Influencing together: Top tips on working collaboratively to influence policy

I’m a great believer that working together can be a powerful and effective way to influence policy.  A consensus view is much more likely to get cut through with ministers and officials than a variety of different voices speaking independently. 

But good collaborative working is hard to do in practice.  In this post, I’ll be exploring how to use collaborative working to achieve policy influence and change. 

Why work together?

In a previous post, I talked about the importance of relationships in influencing policy.  Relationships are also important when you want to work with others to achieve a common policy objective.    

Speaking with one voice on an issue will undoubtedly increase the impact of your message with decision makers.  It demonstrates consensus and agreement  

There are lots of different types of what I will call ‘policy collaboratives’.  It might be several organisations working together on a joint campaign, mobilising supporters in a very vocal and visible way.  It might be a more formal coalition coming together to raise the profile of an issue, for example, during an election campaign.  It could be a group of organisations coming together to undertake or publish research or policy advice.  Or it might be a less formal partnership between organisations operating in a similar space but who want to make sure that they don’t inadvertently cut across one another’s work.  All of these policy collaboratives have one thing in common – they depend heavily on trust and confidence.  

Policy collaboratives can be a highly effective way of influencing policy.  They can be especially helpful for smaller organisations who might not have as much capacity for policy work to increase their influence, or for giving a voice to harder to hear voices.  

So, what are my top tips for making collaborative working a go-to tool in the policy influencing toolbox?

Tip 1:  Have a clear aim

It’s really important to have a clear and measurable aim that you can all agree on.  It might be a specific legislative change that you’re seeking, or a specific policy commitment that you want government to make. I’ve seen so many policy collaboratives over the years who fail for the simple reason that they can’t clearly articulate what they’re trying to do, or who have an aim that is so high level that it’s impossible to break it down in to anything concrete or specific.  Not only does that undermine the positive impact of working together, it also increases the risk that your partners may walk away if they can’t see value in working together. 

Tip 2:  Identify your partners

Who is it that you want or need to work with?  And how broad or focused do you want your collaborative to be?  A lot will depend on what you want your collaborative to achieve.  As a general rule of thumb, the more partners you have, the harder it will be to agree specific and measurable aims and objectives.  Conversely, if you want to demonstrate strength in numbers, a broader base collaborative will send a powerful message.  

Tip 3:  Establish some ground rules

With some clear aims agreed, you need to be clear how you will work together.  For example, will you meet regularly? How will information be shared? What is expected of each of the partners?  It’s important to recognise that different partners will probably have different roles to play depending on what they can bring to the collaboration.  Some may be very active, while others might be quite passive.  It’s important to be clear about that upfront to avoid problems further down the line.  

I’ve also seen policy collaboratives put under a lot of strain by individual organisations going off and doing things outside of the collaborative and without any advance warning to the other partners.  One particular example sticks in my mind.  One of the partners published research via a press release on a topic that was central to the aims of the collaborative, and only let the other partners know on the day of the launch!  It took us all by surprise, and eroded the trust and confidence within the collaborative.  Don’t get me wrong – there is nothing wrong with different organisations having their own priorities and projects in the fringes of a shared endeavour.  But being able to share intelligence is really important to making such a collaborative work.  

Tip 4:  Decide who leads

One of the hardest things to agree is who will lead the collaborative work.  If you’re trying to present a united front on a particular issue, there seems little point in then having multiple points of contact for parliamentarians or officials who might want to talk to you.  But it can be hard to ‘let go’.  Afterall, whoever is the coordinator or lead for a policy collaborative will inevitably be perceived as such by the people that you are trying to influence.  Which leads me nicely to tip five.

Tip 5:  Park the egos

One of the most important but hardest things to do in any policy collaborative work is to park organisational (or sometimes even individual!) egos.  It’s not unusual for collaborative partners to have an element of healthy competition between them – after all, all organisations are trying to demonstrate to decision makers that they are the most authoritative and best placed to help them.  Entering in to a policy collaborative, however, requires everyone to leave the ego at the door, and to agree to work together on the shared objective.  Doing so helps to build trust, and makes it more likely that you will achieve your goals. 

Tip 6:  Have a clear plan

It’s really important that you are clear about what you are going to do.  Are you, for example, going to produce joint briefings, press releases or statements, or hold joint meetings? Having a clear plan will also help you make sure that you’re involving the right people.  If you’re planning joint media statements, for example, getting your media and communications colleagues involved at an early stage is a really good idea. 

Tip 7:  Agree a timeline

Just as important as having a clear aim is clarity about how long you will work together.  Is it an open-ended collaboration (in which case the aims will need to be regularly refreshed and updated), or is it a specific, short-term collaboration (such as working together to promote an amendment to a bill before Parliament).

Tip 8:  Review regularly

Review the progress that you’re making regularly.  Your aims might need to be tweaked or adapted if there has been any policy movement.  It’s also important to review whether the collaborative is still needed – I’ve seen many examples over the years of this kind of policy collaborative continuing long beyond its useful life, leaving the participants with the thankless task of trying to find a purpose.

Collaboration works

In my experience, policy collaboratives with clear aims, a healthy way of working and a high degree of trust and confidence between the partners can be a really effective way of influencing the policy agenda.  

What would you add to this list? What is your experience of collaborative policy influencing work?  Let me know in the comments below.

Coming up next time:  How can All-Party Parliamentary Groups help you to achieve your policy objectives?