333: The need to establish the facts

It would be wonderful if a public affairs campaign could assume a level of knowledge or understanding by key audiences. But that would be the wrong starting point. You need to start by establishing the key facts.

That may seem like an obvious statement when it comes to new issues or campaigns. There can often be the need to set the scene first and raise political and public knowledge. This would employ a campaign to make the issue important enough so that it has some resonance. In that way, politicians may be more inclined to listen and act. The campaign will set out the nature of the problem and why it needs to be tackled. That gives the issue a solid foundation and establishes the facts behind it.

It is always tempting to crash on with a campaign quickly, but putting the factual foundations in first is essential.

However, even for more established positions and industries, those key facts are always worth revising. Sometimes the level of ignorance can be worrying. Some stakeholders make shortcuts in their heads about the issue or sector. This can happen for supporters as well opponents.

An established campaign does not often want to go back to basic facts for fear of insulting their audience. Sometimes the audience may feign understanding as they do not want to show any weaknesses.

I heard stories during Covid when discussions were taking place across government, of organisations having to take audiences right back to the basics because misunderstandings had arisen over the years. The facts had not really been established, so a form of information dissymmetry.

For more controversial issues, the facts are always being challenged. In other cases, ‘alternative facts’ may need to be countered.

There is nothing wrong with facing challenges and a campaign always needs to be able to respond to them in a robust manner. If a campaign cannot respond in a well-informed and well-argued way, then it is not much of a campaign. Stakeholders will always rightly want to engage in a robust discussion. We must be able to respond to them even on what may appear quite basic matters.

Nothing should be taken for granted especially as people within teams move on, in an organisation and amongst stakeholders. The relationships with stakeholders need to be strong enough to withstand a regular ‘fact checking’ session.

If this does not take place, then the level of risk increases. This could lead to decisions being taken that run counter to the aims of the organisation or campaign. A failure of stakeholders to act when swift decisions are needed. Unhelpful public comments being made. This list could go on.

The battle for the facts could need to continue long after assumptions are made about alliances and trusted stakeholder relationships. Assumptions should never be made about levels of knowledge.