Aug. 17, 2025
How to Apply Pressure to Decisionmakers, Without it Blowing Up in Your Face
We are in a time where more and more, for a lot of decisionmakers, pressure is a necessary component to our advocacy. At the same time, we're operating in an environment where some decisionmakers, including some very high-profile ones, are engaging in retaliatory behavior against people who would oppose them or challenge them in any way.
So I can understand if you might feel a little concerned.
In a perfect world, we would have influential collaborative relationships with every single decisionmaker that matters to us. That's always the goal. We're always trying to make that happen, but it's just not always the case.
Sometimes pressure is the only option you've got. When you find yourself in that situation, your ability to use pressure effectively becomes critical. It may very well make the difference between success and failure in your advocacy work on that particular thing.
In this episode, we share:
- Five highly effective ways to use pressure with reluctant decisionmakers
- Why some decisionmakers actually want you to pressure them
- How to know when you should use pressure
- How to know which kind of pressure to use
- Four things you must be aware of to prevent unwanted consequences
- The one thing you must have in order for pressure to work for you
- How to increase your comfort level with using pressure
Help spread the word! If you found value in this episode, I’d be grateful if you would leave a review on iTunes or wherever you listen. Your reviews help other nonprofit leaders find the podcast. Thanks!!
WEBVTT
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You're listening to the Nonprofit Power Podcast.
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In today's episode, we share how to apply pressure to decision makers, without it blowing up in your face.
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So stay tuned.
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If you wanna have real and powerful influence over the money and policy decisions that impact your organization and the people you serve, then you're in the right place.
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I'm Kath Patrick, and I've helped dozens of progressive Nonprofit leaders take their organizations to new and higher levels of impact and success by building powerful influence with the decision makers that matter.
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It is possible to get a critical mass of the money and policy decision makers in your world to be as invested in your success as you are, to have them seeking you out as an equal partner and to have them.
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Bringing opportunities and resources to you.
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This podcast will help you do just that.
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Welcome to the Nonprofit Power Podcast.
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Hey there folks.
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Welcome to another episode of the Nonprofit Power Podcast.
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I'm so glad you're here for today's episode.
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If you saw the title for this episode and said, I should probably listen to that.
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I'm really glad you're here.
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Because it is true.
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We are in a time where more and more, for a lot of decision makers, pressure is a necessary component to our advocacy.
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And at the same time, we're operating in an environment where some decision makers, some very high profile decision makers are engaging in retaliatory behavior against people who would oppose them or challenge them in any way.
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So.
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I can understand if you might feel a little concerned.
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In a perfect world, we would have influential collaborative relationships with every single decision maker that matters to us, and that's always the goal.
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We're always trying to make that happen.
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But it's just not always the case.
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And sometimes pressure is the only option you've got.
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When you find yourself in that situation, your ability to use pressure effectively becomes critical.
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It may very well make the difference between success and failure in your advocacy work on that particular thing.
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The other reality is that even with decision makers who are aligned with you, there are often instances in which pressure is also important to use with them.
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In those situations, those decision makers actually want you to apply pressure.
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And we'll talk about why that is in just a minute.
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A lot of Nonprofit leaders I talk with have some fears and worries about using pressure.
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What if it backfires?
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What if they get mad at us?
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What if they retaliate?
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Fear of retribution is real and valid.
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So we need to be strategic in how we apply pressure to decision makers.
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Today, we're gonna take a look at five ways to use pressure that are highly effective and that you can use without having them blow up in your face.
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So I just mentioned a minute ago that sometimes an allied decision maker actually wants you to use pressure with them.
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Let me explain.
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A lot of times in various advocacy environments that I've operated in, I've had a conversation with a decision maker that has ended something like this.
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Decision maker says, effectively, I totally agree with you, now go make me do it.
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And what they mean is they need some political cover.
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They need to have there be an obvious critical mass of people who care enough about this, or a critical mass of influential people in some cases.
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Where it's clear that when they take the action you've asked them to take, that part of the reason they're doing that is because there's demand for it that's substantial.
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So in those scenarios, when they say some version of that to you, then it's your job to go out and create that.
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To do the organizing that it's going to take to actually bring that pressure to bear.
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But they want that for political cover and to be able to explain to their colleagues why they're doing what they're doing.
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And perhaps even influence some of their other colleagues who may not yet be feeling that pressure.
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But they can say, Hey look, my constituents are pretty amped up about this.
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Yours might be too.
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That kind of cooperative pressure is one of the five ways that is really effective in the appropriate circumstances.
