On the 1st of December 2022 I kicked off this 1-year myth busting Public Affairs experiment here on this blog. Now, a year after, the experiment has ended. So what did we learn?
First of all, the goal was simply to contribute to demystify Public Affairs and make it more transparent. The idea was not about boasting or showing off. It was to provide readers in and outside of our industry a realistic view of what it actually entails to work in Public Affairs. So it was a small stab at making our discipline a bit more open, since we cannot raise the bar for what Public Affairs is actually capable of doing in and for corporates, NGO’s, IO’s and society as a whole – if we are afraid of openness, of being questioned or being accountable for our performance. It is needed, because if we do not raise the bar, the discipline risks becoming marginalized and eventually cut from both the organizational chart.
One year later the experiment ended on the 1st of December 2023. Overall it has been a fantastic and fun experience. The positivity and the willingness to raise the bar in PA has really surprised me. Friendly, curious and helpfull are the words that come to mind when I look back at the outreach to possible bloggers.
Below you will – in random order – find some of the conclusions. This is of course not representative study of the entire PA industry in Europe as the “population” was only 45 bloggers. It is not representative, unbiased or flawless. But it might provide some interesting trends or patterns, which I think is somehow indicative of the PA industry currently – and where the the industry is going.
So take it with a grain (or bag) of salt or just as entertaining input on the state of PA industry. Here we go!
Learnings
Through this period 45 people have contributed with blogs + I have along the way written two summaries of the blogs. Almost all the bloggers are based in Europe except a handful. About 17 of the bloggers are working permanently out of Brussels. Roughly 55% were men, 45% women (to be honest I really tried to reach 50/50 but it turned out to be almost impossible to make it in time).
Below are 10 learnings from the experiment – some expected, but also with a few surprises.
Learning #1 – Are titles in the discipline of Public Affairs clearly defined?
Public Affairs pro is not a protected title! So the titles differ quite a lot. Of course this reflects the company and role of the specific blogger, but even so, the titles vary e.g. like Head of: Government Relations, Public Policy, EU Affairs, Advocacy, Stakeholder Relations or just Public Affairs – and often cover the same task and responsibilities.
This, to me, indicate that PA is defined in different ways and adapted to the context of the organisation.
Learning #2 – What are the top 5 news sites among the PA pros?
The bloggers are in general global news junkies! Constantly reading and checking email. The most common news sites among the bloggers are EU focused – these media are mentioned more and before any national news sites (remember only about a third of the bloggers were permanently based in Brussels). PS: Also peculiar that Twitter is considered a news site as such and compete with the “real” media.
Learning #3 – What is the split between internal and external meetings?
The split conveyed here between internal and external meetings is for me personally only somewhat surprising. I do believe that many PA pros would like to spend most – if not all – of their meeting time on external stakeholders. But in larger organizations this is just not possible as this overview also shows.
In my view, PA pros are often extroverts who get energy from talking to different stakeholders outside of the company. Thus, some may find it de-motivating to have too many internal meetings. However, I always challenge this view, as this depends solely on the outcome of these meetings – if you get a lot of value out of the internal meetings, then a split of say 60-70 % in favor of the internal, then this is maybe not a problem. It often depends on the internal structures, how the PA function is positioned internally and the feedback-mechanism functions.
Learning #4 – How do they take notes then – have PA pros gone fully digital?
This question was for some maybe a bit odd – but turned out to reveal something interesting about PA pros: Even though many operate in very digital organisations, they themselves haven’t fully gone digital in all aspects of their work – and there is a good explanation for that: Many feel they can be more present or in the moment with the person they are sitting in front of, if they are not looking in to a screen. Especially when meeting politicians or other important KOLs they know they only have a small window to get their attention or make a good impression.
Learning #5 – Is Excel still the preferred tool in the PA industry?
I think that you would get the same result if you asked an entire population. But an interesting learning is that only a few of the bloggers did not use it at all – meaning that in most organisations Excel is still a preferred tool of measuring, tracking and assessing various aspects of the business. Many PA pros do not like to get measured as they feel PA is not a quantitative disciplin. But this can be a quite dangerous attitude if C-level think that KPIs (measured/reported in a tool like Excel) are the (only) internal currency.
So my learning here would be that PA pros should embrace these types of tools rather than fight them. Of course it is always about value created in the end, but if e.g. KPIs reported in Excel is the key to get the attention of C-level, then why not try to see how PA could fit in there in a meaningful way?
Learning #6 – Are PA pros out lunching and dining at fancy restaurants all week?
