In the course of tackling public policy issues, we must acknowledge we are not playing solitaire. The team concept is at the core of the Rule of the Road “Share control before you lose it,” and it applies both internally and externally.

It is often tempting to try to manage a rapidly developing issue single-handedly, or with only one other resource: that department most affected or most skilled at handling the issue. Whether it is a matter of time or trust, the “silo” mentality kicks in.

But in truth, maybe this issue could best be handled if even one brainstorming session were held among government relations, corporate communications, corporate legal, and some of the internal and external resources that report to them.

Yet work often begins in a vacuum, to the exclusion of all the other players. One can almost bet that one of these players has a crucial fact, perspective or idea we will regret not having known if we simply proceed unilaterally.

Herding the cats
Success dictates that all players be involved in the process if the issue is large enough to warrant it. As a communications agency, we have often been called to Washington or corporate headquarters to meet with all disciplines—even when we have only a half-hour to pack a bag and book a flight. The result: total information shared among all players, sound strategy set and a clear mandate for “who shall not get out ahead of whom.”

Teamwork—sharing control—is essential to a positive outcome. The entire management team must share the same information, understanding of the problem and vision of success.

A classic example of what can happen when going it alone is the CEO who spoke at length with an eager newspaper reporter about major expansion plans for a local manufacturing facility. The multimillion-dollar expansion would add hundreds of new, good-paying jobs and immeasurably improve local economic development. All that was left to do was finalize an economic incentive package with local and state elected officials.

A good news story to be sure, except the discussions with local officials were preliminary and very private. And the dollar amount for the expansion had not been approved by the board of directors. It took a total team effort by the company (with our considerable help) to smooth over the resulting public embarrassment.

As researcher K. Eric Drexler said, “If the finished parts are going to work together, they must be developed by groups that share a common picture of what each part must accomplish. (Those) in different disciplines are forced to communicate; the challenge of management is to make that communication happen.”

Once collaboration within senior management and its resources has been established, the rule of sharing control can be directed outwardly.

Know constituency, then communicate
For example, a client company found itself a primary target of activists whose agendas included creating more burdensome regulation for the industry involved and, ultimately, an outright ban on new business expansions.

Working in tandem with government relations, lobbyists and academic resources, we created a grassroots program that assessed external perceptions of somewhat controversial company practices. Based on the results, we created messages that would resonate with the constituency. Then we implemented an innovative word-of-mouth campaign to begin to soften hard negative attitudes and create a more positive opinion of the company.

Measurement after the campaign indicated that the targeted constituency was much more receptive to the company and felt better prepared to discuss the positive attributes of the company with neighbors, lawmakers and local units of government.

This remarkable turnaround was possible only because the company shared control of the project, utilizing all available resources and accumulated wisdom. No one department—not legal, government relations, corporate communications or community affairs—could have accomplished what the team effort was able to secure.

When control is gone, what next?
Of course, there are times when company management must acknowledge that the majority of control has been lost—that the situation has gotten so out of hand that control now rests with independent judgments being made outside the corporation.

Recognizing an out-of-control situation is imperative, because all control will be lost if we do not build bridges quickly to those who truly possess it. In a case history alluded to in its other aspects elsewhere in these essays, the agency and client were in just such a spot when the agency was called in to reverse public opposition to a metropolitan sewerage district’s practice of applying treated liquid sludge in outlying agricultural counties.

So long had poor operational practices and mortal-sin style communications gone on that the controversy was out of control: Citizen- and homeowner-group lawsuits were being filed, bans were being passed almost weekly, negative headlines were being made daily. Investigative reporters were on the case, and minds had gone from open to closed to infuriated. And rightly so.

The agency helped the client make vast, meaningful changes in operations that were both substantive and community-relations savvy. We helped our client put in place the kind of communication that local officials and the citizenry had deserved in the first place. But none of that would succeed without a third leg on the strategy: Turning over to citizens the right to judge our methods, our intentions, our trustworthiness and our product.

A dangerous move? Hardly. In reality, it had already happened. Control had been wrested away from us almost completely.

We formed a Citizens Advisory Group that comprised interested, science-astute citizens for and against the practice, as well as some undecided. We asked local officials to pick these citizens and, with us, give them their charge: Judge us, and report your findings.

We opened up all doors to the sewerage treatment plant itself, to operations, to memos and related documents, and to all scientific information related to the safety of the product and the heavy metals contained therein—along with information on heavy metals’ effects on groundwater and crop uptake. We offered—and the group took in—experts from throughout the country versed on the subject of recycling sludge as fertilizer and on the effects of heavy metals. We asked for, got and implemented the advisory board’s recommendations for improving operations, the product and communication.

So successful was the campaign in reversing reputation and opposition that it won the Public Relations Society of America’s highest award, the Silver Anvil. Although the district, with our counsel, had done much by itself to reverse its wayward operational and communication course, none of it would have mattered without the work of the advisory board, the public trust it instilled, and the press reports closely covering its meetings, its research and its ultimate findings. Most important, both the gesture and the facts converted local officials, the shepherds of constituent opinion.

In short, control was regained by surrendering it … to those who already had it.

Much of your daily work and ours, in this always-changing world of issues management, takes place in an atmosphere we want to control, but we have a constant, uneasy sense that we really cannot ever fully gain it. Indeed, we cannot. We share control with media, government, citizens, activist groups, customers and many more.

The whole world changes colors when we acknowledge this basic tenet. New strategies suddenly come into view. It is not necessary to wait until our backs are to the wall to “gain control by sharing it,” whether it be by citizen advisory committee or other means—a subject discussed in Rule No. 4, “Gather thy allies early.”