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So that's that scenario.
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Now let's talk about the other scenario that you're probably thinking of more when you think about pressure.
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And that's where there's a decision maker who, for whatever reason, really doesn't wanna do the thing you need them to do.
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And probably you don't have much of a relationship with them.
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If cooperative pressure isn't on the table, then probably you don't have a lot of a relationship or maybe you don't have any.
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So in these cases, the goal of pressure is to create a situation in which doing what you're asking of them, becomes the better strategic option for them than doing the thing that they wanted to do.
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Because absent that pressure, they're just gonna do the thing they want to do.
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And too bad if it's not what you want.
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Knowing a bit about your decision maker is critical because what kind of pressure is gonna work on a particular decision maker has a lot to do with them as individuals with their specific set of circumstances and what they care about.
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For example, they might care deeply about what a group of influential people in the community think.
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A very effective way to create pressure in that situation is to have some of those influential individuals push on that decision maker.
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This is also known as grass tops organizing.
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And you've probably used this at least once.
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Think about when you've had a, maybe an influential board member put a bug in the ear of a decision maker that was otherwise not really listening to you.
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It's those kinds of things.
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But in this case, you're adding pressure.
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So you don't just want them to talk to them.
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You want to have your intermediary apply actual pressure.
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Sometimes with elected officials, the most effective pressure is a vocal group of constituents.
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You're basically showing them that there's a whole lot of support for your position and that people are invested enough in your position that they're gonna be pretty unhappy if the decision maker doesn't do what you're asking.
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And we've certainly seen lots of examples of this in recent months with crowds at town halls and demonstrations, pressuring elected officials to take a particular action on a whole range of issues.
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And a lot of these have been quite effective.
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The decision makers like to pretend that they're not, but they do have an impact.
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And in many cases they have changed votes, they have influenced actions and it's been very valuable.
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Now, these kinds of pressure have the added advantage of generating a lot of visibility for your cause, which in turn recruits more people to raise their voice on the issue.
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It also creates an unwanted spotlight on the decision maker, which just increases the pressure.
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So this is basic grassroots pressure advocacy.
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Other effective grassroots pressure tactics include mass calls and emails to elected officials, and I'll say more about that in a little bit.
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Now, with other types of decision makers, including government agency people and contracting partners, there can often be a situation where they're under competing pressure.
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And this is super important to be aware of, that you're not operating in a vacuum here.
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Let me use a really common example.
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Maybe you're in a situation where you're trying to secure a contract for services with a state agency or a city agency, and there's a decision maker who's resistant to partnering with you on this contract.
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The first thing you wanna find out is what is the source of their resistance?
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Why don't they wanna play?
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It could be a number of things, and they kind of fall in two main categories.
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One category tends to go like this.
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They don't wanna do a contract at all, because they think it'll be too much work for them, or they think your prices are too high, or they think you're gonna be high maintenance or pain in the neck.
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Maybe they have a negative belief about nonprofits.
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If it's those kinds of things, those are actually beliefs that need to be shifted.
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So you don't need pressure in that situation.
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What you need is to counter their objections, which is a strategy we've talked about in other episodes.
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But if the source of their resistance is along the lines of they want to give the contract to their friend or a political ally instead of you.
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Maybe they've decided that cost is the only factor that matters, and so they want to give the contract to the lowest bidder rather than the provider of the best quality of services that yields the best outcomes.
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Maybe they're under pressure from someone else somewhere to make a different decision.
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Maybe they believe there will be a cost, political or otherwise, for them acting in your favor.
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In those situations, pressure is probably needed.
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And in any of those situations, there are two things at work.
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The decision maker is hoping to do what they want without being subjected to scrutiny or having to answer for their actions publicly.
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And in some way, they're already under pressure from another source, whether it's friendly pressure or unfriendly pressure.
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What kind of pressure you decide to use will depend on what you know about the decision maker, what they care about, what other kinds of pressure they're under.
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And on what kinds of pressure you're capable of executing on.
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There's also the question of where to apply pressure.
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And this is basically a choice between applying pressure directly to the decision maker or applying it through another person or persons.
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That includes the grasstops organizing where you go to an influential person or group of people that you know they listen to and whose respect and opinion they really care about.
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And you may have those folks engage that decision maker and put some pressure on them.
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There are also ways to go over someone's head.
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When the decision maker is part of a larger power structure, either within an organization or in more complex scenarios, they can be in different organizations, but subject to outside power structures.
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An example where a decision maker would be subject to inside the organization pressure.