No, the trends is clear: The picture of the lobbyist running from one fancy lunch/dinner/drink to the other is anachronistic – if it ever really existed. Most of the bloggers prefer a chat over teams or maybe just a quick coffee. This may come as a surprise for some, that it is not as glamorous as they see with Remy Danton in House of Cards or the like. It is hard work, a lot of reading – most of the bloggers are avid readers – and they spend a lot of time preparing for outreach – and when they reach out, they do not waste time.
Learning #7 – What are the top 5 favorite apps among PA pros?
This learning actually surprised me a bit – especially in the light of lesson 4 above. The #1 app mentioned by the PA pros was Slack (which is a messaging app for businesses). But then again Slack is easy to use and an efficient way of communicating quickly with peers. That Apple/Spotify is the second most mentioned app, is also not that surprising (like the rest of the world). But PA pros are news junkies and they also commute a lot. #3 is Teams, which is evident as many corporates use Teams (instead of Google Meet) as it is integrated in their Office packages. Twitter is #4 – which again confirms that PA pros follow their KOLs everywhere – and Twitter (or X as it is called nowadays) is still the townsquare of politics. #5 is Outlook – needs no explanation, easy to use, no fuzz, and a part of their organisation’s IT-setup.
Learning #8 – What is the size of the PA teams?
The question of size of the PA team should of course also be taken with a grain of (extra) salt due to the small base (consultancies filtered out though). But even so, this result pretty much reflects the results I got when I wrote my book The Public Affairs Engine in 2020. The book was written based on more than 500 conversations with PA pros all over Europe. The lessons here were also, that typically PA teams are quite small or quite big. This question is sometimes stipulated a bit, as PA can be exercised by colleagues who might work in sales or communication and thus don’t count in the total PA FTE scoresheet.
A remark I often hear – almost no matter the size of the PA department – is that the PA functions are undervalued or “under-funded”. This is probably typical organisational (rational choice) behaviour to want more budget, but I do sense that in these cases the right organisational structures are often not in place or at least somewhat sub-optimal. More budget is always nice, but the marginal product of labour does not always continue to rise as the number of PA FTEs grows.
Learning #9 – Where is the ideal position of the PA function in an organization?
I don’t have any graph for this question because the answers were just too scattered and I would need to interpret too much, which would then increase the risk of exaggerations. But I have again to share a figure from my book.
This figure is also relevant in this context as the discussion around the ideal position of the PA function is still up for debate. In my book from 2020, position C (the PA placed under Communication) was clearly the most common setup. This structure can work very well, but my point in the book was just that if you chose this path, there will be a path dependency. It is simply a trade off. In this case there will be certain limits to what PA will and can do. And as long as you are aware of these limitations, there aren’t necessarily any problems.
In the blog experiment I was surprised to see about a handfull of blogs mentioning that the PA function was actually based under Marketing. Marketing (and communications) will, as mentioned, set limitiations for the PA team. To be honest, I have a hard time seeing the advantages of placing PA under a (joint) marketing unit, but maybe I need to educate myself on this aspect!
Lastly, a majority stresses that a direct line to C-level is preferred as this secures better alignment – this is perhaps also not so surprising as probably every employee wants to get close to the C-level. But: What is an interesting aspect to have in mind is, that in the cases where the PA function report directly to the CEO, this is most often initiated by the CEO her/himself, meaning that it is often 100% connected to the specific CEOs perception of PA. Studies from the 80s (e.g. Mahon) have shown this exact phenomenon, and to be honest I do not think this has changed a lot most places in 2023!
Learning #10 – Should Public Affairs be considered more of a management approach?
And the last learning I had is more a kind of “meta reflection”: Should PA be considered more like a management approach instead of a reactive toolbox used when things heat up? The questions is of course very biased, but one of my personal (contrarian?) convictions in relation to PA. To reach the full effect of PA it needs to be integrated in all aspects of the organisation and corporate strategy.
Reflecting on the many good perspectives brought forward in the 45 blogs, I do see a trend that PA pros are moving up the ladder to more core responsibilities (e.g. for ESG, sustainability, geopolitics etc.). But to take these steps up the ladder, we need to adapt our mindset to the likes of a management consultant, to be able to move out of the role of “just” a reactive, fire-fighting cost-center.
Final thoughts – what now? And why not continue the experiment?
This has been a fun experiment and even though it was a very small sample, there were still a lot of aspects to reflect on. Why not continue with the experiment then? Well, it has been quite time-consuming and has been a project of mine in my spare time. But, I will continue the discussion on the podcast next year, so keep an eye out for the The Persuaders Podcast (find it on Apple Podcast). Thx to all the excellent bloggers!
If you have any thoughts, reflections or questions, then feel free to reach out via LinkedIn or Twitter (I have however closed the comment section due to Russian bots commenting a bit too much!).
All the best,
Anders