There’s a question keeping me awake at night. How can I influence people’s attitudes so that they change their behaviour and vote for a different political party?

I’ve worked in change management for the last 20 years and have recently been selected as a senate candidate for Queensland in the upcoming federal election. I thought it’d be interesting to apply a framework for change management to the first stage of the political process, which is around raising awareness of the party’s policies and encouraging voters to reflect on what changes would most improve the quality of life for all Australians. And then, prompting them to vote in a way in alignment with this objective. How we drive change in government processes and policy once elected, is a big topic and worthy of another article in its own right.

The vision thing

All change practitioners know that change programs need a clear and compelling vision. Our party, The New Liberals (TNL), has not only described our vision and values but also our policies. As we approach a new election, we have an equivalent of John Kotter’s ‘burning platform’ scenario with flimsy governance accountability and a snail like approach to addressing important issues such as climate change, water management, job security and housing affordability to name a few. This platform refers to the growing discontent with the transparency, accountability and decisions made by the current party. There’s a groundswell of support for change, as evidenced by the emergence of many independent candidates and new parties.

Communication plan 

It’s considered wisdom that any CEO will say that if they had to do their change plan again, they would have communicated more. Here in Queensland, our task is to communicate with the 3.6 million voters spread across this vast and beautiful state. Also, to have enough communication actions in place so that every voter hears from us at least six times. It’s a scary goal, not dissimilar to the BHAG, i.e. that is the big, hairy and audacious goal first mentioned by Jim Collins.*

We’ve been using social media as well as considering where best to spend our limited resources on paid advertising. We know we need to keep our messages simple and to use the channels that are most credible with every voter in the state. I want to do this creatively, so it gets attention and gets people thinking.

What’s in it for me? WIIFM

In addition to communicating a vision, every aspiring politician and party needs to clearly articulate the ‘What’s in it for me or the WIIFM’ benefits. This is a tricky process because voters have different needs depending upon their location, employment status and life circumstance. Communicating the WIIFM is best undertaken on a face-to-face basis but this is a tough ask given the volume of voters, geographic spread and the need for limited contact with the present COVID situation.

Three categories of voters

There are understood to be three categories of voters. These include, loyal supporters who will vote for you, and need to be thanked. The next population of voters are open to changing their mind and need to be convinced, so the policies, values and particularly the what’s in it for me, needs to be clearly articulated. The final category are often called the ‘Rusted on’ voters. These are people who have always voted the same way and there is nothing that would encourage them to vote differently. I was pleased to read that this population has been reducing over the past decade from around 60% to about 25% now. For some candidates, it’s not worth bothering to address the rusted on voter because they will never change their mind. But to me, this is a challenge. To identify what is it about their socialization and their thinking that makes them feel so comfortable with one particular party or person. I know that the voting process is not necessarily logical. Voters need to like the candidate as well as supporting their party’s policies. Our challenge is that often politicians espouse a certain value and then do not behave in a way that is consistent with that value, causing disenchantment. And rightly so.

Stakeholder support 

Creating change champions is common in organizational change programs. For those running for elected office, change champions are enthusiastic volunteers who distribute pamphlets while chatting to constituents and talk to their neighbors, friends and family members about the party and its values.  This population needs to be properly trained, thanked and celebrated. There are also other stakeholders such as donors and the media. There’s controversy around these stakeholder groups. Obviously, any politician wants to get their message heard by their constituents, and the media provides a wonderful platform for doing this.

Measurement

Measuring the effectiveness of our engagement and communication activities will ultimately be determined on Election Day. The election process will come around again all too quickly, and it’s important that short term measures are identified and learning captured as you go along.

Useful measures include: the number of likes, comments, questions and shares on social media; traffic to our website; number of radio interviews and column inches; people signing up to join the party and donations made.

Closing messages

Highlighting three takeaways from my blog, I would say that, the vision for political party is exactly the same need as the vision for any project inside an organization. Secondly, a comprehensive and channel appropriate communication plan is key for increasing your discoverability among your target population. Finally, there’s a need to have a partnership and engagement strategy to leverage those people who are fans and supporters of your party to maximize your reach. Of course, the ultimate measure of how well we do in this area will be when we make it into Parliament House.

For more information on The New Liberals policies and candidates, please visit the links below

The New Liberals (TNL) Policies

The New Liberals (TNL) Candidates

Reference

The term BHAG comes from the 1994 book “Built to Last: Successful Habits of Visionary Companies” by Jim Collins and Jerry Porras.

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