If you follow me on LinkedIn, you’ve likely grown sick of me writing about some core themes around regulatory campaigns. I write about these themes often because they have become so common that I’ve organized them into 21 Immutable Laws of Regulatory Campaigns.
This week, we’re going to use these laws with ChatGPT to stress test our public affairs operations. Each prompt has been designed to help you think through one of these laws to ensure you account for it in your strategy or day-to-day workflows. You’ll walk through each of the laws with ChatGPT, which will in turn, give you some ideas on how to apply that law.
By following this guide, you can expect to:
Gain a deeper understanding of the 21 Immutable Laws of Regulatory Campaigns and how they apply to your organization or context.
Develop a comprehensive strategy for navigating the complex landscape of regulatory challenges, from corporate activism and consumer mobilization to political interference and regulatory burden.
Learn how to integrate political awareness into your corporate strategy, position your CEO as a key political player, and demonstrate how your business serves the public interest.
Discover effective methods for gathering and presenting authentic citizen voices, aligning your cause with your audience's values, and focusing on the human impact of their case.
Learn how to influence the regulations of your sector, move politicians, and prepare for the increasingly interventionist nature of governments.
Understand how to serve citizens, demonstrate their operations are in the interest of citizens, and start and grow small, focused groups for change.
Learn how to identify and mobilize influential individuals or groups, demonstrate the real impact of regulatory decisions, and create a strategy that focuses on familiar faces echoing their message repeatedly.
Understand how to engage with communities face-to-face, narrow your focus on a singular, tangible objective, and mobilize voters around your issue.
Learn the difference between advocacy and campaigning and how to prepare for and manage the discomfort and risks associated with campaigns.
Let’s get started!
The 21 Immutable Laws of Regulatory Campaigns
Business is politics. No organization is immune to corporate activism, consumer mobilization, political interference, or regulatory burden.
CEOs are political leaders. Multinationals are political players. Politicians use business leaders as props to drive contrast. Today's most effective CEOs do politics as a core competency.
Assume government will slow you down. It's your job to help government move faster by demonstrating how your business serves the public interest.
Prove there is voter demand. Government is accountable to the people it represents. It's your responsibility to demonstrate, using authentic citizen voices, that your offering has support among voters.
Identity sells, and it motivates. You need to demonstrate how your cause aligns with your audience's values. Identity-driven effects frame the way we assess public opinion.
Avoid issue delusion. A cognitive argument is useless without the emotive drivers. Focus on the human impact of your case.
When creating a new sector, shape its regulations. You should care about what your industry's regulations look like and who regulates you.
Never underestimate your ability to move a politician. You can get a politician onside if they believe you can move the media, mobilize constituents, and influence community leaders and stakeholders. If you can campaign, you can move a politician.
No business can escape regulation. Every functioning government regulates what matters to its citizens. If you don't have a political strategy and someone on your senior leadership team working that strategy every day, your business is in jeopardy.
Always expect more regulation, not less. Governments are becoming more interventionist. New sectors, technologies, ideas, all eventually get regulated.
You serve citizens, not consumers. Your consumer base may not be motivated by your regulatory challenges. Citizens know their rights and responsibilities, regardless of purchasing power, and defend those rights. Regulators serve citizens, not consumers. Do the same.
Citizens need to see you operating in their interest. Fail to demonstrate this authentically, and you'll fail to secure public opinion in your favour.
Small groups bring change, not large crowds. Large crowds are not the cause of successful mobilization. They are the effect. Movements start very small. If you want to build a large movement, don't. Instead, start a small group.
Grasstops are your movement's accelerant. When you need to drive regulatory outcomes quickly, mobilizing a small and focused group of influential individuals or groups to advocate on your behalf accelerates your campaign's growth and impact.
No matter your cause, you can mobilize citizens. Every regulatory decision affects someone, no matter how abstract. Demonstrate how real it is and you can build a movement of authentic citizens.
Don't go viral, go redundant. Real change happens when familiar faces echo a message, again and again. Movements start as whispers and grow organically via overlapping circles of trust, not mere reach.
Change minds face-to-face. Challenge someone's beliefs online and they'll entrench further. Stop asking people to complete surveys. Start face-to-face engagement in communities you wish to influence.
Zoom in to win big. If you're chasing big regulatory goals, you need to narrow your focus on a singular, tangible objective. You can't reverse the climate crisis. But you can boost the number of EV charging stations on a city block.
Own the ballot question. If you tell regulators that voters will choose their next government on your issue, you need to have mobilized voters in your camp. If you overreach, you'll be seen to have more bark than bite.
Advocacy is not campaigning. Advocacy is about influencing decisions within political, economic, social, and regulatory institutions. Campaigns require public support to attain their policy goals.
