share these tips in the hopes that they might strengthen your own efforts.

Key #1: You are your own best advocate.

Nobody delivers your message like you can.  Credibility and authenticity matter; strategic counsel and professional advice can give you the edge, but you’re the only one who should speak on behalf of your organization.

It’s been almost a year since Canadians sat down to turkey dinner and collectively decided to give Canada’s Conservative government a second minority mandate. By the grace of polling and maybe even a little common sense (a rare commodity in Ottawa), we can safely pass the pumpkin pie this year without the threat of politicians knocking on the door.

With the drama of September’s Sham Showdown drifting into memory, replaced by October’s Overdue Order–doubtless dashing the hopes of tens of Liberals–Ottawa is finally returning to some semblance of normality.

After more than five years of near-ceaseless election speculation, public servants and political staffers alike seem to have accepted that things are likely to continue like this, at least for awhile. Legislative agendas, ministerial plans and long(er)-term plans, long shelved, are being dusted off and re-visited. It seems Ottawa is awaking to the reality most other Canadians accepted some time ago–for better or for worse, we have the parliament voters seem to want and politicians had better get on with the job of making due with what they’ve got.

For those hoping to be heard, it’s a sign that waiting for the uncertainty to blow over is an exercise of diminishing returns. An election-weary public seems to have given government its marching orders and for the moment at least, parliament seems content to work with what they’ve got.

This Thanksgiving Canadians can bask in the glory of post-turkey naps with the knowledge that their politicians won’t be–with a Fall election now likely off the table, there’s work to be done.

It’s August and the time of year when local fruits and vegetables are filling market and grocery stands just about coast to coast.

If your place is like mine then you’ve got so much of the stuff you’re probably about two weeks away from not wanting to look at a peach for another year.

If you’ve been paying attention lately, you’ll know that ‘local’ really is the operative word–and not just for corn and blueberries.

Arguably, we’ve never heard so much discussion about the value of local. From ‘buy local’ banners at the farmers market to Congressional declarations about ‘Buying American’ when sourcing bridges to nowhere, local is the new global.  

And so it is with politics, where all has been local for a while now.

Thinking locally about your advocacy efforts could be worth a lot more than a quart of cherries if you know how to do it right.

If you’re like a lot of organizations dealing with government, you spend time developing the right message, reaching out to the right people in Ottawa and agonizing over whether they’ll remember what you said ten minutes later. The throngs of other organizations lined up waiting for their fifteen minutes to be heard ensure it’s far from guaranteed.

Reinforcing your message through local advocates on the ground is a way to ensure decision-makers get the message. When you’re dealing with people who need to be re-elected, it never hurts to show them that your issue has a face, a name and a voter card in their riding, either.

Local: more than fruit.

President Obama’s nominee as ambassador to Canada was confirmed earlier today(Wednesday).  David Jacobson, a Chicago lawyer and former deputy finance chairman of the President’s national campaign, was announced as Obama’s pick in early June.  The length of time between that announcement and a confirmation date being named had some, including the well-liked predecessor in the role noting the delay.  The presence of an Ambassador was sorely missed this year at the Fourth of July celebrations at the official residence, so Ottawa will just have to have Ambassador Jacobson make up for it next year.  As much as Ottawa was fond of Ambassador Wilkins I have to say his boiled peanuts made for an acquired taste so bring on the Chicago deep dish pizza.

In his remarks today, Ambassador Jacobson tells a funny tale of his father stopping the car on a family vacation in the middle of the Ambassador Bridge– so that the front seat was in Canada, and the back in the U.S. More of it here.

Anyone who has ever organized an outdoor event is well aware of the risks you run: weather, weather and weather.  But if you have ever run a political outdoor event you face another risk: the heckler.  More on them in a minute.

When you choose to do an outdoor event you have to weigh the pros— factors like the setting, the potential increase in bodies that might be able to attend, with the cons, such as weather and, yes, unwanted guests (not just wasps and ants). And sometimes what you are focusing on just doesn’t easily lend itself to an indoor setting.  That’s what drove (pun alert) us to hold an outdoor media availability recently.  Summa’s client Magna International wanted to showcase for parliamentarians and media some prototype battery electric vehicles (BEV) that they’ve been working on.  We were lucky – the weather held, as you can see here but you also make your luck.  We worked with some experienced technicians on the event who provided great advice.  With intermittent heavy cloud playing havoc for the television cameras, our techs advised some additional and strategically placed lighting.  So the tv cameras were happy, making me happy.  (Beware the angry cameraman.)

Political advance work is not a new science, Time was writing about it back in ‘68 (way back then? ahem).  But it’s a tough job, because besides all the factors you might have to consider for say a community or corporate event, in politics you have to face that uncomfortable fact that maybe not everyone is as enamored of your party, candidate or affiliation as you are… as a mayoral candidate in Toledo recently experienced.  Chalk another lesson up.

Today after a marathon 23 hours of voting Shawn Atleo of British Columbia was elected national chief of the Assembly of First Nations, replacing outgoing chief Phil Fontaine. This potentially heralds a new era in Aboriginal politics as Atleo, at the age of 42, was the youngest of five candidates for the position.  Pre-recession (which incidently Mark Carney tells us today is over), quite often aboriginal demographics were cited as a potential solution, at least in part, to Canada’s labour shortage as currently almost half of the First Nations population is under the age of 25. In his first speech as national chief, Atleo made special mention of addressing issues around native youth.

Despite Fontaine’s departure (at least for now) from the national stage, aboriginal leadership in Canada remains strong, demonstrated by Atleo’s varied resume as well by the players that remain— people like National Inuit Leader Mary Simon, president of the Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami, and Roberta Jamieson, President and CEO of the National Aboriginal Achievement Foundation.

“I didn’t have time to write a short letter, so I wrote a long one instead.” – Mark Twain

Sometimes three words is all you get to say it right.

This is particularly true if you walk into Tim’s office pitching a new idea; lately he’s taken to cutting me off on the fourth.  It’s a good move, actually. It means I show up bothering him less often.

Explaining your issue to government requires similar discipline.

Boiling down your idea can be frustrating. You’ve thought long and hard about your solution. It follows you should be as fulsome selling it to government as you were in your own mind developing the thing.

If only it worked that way.

Framing your story to win requires more…or, less. Government desks are buried with paper coming from groups just like yours. Reality dictates that those who say it right with less better their odds of being heard.

Find out what you need to say, simplify it and then divide by half. When your idea is down to a single sentence you might be getting close.

Seperating what you want to say and what they need to hear takes practice and patience. It might just be the thing that makes the difference when it comes to being heard in Ottawa.

Short talks big!

Just this morning I was complaining to a colleague about reality television being a sure sign of the Apocalypse.  The other day, to a reporter friend it was about the lack of manners .  (Yeah, I’m cranky.  You seen the weather?)

But in the New York Times David Brooks (yes look at me, linking to a conservative columnist) sums up Governors Sanford and Palin, and even, ugh I don’t want to ever write this name so I will say an 80s pop star who recently left this earthly plane, in an op-ed piece that does more justice to this subject that I could ever hope to do.

For those of you with six minutes on your hands can watch an interview with Brooks here and get the added treat of hearing about an uncomfortably close encounter with a Republican Senator.