Skills Include Flexible Strategies, Enhanced Listening and Expanded Networks
Public affairs constantly evolves. It is being forced to evolve much faster during the unpredictable, chaotic Trump presidency.
The traditional skills of public affairs professionals – making sound arguments, proactive outreach and early identification of emerging issues – are challenged by a presidential decision-making style that doesn’t always follow a straight line.
Trump’s basis for policy choices isn’t uniformly sound, well-argued or predictable. It is easy to get unintentionally cross-wise with a Trump policy or ally. His tangents and rants often extend to foreign nations, which creates special challenges for public affairs professionals who represent them.
To train for the Trump era, public affairs professionals need to learn new skills such as flexible strategic planning, enhanced social listening and expanded personal networks. Developing an appreciation of political satire might help, too.
Flexible Strategic Planning
In addition to a traditional issue analysis, public affairs professionals should develop the equivalent of crisis communications scenarios – what could go sideways and how to respond.
It isn’t enough to identify policies you want to advance and policies you want to oppose. You also need to predict issues you may not expect.
Just as you would identify your offensive strategy for policies you support and defensive strategy for policies you oppose, you need to develop strategies for how to react to unpredicted policies that affect your interests.
Admittedly, it’s easier to gameplan offensive and defensive public affairs moves than anticipate how to respond to a policy that emerges out of the blue. The challenge is to expand your public affairs imagination to foresee out-of-the-blue policies or policy shifts.
This can be difficult for experienced public affairs professionals who believe they have seen and heard it. In Trump World, there is seemingly something new and unexpected every day.
The professional challenge is not to lose sight of your main agenda by the distraction of what could happen under Trump. Stay focus on what you want and what you don’t want, but keep a watchful eye on what might happen instead.
Enhanced Social Listening
Beside a watchful eye, develop a keener sense of listening, especially on social media, podcasts and conservative media that traffic in all things Trump. These darker corners of the mediaverse can provide useful clues on issues being discussed and bubbling up. It’s where some of Trump’s points of view are molted and molded.
Trump followers may have insider news about Trump policy intentions. They also may be discussing or rehearsing how those policies might by publicly disclosed and advanced.
This early-look at tomorrow’s Trump news gives you a chance to anticipate how a policy may affect your interest and contemplate potential responses with a deadline staring you in the face. That slight edge could be the difference between being caught off guard and having a proactive response.
Don’t consider this form of game planning a waste of time if what might have happened doesn’t happen. Being ready just in case is its own reward.
Expanded Personal Networks
One of the positives to come from Trump’s unpredictability is to expand your personal network, including with Trump fans and allies. It’s a good way to expand your public affairs horizons and prepare for the unexpected.
Expanded social listening can help anticipate Trump tangents, but an expanded personal network can offer clues on how to respond – and not respond – to those tangents. An over-reaction can be as bad as being caught unaware.
Anticipating what might happen gives you the time and space to weigh how and whether to react. Good advice is that Ttump says lots of things that never turn into policies. Friendly advice can help a public affairs professional differentiate a real threat from just a vocal threat.
Trump Era Syndrome
How Trump has affected policy debates won’t go away when he’s gone. His lasting influence will be a coarser form of policy debate. Whether or not unpredictability becomes a new political strategy, the Trump era will be a proving ground for resourceful, forward-looking public affairs.
Issue agility and navigating chaos have become new must-have skills for successful public affairs professionals for the Trump era – and perhaps for whatever follows.