Embrace discomfort. Campaigns are uncomfortable. They are risky. And they never go according to plan. Just like the rest of your business. Focus on the possible, even if it requires moments of discomfort.
The 21 Immutable ChatGPT Prompts for Regulatory Campaigns
Context Setting
Hello ChatGPT, I am part of [Organization Name], a leading multinational corporation specializing in [Industry/Field]. Our organization is deeply committed to [Core Mission/Values], and we are currently navigating the complex landscape of regulatory challenges. Our primary strategic objectives include [List Strategic Objectives], and we aim to influence policy, engage our community, and raise awareness about our position on key issues.
To provide you with a comprehensive understanding of our situation, here are some important details about our organization:
Organization Overview:
Industry/Field: [Industry/Field]
Core Mission/Values: [Core Mission/Values]
Key Products/Services: [List of Key Products/Services]
Primary Markets/Regions: [Primary Markets/Regions]
Strategic Objectives:
Objective 1: [Description of Objective 1]
Objective 2: [Description of Objective 2]
Objective 3: [Description of Objective 3]
Regulatory Challenges:
Current Regulatory Environment: [Brief Overview of Regulatory Environment]
Key Regulatory Issues: [Description of Key Regulatory Issues]
Impact on Business: [Description of How These Issues Impact Business]
Stakeholder Landscape:
Key Stakeholders: [List of Key Stakeholders (e.g., government officials, community leaders, industry groups)]
Stakeholder Interests/Concerns: [Description of Stakeholder Interests/Concerns]
Engagement Strategies: [Current Engagement Strategies with Stakeholders]
Public Affairs and Advocacy Goals:
Goal 1: [Description of Goal 1]
Goal 2: [Description of Goal 2]
Goal 3: [Description of Goal 3]
Considerations:
Political Climate: [Overview of Current Political Climate]
Social and Economic Factors: [Relevant Social and Economic Factors]
Organizational Strengths/Weaknesses: [Description of Strengths/Weaknesses]
Previous Campaigns and Outcomes:
Recent Campaigns: [Brief Overview of Recent Campaigns]
Successes and Lessons Learned: [Key Successes and Lessons Learned]
Given this context, I will ask you to help me stress test our new strategy against Joseph Lavoie's 21 immutable laws of regulatory campaign's. Let me know when you are ready to proceed and I'll begin with the first question.
1. Business is politics
Prompt:
Law #1:Business is politics. No organization is immune to corporate activism, consumer mobilization, political interference, or regulatory burden.
How can our organization integrate political awareness into our corporate strategy to better handle corporate activism, consumer mobilization, political interference, and regulatory burden?
2. CEOs are political leaders
Prompt:
Law #2: CEOs are political leaders. Multinationals are political players. Politicians use business leaders as props to drive contrast. Today's most effective CEOs do politics as a core competency.
What steps can our CEO take to become an effective political leader, and how can we position our CEO as a key political player in the public sphere?
3. Assume government will slow you down
Prompt:
Law #3: Assume government will slow you down. It's your job to help government move faster by demonstrating how your business serves the public interest.
What strategies can we implement to help the government move faster by demonstrating how our business serves the public interest?
4. Prove there is voter demand
Prompt:
Law #4:Prove there is voter demand. Government is accountable to the people it represents. It's your responsibility to demonstrate, using authentic citizen voices, that your offering has support among voters.
How can we gather and present authentic citizen voices to demonstrate voter support for our offering?
5. Identity sells, and it motivates
Prompt:
Law #5: Identity sells, and it motivates. You need to demonstrate how your cause aligns with your audience's values. Identity-driven effects frame the way we assess public opinion.
In what ways can we align our cause with our audience's values and leverage identity-driven effects to frame public opinion?
6. Avoid issue delusion
Prompt:
Law #6: Avoid issue delusion. A cognitive argument is useless without the emotive drivers. Focus on the human impact of your case.
How can we focus on the human impact of our case and balance cognitive arguments with emotive drivers?
7. When creating a new sector, shape its regulations
Prompt:
Law #7:When creating a new sector, shape its regulations. You should care about what your industry's regulations look like and who regulates you.
What steps can we take to influence the regulations of our sector and ensure we are actively involved in who regulates us?
8. Never underestimate your ability to move a politician
Prompt:
Law #8: Never underestimate your ability to move a politician. You can get a politician onside if they believe you can move the media, mobilize constituents, and influence community leaders and stakeholders. If you can campaign, you can move a politician.
How can we demonstrate our ability to move the media, mobilize constituents, and influence community leaders and stakeholders to get politicians on our side?