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You've got a mid-level gatekeeper inside an organization, where maybe you have a relationship with their boss or with someone who's a couple layers up in the agency.
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Now a caution with this, as you know, you always have to be careful about how you go over someone's head.
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'cause if it gets back to them that that's what you did, that can really poison the well further.
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But there are ways to raise questions and engage other folks within the organization to say there may be some things that haven't been considered and I'd just like to share those with you and.
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You open the door a little bit first and find out if they are open to exerting some pressure on that decision maker.
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In some cases they will, in some cases they won't.
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So you explore it carefully.
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But once you find receptivity, then you can engage that person who's the higher up, however many levels higher up.
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And let them dictate what the best pressure strategy is going to be.
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Because they'll understand the politics within the organization and the power dynamics far better than you do.
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So you get'em bought in to being part of this and then let them really dictate that strategy.
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Now there's also a situation where you've got a gatekeeper who's a big fish in one power structure, but a small one in a larger structure.
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In that case, you can use pressure in an outside power play.
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I had a client who did exactly this when there was federal money that had been allocated to this organization's work, and because of the way it was structured it was supposed to flow through a city agency on the way to my client.
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But somebody in the city agency decided they didn't really wanna release that money, and they were trying to figure out if there was some way they could avoid doing that at all.
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But they were certainly holding it up and creating a lot of problems for my client.
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And the client tried a number of different angles within that city agency and they weren't getting anywhere.
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They tried going over the person's head.
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They couldn't get someone to engage to do that.
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So they looked outside that city power structure and said, who's got more power than that?
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Well, this is federal money, so I bet our member of Congress, who is our good friend and ally, would be very interested to know that the city is holding up our money.
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So they met with the member of Congress and their staff.
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And it took exactly one phone call from that congressional office to that city agency to say, what's going on here?
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Uh, this organization's supposed to have its money.
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What's the holdup?
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The money was released instantly.
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Because basically what happened was, within the city power structure, that decision maker felt comfortable wielding that power.
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But as soon as a bigger fish tapped him on the shoulder and said, uh, excuse me, that's not okay.
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As soon as that happened, that city decision maker had no interest in picking a fight with a member of Congress.
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So they backed down.
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The money was released, problem solved.
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One phone call was all it took.
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So these are five of the most reliable and effective ways to exert persuasive pressure on a decision maker.
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And they belong in every Nonprofit leaders toolkit.
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But I cannot overstate this.
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In order for them to be useful to you, you must have comfort and confidence in using those tools.
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It doesn't do you any good to know what pressure would work or suspect that pressure would work, but then be afraid to go ahead and use it.
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And a word of advice.
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Decision makers don't like pressure.
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That's why it works.
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The whole reason it works is you're creating discomfort.
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And natural human reaction is to move away from the discomfort.
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Your job is to create a strategically designed discomfort that will move the decision maker away from it and toward what you need them to do.
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And they may very well yell at you for making them uncomfortable.
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I've certainly had this happen to me, and it's probably gonna come up at some point.
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I remember some years ago, I was working with a national organization.
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We were in a coalition and one of our colleagues from another organization was doing some hill visits talking to congressional staff.
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We were in the middle of a national grassroots pressure campaign to restore some very critical federal funding that had been on the chopping block in the appropriations process.
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And we needed to stop that because there were literally thousands of direct service programs across the country that depended on it.
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My organization was representing those thousands of programs and my colleague was representing the 50 state directors of those systems.
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She had gone to do a visit with one of the more critical members, and we had a huge email and call campaign going in that was, they were getting hundreds of calls and emails on this topic and, and they didn't like it.
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So my colleague goes in and she's barely in the door.
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And the chief of staff just takes her head off and starts screaming at her.
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Call off your dogs, make it stop.
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What do you think you're doing?
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People are calling and emailing us nonstop.
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This is ridiculous.
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Make it stop.
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Call off your dogs.
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So she kind of finished the conversation and got out of there as fast as she could.
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She came back to our office and she was visibly shaken.
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She was horrified that this had happened.
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I'm standing there with another colleague from my organization and she says, I, I think I blew it.
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He was furious with me.
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He screamed at me.
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This is what he said.
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I don't know.
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What do we, how do we fix it?
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And.
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The two of us from my organization are standing there smiling.
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And she's like, what is wrong with you people?
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I just told you how bad this is.
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We just smiled and said to her, this is actually really good news.
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That's how we know we're getting to them.
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The fact that he is telling you to call off your dogs means that the pressure is working.
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And that's a signal for us to dial it up, not dial it down.
