Advocacy Matters - July Edition

With The Voice being front and centre in philanthropic and community foundations space now, and the numbers getting tighter and tighter, the question now starts to turn to how we work with people to change their mind (on this issue or any other). In this edition, I am going to step through some thoughts, reflections, and insights about what does and doesn’t shift hearts and minds – which may be useful for Community Foundations around Australia as they engage in advocacy and support of The Voice – and beyond.

Firstly, telling someone they are wrong/stupid/racist/homophobic (etc) does not change their opinion. I learnt this during the marriage equality campaign, where I spent substantial amounts of time talking to people who perhaps hadn’t met LGBTIQ+ people before, and who had very firm religious and other views. While I disagreed with their views, we needed to focus on what we had in common, our joint ideals and aspirations: this was always a more successful path to convince somebody of views – this is critically important if they are very personal in nature. This approach is similar to that of being a partner, as opposed to being an adversary.

Second, facts don’t work but stories do – if I am told a heap of facts, I do not have my ‘Road to Damascus’ moment and suddenly change my mind. Just as you don’t change your views based on one (or a few!) statistics neither will those you are working with. When entering the discussion, you need to share stories which can start the process of self-evaluation of views – instilling doubt via a powerful and compelling story will be much more effective at changing somebody’s view than presenting them with facts and figures.

Thirdly, link consequences to decisions. While it sounds easy, it is surprisingly hard to do. You need to link decision points and trajectories such that people can see the steps of the journey after they make a decision. By linking the outcomes of a decision, you can link immediate consequences with long-term impact successfully.

Finally, remember those you are talking to are not you, and may not even exist in your world or bubble. There was a recent survey which occurred in the Federal electorate of Fadden (where we have an upcoming by-election). In the survey, people were asked “what was your opinion of The Voice” to which a majority replied with comments like “I didn’t realise it was on TV at the moment” or “who are the short-listed singers”. This should give you pause for your campaigns and advocacy to think, and dig a bit deeper. While your particular topic may be front and centre, many of the community will be struggling with cost-of-living issues, interest rates, their kids at school, and millions of other activities in between; it is not that they do not care about topics, it is just not their front and centre, and may not even be in their consideration set.

Community Foundations play an integral and vital role in shaping voices from many parts of Australia that do not necessarily have a mouthpiece – being selective, smart and engaging with that role is critical for the success of nation making changes like The Voice, but works just as well for small community projects in a regional town.

About the author: Neil Pharaoh has spent most of his voluntary and professional life in and around social purpose organisations, government, public policy, and advocacy. Neil has been behind many leading social policy and advocacy campaigns on gender rights, equality, medical research, and education, and ran for Parliament in Victoria in 2014 and 2018. Neil is co-founder and director of Tanck, which focuses on better engagement with government, and regularly runs workshops and advocacy sessions and advises leading social purpose organisations on their government engagement strategy and systems. As always, the Tanck team is available for a complimentary chat to any member of Community Foundations Australia on this space. If you have any ideas, suggestions, tips or questions, please feel free to email Neil Pharaoh at neil@tanck.com.au or reach out to him via social media at LinkedIn, Twitter, Instagram and Facebook.