9. No business can escape regulation
Prompt:
**Law #9: No business can escape regulation.** Every functioning government regulates what matters to its citizens. If you don't have a political strategy and someone on your senior leadership team working that strategy every day, your business is in jeopardy.
What political strategy should we develop, and who on our senior leadership team should be responsible for working that strategy daily to ensure our business is not in jeopardy?
10. Always expect more regulation, not less
Prompt:
Law #10: Always expect more regulation, not less. Governments are becoming more interventionist. New sectors, technologies, ideas, all eventually get regulated.
How can we prepare for and adapt to the increasing interventionist nature of governments and the inevitable regulation of new sectors, technologies, and ideas?
11. You serve citizens, not consumers
Prompt:
Law #11: You serve citizens, not consumers. Your consumer base may not be motivated by your regulatory challenges. Citizens know their rights and responsibilities, regardless of purchasing power, and defend those rights. Regulators serve citizens, not consumers. Do the same.
What approaches can we take to serve citizens in a way that aligns with their rights and responsibilities, ensuring we address their concerns rather than just those of our consumer base?
12. Citizens need to see you operating in their interest
Prompt:
Law #12: Citizens need to see you operating in their interest. Fail to demonstrate this authentically, and you'll fail to secure public opinion in your favour.
How can we authentically demonstrate that our operations are in the interest of citizens to secure public opinion in our favor?
13. Small groups bring change, not large crowds
Prompt:
Law #13: Small groups bring change, not large crowds. Large crowds are not the cause of successful mobilization. They are the effect. Movements start very small. If you want to build a large movement, don't. Instead, start a small group.
What strategies can we implement to start and grow small, focused groups that can eventually lead to larger movements for change?
14. Grasstops are your movement's accelerant
Prompt:
Law #14: Grasstops are your movement's accelerant. When you need to drive regulatory outcomes quickly, mobilizing a small and focused group of influential individuals or groups to advocate on your behalf accelerates your campaign's growth and impact.
How can we identify and mobilize a small group of influential individuals or groups to advocate on our behalf and accelerate our campaign's growth and impact?
15. No matter your cause, you can mobilize citizens
Prompt:
Law #15: No matter your cause, you can mobilize citizens. Every regulatory decision affects someone, no matter how abstract. Demonstrate how real it is and you can build a movement of authentic citizens.
What methods can we use to demonstrate the real impact of regulatory decisions and build a movement of authentic citizens around our cause?
16. Don't go viral, go redundant
Prompt:
Law #16: Don't go viral, go redundant. Real change happens when familiar faces echo a message, again and again. Movements start as whispers and grow organically via overlapping circles of trust, not mere reach.
How can we create a strategy that focuses on familiar faces echoing our message repeatedly through overlapping circles of trust, rather than chasing viral moments?
17. Change minds face-to-face
Prompt:
Law #17: Change minds face-to-face. Challenge someone's beliefs online and they'll entrench further. Stop asking people to complete surveys. Start face-to-face engagement in communities you wish to influence.
What tactics can we employ to engage with communities face-to-face and influence their beliefs, rather than relying on online surveys or digital engagement?
18. Zoom in to win big
Prompt:
Law #18: Zoom in to win big. If you're chasing big regulatory goals, you need to narrow your focus on a singular, tangible objective. You can't reverse the climate crisis. But you can boost the number of EV charging stations on a city block.
How can we narrow our focus on a singular, tangible objective to achieve big regulatory goals, and what should that objective be?
19. Own the ballot question
Prompt:
Law #19: Own the ballot question. If you tell regulators that voters will choose their next government on your issue, you need to have mobilized voters in your camp. If you overreach, you'll be seen to have more bark than bite.
How can we mobilize voters around our issue to make it a key ballot question for the next election, ensuring we have substantial support to back our claims?
20. Advocacy is not campaigning
Prompt:
Law #20: Advocacy is not campaigning. Advocacy is about influencing decisions within political, economic, social, and regulatory institutions. Campaigns require public support to attain their policy goals.
What distinct strategies should we develop for advocacy versus campaigning to effectively influence decisions within political, economic, social, and regulatory institutions?
21. Embrace discomfort
Prompt:
Law #21: Embrace discomfort. Campaigns are uncomfortable. They are risky. And they never go according to plan. Just like the rest of your business. Focus on the possible, even if it requires moments of discomfort.
How can we prepare for and manage the discomfort and risks associated with campaigns, focusing on what is possible even when it requires moments of discomfort?
And finally, you’ll notice that ChatGPT offers a lot of overlapping and repetitive ideas. You can distill its ideas into one cohesive summary:
Prompt:
In answering my questions, you have provided me with many ideas and approaches. Some of these are repetitive or overlap. Can you review all of your ideas and summarize them into one holistic plan?