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If he doesn't like it, he needs to get his boss to change his vote.
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And that's exactly what happened.
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We changed a number of critical votes with that pressure campaign, and in the end, the funding was restored.
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So that was a huge win.
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But it was also a huge lesson for my colleague who had not experienced that before.
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She hadn't been part of a pressure campaign so she didn't know that this was coming.
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The other thing that's important to know about that story is that after that was all over and we won, which was awesome, and we got the funding restored.
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We had other things that we needed to work with those same members of Congress on.
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It's not like this was a one and done.
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We had other things before appropriations.
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We had other things before legislative committees.
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And we had to continue interacting with those staff and with those members of Congress, and it was fine.
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They had gotten their feathers all ruffled and fluffled and they settled down eventually.
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And then the next time we had to work on something else, we sat down at the table and worked on it.
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Or we brought another pressure campaign as was needed.
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I won't lie to you.
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That can be really tough in the moment to have someone yelling at you and angry and carrying on.
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That is not for the faint of heart.
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So.
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You have to kind of fortify yourself internally and know that sometimes pressure can get messy and scary, but when done strategically and well, it can be incredibly effective, even while it's being messy and scary.
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It's also important, especially these days, to make the distinction that anger and upset and yelling and carrying on, while uncomfortable on the receiving end, is not retribution.
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There's a difference.
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It's just venting and it's also a little bit bullying, quite honestly.
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They're kind of hoping that if they bluster and carry on, it'll scare you off.
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And if our colleague hadn't had us there that day to help her understand what was going on.
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If it had been up to her, she would've called off the pressure campaign cause she didn't know.
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So, you know, is it bluster?
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Is it bullying?
00:19:56.704 --> 00:19:58.654
Or is it about to be retribution?
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Part of that is you have to know your decision maker well enough to know if they have a track record of being vindictive and punitive to people who cross them.
00:20:09.559 --> 00:20:17.089
And if a particular decision maker has that kind of a track record, then the pressure you use is gonna need to be subtle.
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I wouldn't probably go after them with a giant grassroots campaign unless I could do it through a coalition where there were gonna be so many different people involved that they couldn't single out one organization to try to punish them in some way.
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But I probably, as a solo organization, would not organize my grassroots to go after that person if they're known to be vindictive and punitive.
00:20:42.961 --> 00:20:45.295
So it does have to factor into your strategy.
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But be careful not to confuse that with just good old fashioned baseline bullying, which happens a lot.
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And basically the answer to that is to shrug it off.
00:20:56.237 --> 00:21:01.666
So you can still use pressure even in those situations, but it'll be probably one step removed.
00:21:02.086 --> 00:21:09.977
Maybe doing some grass tops organizing or other strategies to apply pressure, but that's not coming directly from you.
00:21:10.743 --> 00:21:15.814
The truth is most decision makers are not vindictive and punitive.
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They just want to do things the way they want to do'em, and they don't like it when somebody else pushes on them to do it differently.
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So they push back.
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For sure.
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They react, yes.
00:21:27.213 --> 00:21:31.593
But unless they have a reputation for vindictiveness, you're probably good.
00:21:32.141 --> 00:21:34.682
You just have to kind of develop your thick skin.
00:21:35.425 --> 00:21:39.700
So add these pressure techniques to your toolkit if they're not already there.
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And I recommend doing a little test.
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See if you can think of a decision maker in your world who could use a little pressure about now.
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About whatever it is that you need them to do that they have not been coming through on.
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And the relationship that you have with them isn't such that it's going to work some other way.
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Think about which of these five techniques, which are not the only five, but they're five that are super reliable and easy to understand.
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Think about which technique might be most effective with that decision maker and game that out in your head a little bit.
00:22:15.607 --> 00:22:17.137
Like, okay, well what would that involve?
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What would we be doing?
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Which of these strategies makes the most sense?
00:22:20.258 --> 00:22:25.327
Or maybe a combination, but maybe we'd try this one first and then this other one second.
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Maybe we'd try grass tops first, and then maybe we'd try grassroots if that didn't work.
00:22:30.127 --> 00:22:35.748
You know, it depends on who you're working with and what the situation is, but think about what might make sense.
00:22:36.223 --> 00:22:40.223
Game it out a little bit, and then pay close attention.
00:22:40.463 --> 00:22:45.055
Examine your comfort level with actually following through on that.
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And check that piece, because if you find resistance, if you feel like, oh, well that's all good in theory, but if I gotta be the one who goes in there and talks to them while this is going on, I don't know about that.
