Is Your Fly-In Best in Class?

It’s that time of year again, when grassroots advocates from around the country travel to Washington, hoping to convince lawmakers to take action on a variety of issues. Sadly, much of their hard work is going to waste … and they don’t even know it.

I say this because, with few exceptions, the organizations managing these fly-ins are failing to maximize the time of both their advocates and the legislators with whom they are meeting.

You see, many fly-ins are run in a way that suggests their only purpose is to entertain or engage their advocates. They want to provide a feel-good event for their advocates instead of actually advancing a policy argument, which is what the best-in-class organizations do.

According to National Journal’s Leadership Council research, what separates the best-in-class events from the also-rans boils down to three things:

1. The preparation provided before the fly-in
2. How the meetings are structured with legislators
3. What happens when the advocates get home after the event

Improve the quality of advocate-policymaker meetings by ensuring that all advocates have a standard understanding of exactly what is expected of them.

Let’s start with preparation.

Organizations with high-impact fly-ins invest heavily on the front end — they know that every minute counts when their advocates are in Washington, so they try to maximize returns by shifting much of the low value training to the days and weeks before the event. In comparison, the more common approach spends the first several hours of the fly-in on “Washington 101” content — how a bill becomes a law, the difference between the House and the Senate and so forth.

Mind you, I’m not saying this content is unimportant. What I am saying is this content could be delivered via webinar or, even better, prerecorded and made available on demand for those advocates who need the support. This frees up advocate time in Washington for the high value training — how to nuance the issue for different lawmakers or coaching on how to tell a more compelling personal story. Or even better, coaching on how to tell that story in different time intervals — say one, five and fifteen minutes in duration. That way, your advocates hammer home a consistent, effective message in every meeting no matter if the lawmaker arrives late or has to leave early for a vote.

This brings me to the meeting itself.

The common approach is to send your advocates in with an armload of white papers or talking points and hope for the best. And a surprising number of organizations send their advocates in with a broad, non-specific ask, e.g. “we need comprehensive tax and entitlement reform.”

Best-in-class organizations don’t leave anything to chance. They create “job descriptions” for their advocates so that each one knows their role in the meeting — you do the introduction, you tell the story, you take notes and so forth.

They choreograph the meeting for maximum impact and conclude with a specific ask. There is no uncertainty left in the legislator’s mind. They know their constituents care passionately about the issue and that they are in a position to do something about it.

The activity doesn’t stop when the meeting ends, however.

While most organizations are content to view their fly-ins as an event that only happens once or twice a year, the most progressive organizations view their fly-ins as the start of something that will continue on once the advocates return home. They don’t take their foot off the gas, rather they work with their supporters to schedule follow-up meetings in the district four to six weeks after the initial visit in Washington. And then again, a few months after that — the goal here is to build a strong relationship between the advocate and the lawmaker.

The fly-in is just a way to either start a new relationship or cement an existing one. That’s really the biggest difference between best-in-class organizations and the also-rans. They view the fly-in as a key event in strengthening relationships with Congress and they allocate resources accordingly. They invest heavily in preparation and training, they carefully plan the meetings for maximum impact and they work with their advocates to keep the pressure up back at home.

That’s what makes a best-in-class fly-in.

This story is based on National Journal Leadership Council’s Member exclusive Idea Brief: Advocate Meeting Checklist. Contact us at daniellew@nationaljournal.com to learn more about this research, or visit nationaljournal.com for more information.