This Tuesday, the 4th of August 2009, I'll be giving a talk to the NCVO Parliamentary Workers Group. The NCVO is an organisation that offers support and training to the third sector, whilst lobbying for, and representing the interests of, voluntary organisations.
The NCVO have kindly invited me to talk on how Emotional Intelligence can be used to make lobbying more effective. I've called the talk "Why politician's don't listen (and how to make them)" in a rather tongue in cheek way – of course politicians do listen, but an awful lot of people are talking to them all at once. So perhaps it might more properly be called "Why politicians may not always listen to you, what with their work load and the number of people trying to get their attention" but it seemed less catchy.
I'll be discussing how the concepts of Emotional Intelligence, particularly when applied to communications, can help us spot the flaws in some of the more traditional approaches to lobbying. I'll be looking in more detail at how some campaigns rely too much on facts and figures to do their work for them, or at the other extreme how overly emotive campaigns can be counterproductive. I'll also discuss 'building a better lobbyist' – what personal qualities are required to be a really effective lobbyist.
