Getting the operational voice into

policy design: the communications lens

“How do we ensure that implementation and delivery are given a central place

in good policy advice?”

Get input Test your design Get credit for the work Persuade your audience to use productMake it better

How do we... (cont’d)

How will this play? What are the optics? Is this coherent with the last 9 things

we did or said? If we said it differently, could we accomplish the

same thing more effectively?

“People of merit are too often overlooked or denied opportunities because of… discrimination. The people of Ontario recognize that when objective standards govern employment opportunities, Ontario will have a workforce that is truly representative of its society.”

– Preamble to the Employment Equity Act, 1993

Identify the audience

Who is the policy trying to affect/reach? Are there special communications needs – 3rd

language, or EasyRead – you should use?What are the sensitivities for the audiences? Who are the movers, shakers and influencers? Can we get them on board? Who has written on this issue lately?

Consult them

Engage with a sample of your target market

Use established key messages, backgrounders, FAQs to respond

Use what you hear to tune your messages

Test a draft:Rinse, lather and repeat

Plain language, clear writing, objectives and impacts spelled out are REQUIRED

Be clear so people can actually understand the issues in play

Don’t get hung-up on nuance Leave the nuance for the regulations;

get the preamble right, first

Get supporters on board

Get organization-level supporters ready to support

Positive stories told well can reduce or eliminate pushback

Go broad – into the regions and affected communities

Launch well

This is your best media hit opportunity Avoid press conferences; media

availability is better for clean messagesFind some real people with real stories

to tell

Outreach

Get out and sell the product Have an outreach plan with a staged rollout

to communities and locationsGet ready to train the trainers Use your social media strategies Keep finding new championsDon’t be afraid to tell the story AGAIN

“The reason why certainty of meaning must be paramount is clear enough. [Government] documents impose obligations and confer rights and neither the parties to them nor the draftsmen of them have the last word in deciding exactly what those rights and obligations are. That can only be settled in a Court of Law on the words of the document. If anyone is to be held irrevocably to meaning what he says, he must be very careful to say what he means. And words are an imperfect instrument for expressing complicated concepts with certainty; only mathematics can be sure of doing that.”

– Sir Ernest Gowers, Plain Words