This article is written by Peter P. Constantinou, PhD, professor at the School of Public Policy and Administration, York University (Canada) and president of the Political Acuity Institute.

  • The problem: Increased noise, hyper-partisanship and shortened attention spans make communicating complex concepts more difficult, often with negative consequences.
  • Why it matters: Political systems are distracted and institutions lose the trust of the public. This will affect engagement, participation and trust.
  • The solution: Accept that leadership in public policy and administration is multidisciplinary for a reason. Employing your political acuity skills means incorporating a multitude of sources of advice through a political lens.

“It’s a context-dependent decision...” These were the words of Harvard President Claudine Gay before a congressional hearing on antisemitism on elite American College campuses. One of the challenges of communication at the best of times is getting your message across. But increasingly, we are so worried about the ‘crisis’ we are in that we tend to listen almost exclusively to the lawyers and not any of our other advisors at our peril. Somehow we think this one source of advice somehow trumps all the others. After all, it’s legal advice, and that means something, right?

The story of three dogs

This is not the German fairy tale by Andrew Lang, but a different one.

As the story goes, three dogs were sitting outside a butcher shop. When a meat truck pulled up, one dog said to the other two: “I used to be an architect before I retired. In fact, I designed this building. If we wait until after dark, I can get us into the building, and we can have all the meat we want.” The second dog said to the other two: “I was a lawyer before I retired. I am sure I can negotiate with the owner of the meat shop and we can have all the meat we want.” The third dog said to the other two: “I was a university president before I retired. I am sure if we just sit here and whine and beg we will get all the meat we want.”

All too often, the advice from legal teams is not to say or do anything that might affect the court case that may ultimately ensue.

This story is originally told to describe the reluctance and a lack of understanding that higher education is not above the ‘dirty’ world of politics and lobbying. The lesson here is university presidents do not think they have to consider other factors and that their issues compete with so many other issues for government’s time, attention and funding. They believe that facts will speak for themselves, that they are simply deserving and that government regulators and funders will simply realise this. If we only knew what they know, life would be simpler.

This is not meant to be an indictment of university presidents generally, or the three who recently testified specifically. It is, however, to point to a trend of senior leaders not being politically aware.

The lawyers as a source of advice

We train students of public policy and administration with an emphasis on economics, social science, political science, policy analysis, statistics, programme evaluation, etc., and yes, constitutional and public law. This approach is evidence that public administrators and leaders generally need to speak many languages to analyse and balance a myriad of factors when making decisions. It is the policy professional who navigates the diversity of ideas and opinions and finds a consensus or a delicate balance.

💬 Let the author know what your experience and thoughts are on helping senior leaders make decisions with political acuity leaving a comment below

Successful policy decisions are grounded in evidence and political forms of analysis that take into account the context that we live in. Without this, we might have missed an opportunity to get it right. What does legal advice do to take into account public opinion and public relations, political analysis of stakeholders and the optics of the situation? All of this, and more must be included or else we get it wrong.

The court of public opinion

All too often, the advice from legal teams is not to say or do anything that might affect the court case that may ultimately ensue. But if it really is “...a context-dependent decision” then the context we are in needs to be better understood. If political acuity skills are employed, a full analysis of the myriad of factors in play is important to include. And if not, those leaders won’t be around for the court case. The wheels of justice traditionally move slowly. The wheels of social media and the political world are infinitely faster.

Done reading? Make sure to share your own thoughts on who to involve to make well informed policy decisions leaving a comment below ⬇️

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