How to Enlist Others to Help You Advocate

Advocacy is a form of communication, and as such it requires great energy and commitment. If the issue is important enough, you may wish to enlist the support of employees and key stakeholders. Before you can advocate, however, you must ensure understanding of issues and create proper platforms for action. That includes three key steps:

Inform. Provide information about the issue and how it affects the organization. If it involves legislation, talk about the impact the law will have on the business. If it involves pushing for reform, discuss the expected benefits. Translate the benefits into personal terms - that is, how the issue affects individuals. Does the legislation make work safer, or threaten job security? Does the reform initiative mean cleaner air for everyone? Whatever the issue, make it real. The military does a good job of communicating its point of view on issues related to the local communities in which it has bases. It looks at everything from employment and noise control to economic impact on local businesses when advocating for changes.

Teach. Once people know the issue and how it affects them, share with them how to articulate their point of view. Some may wish to speak only to friends; others may be excited to write a letter to the editor or even speak at a community meeting. Encourage them to speak from the heart and put the case into their own words. Otherwise they will sound like automatons, and that will do more harm than good. Hold classes in how to articulate the advocacy case. One pharmaceutical company has adopted this approach, and in doing so enabled employees who wish to lobby for issues to do so. The act of teaching is good practice for those who must articulate the case. Former Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan once said: "If you cannot persuade your colleagues of the correctness of your decision, it is probably worthwhile to rethink your own." That is, you better know your stuff.

Prepare. If you expect employees to advocate on your behalf, you must prepare them for adversity. Give them instruction as well as materials on how to handle objections. Again, speaking from the heart is better than speaking from a briefing book. Encourage them to translate their personal commitment into organizational action. The civil rights movement of the 1960s took great effort to teach non-violence as well as to teach participants how to react when being clubbed or gassed by hostile police forces. Fortunately, few corporate advocates will ever face anything so dire, but the lesson of preparation holds. Know the objections you may face, and be ready for them.