Nobody joins a scolding

↓

Health advocacy often comes down to telling a government minister that he is killing children.

Which is sometimes true.

But consider the minister.

He did not wake up this morning and decide to kill children—he woke with a budget set by someone else, three things on fire, a civil servant telling him what's wrong with his plan, and now there is an email from you about dead babies.

It will not endear him to your argument. (However right you are about the facts.)

Because being right is not the same thing as getting someone to act.

Here's a different approach: recruit, don't shame.

Think about advertising.

Nobody changes their trainers because an advert says:

They change because an advert says:

That's not being conflict averse, it's being smart about the end goal.

A shaming campaign asks a decision-maker to do something psychologically expensive:

• First, admit that he has been wrong.
• Then, admit that you were right.
• Then, change direction.

A recruiting campaign asks him to do something much easier:

Join something that is already happening.

So what does the recruiting version look like?

1) What is happening. What great future vision do you have and how is is it already coming to life?

2) Who is already in. Ideally people he knows, and better yet people he measures himself against.

3) What joining looks like for him. Be specific: do you want a meeting? A public announcement? A budget line? How will you support and celebrate him to make that happen? What will he and the people her cares about gain?

Critically, nothing about the about requires him to agree he was wrong. Which is lucky, because he won't ;)

Try this

Open the last thing you sent to someone with the power to decide and count two things:

How many sentences say some version of:

"Dead babies, best regards"

And how many say:

"Here's what is already happening, here's who is involved, and here's how you can join."

I know the first category is more satisfying.

But if your job is to get the idea adopted, satisfaction is not the metric.

Uptake is.

🌿 Nobody joins a scolding.