I’m developing a new theory of advocacy – it’s not a very useful theory but it is keeping me amused, thinking about it.
My theory is that everyone, on all sides, thinks that they are losing the advocacy war on most issues.
What do you think of my theory?
It’s just a theory but it’s based on years of experience, weeks of conversations with people and seconds of thought on the subject. I have been lucky enough to chat to quite a few people over the last few weeks; members, quite senior members, of three political parties, some folk who work in NGOs, some civil servants, some journalists, some landowners, some raptor workers and some normal people, oh yes, and Henry, and most people seem to think that they are losing the advocacy battle. It’s interesting when you hear the views of both ‘sides’ in an argument and they both think they are losing – is it always like that? Maybe it is until one side wins!
It’s even more obvious on Twitter – there are some folk who keep saying that they can’t win rather than realising that it always feels like that until you do win! Advocacy is a bit like banging your head against a brick wall when there is someone on the other side of the brick wall banging their head against it too. It’s only when it falls one side or the other that you realise you were winning and have won. And the other guy thinks he is losing all the time anyway!
If you were a grouse moor manager, for example, then you would think that you were, overall, in a worse position this year than last year. Yes, you would be pleased and relieved that there is a Tory government but the inexorable rise of publicity for grouse shooting would have you worried – and that might be why the ‘British grouse industry’ (who are they really?) have been funding desperate attacks on the RSPB, I guess. The demise of driven grouse shooting is inevitable – it may not be quick but it is inevitable. I’d say it will be quicker if the ‘British grouse industry’ continue on the tack that they are on now, than if they offered deep-rooted reform pretty soon. But as someone said to me fairly recently, ‘It’s clear that these guys aren’t for changing’. Well, change is coming, like it or not.
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Your last sentence shows that you are winning! Hooray!
Yet a successful outcome may not be about winning or losing – it ‘s about achieving a successful outcome. That might be best achieved by getting to a place where both sides feel they have ‘won’ and got to somewhere new, better and useful; or at the very least, not having lost.
You’re probably right – because when you win one (in conservation at least) its straight on to the next (losing) challenge. What does interest me in modern advocacy is the inability of so many advocates to recognise when they are on to a loser. Conservation as a whole has struggled to adapt to the new world of ‘austerity’ – assessing your achievement – and basing your advocacy on – how much money you can get out of Government hasn’t looked so clever in recent years !
As Olly says, its about outcome – which in the heat of battle many aggressive advocates tend to forget, but on the other hand Olly is equally wrong in suggesting that outcome = compromise/accommodation – not least in that both sides have to want a settlement and this years HH shooting suggest that is not the case in the driven grouse industry at the moment.
Let’s not over-think this chaps. Cry “havoc” and let slip the dogs of war! One thing we can be certain of is these grouse goons don’t like it up ’em.