00:22:58.214 --> 00:22:59.025
It's okay.
00:22:59.025 --> 00:23:03.479
Whatever your reaction is, is what's true for you right now.
00:23:04.348 --> 00:23:18.730
But that's a heads up that then you've got some internal work to do to improve your comfort level with a little bit of conflict, a little bit of confrontation that you are not gonna initiate, but they may initiate.
00:23:19.305 --> 00:23:24.644
Can you be on the receiving end of that and not get totally undone by it?
00:23:25.144 --> 00:23:35.700
It's definitely possible to achieve, but it really helps if you're self-aware enough to realize where you are right now and think about how you can work toward improving your comfort level.
00:23:36.664 --> 00:23:40.994
And role play is great for that, as is real world experience.
00:23:41.262 --> 00:23:46.722
Simply actually doing it in real time and surviving the experience and discovering, actually, you know what?
00:23:46.722 --> 00:23:50.502
It was not pleasant, but I'm still here.
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I'm still alive.
00:23:51.583 --> 00:23:52.452
It's okay.
00:23:52.482 --> 00:23:53.712
It wasn't the best day in my life.
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But you know, I don't have a scratch on me.
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I'm okay.
00:23:58.366 --> 00:24:13.446
Unless you're already really comfortable with this, it's probably gonna take a little time and some repeat exposure and some spaced repetition before you get to where you're like, yep, I'm as comfortable using that as anything else in my advocacy toolkit.
00:24:14.136 --> 00:24:15.517
That's where you wanna wind up.
00:24:16.237 --> 00:24:20.817
But it helps the journey if you assess right now kind of where you are to start.
00:24:21.267 --> 00:24:22.257
And then begin the work.
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I know it'll make a difference for you.
00:24:25.241 --> 00:24:29.352
Pressure techniques are absolutely essential for any Nonprofit advocate.
00:24:30.071 --> 00:24:35.021
Thanks for listening, and I'll see you in the next episode right here on the Nonprofit Power Podcast.
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You're listening to the Nonprofit Power Podcast.
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In today's episode, we share how to apply pressure to decision makers, without it blowing up in your face.
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So stay tuned.
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If you wanna have real and powerful influence over the money and policy decisions that impact your organization and the people you serve, then you're in the right place.
00:00:26.928 --> 00:00:39.918
I'm Kath Patrick, and I've helped dozens of progressive Nonprofit leaders take their organizations to new and higher levels of impact and success by building powerful influence with the decision makers that matter.
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It is possible to get a critical mass of the money and policy decision makers in your world to be as invested in your success as you are, to have them seeking you out as an equal partner and to have them.
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Bringing opportunities and resources to you.
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This podcast will help you do just that.
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Welcome to the Nonprofit Power Podcast.
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Hey there folks.
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Welcome to another episode of the Nonprofit Power Podcast.
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I'm so glad you're here for today's episode.
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If you saw the title for this episode and said, I should probably listen to that.
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I'm really glad you're here.
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Because it is true.
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We are in a time where more and more, for a lot of decision makers, pressure is a necessary component to our advocacy.
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And at the same time, we're operating in an environment where some decision makers, some very high profile decision makers are engaging in retaliatory behavior against people who would oppose them or challenge them in any way.
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So.
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I can understand if you might feel a little concerned.
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In a perfect world, we would have influential collaborative relationships with every single decision maker that matters to us, and that's always the goal.
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We're always trying to make that happen.
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But it's just not always the case.
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And sometimes pressure is the only option you've got.
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When you find yourself in that situation, your ability to use pressure effectively becomes critical.
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It may very well make the difference between success and failure in your advocacy work on that particular thing.
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The other reality is that even with decision makers who are aligned with you, there are often instances in which pressure is also important to use with them.
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In those situations, those decision makers actually want you to apply pressure.
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And we'll talk about why that is in just a minute.
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A lot of Nonprofit leaders I talk with have some fears and worries about using pressure.
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What if it backfires?
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What if they get mad at us?
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What if they retaliate?
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Fear of retribution is real and valid.
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So we need to be strategic in how we apply pressure to decision makers.
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Today, we're gonna take a look at five ways to use pressure that are highly effective and that you can use without having them blow up in your face.
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So I just mentioned a minute ago that sometimes an allied decision maker actually wants you to use pressure with them.
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Let me explain.
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A lot of times in various advocacy environments that I've operated in, I've had a conversation with a decision maker that has ended something like this.
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Decision maker says, effectively, I totally agree with you, now go make me do it.
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And what they mean is they need some political cover.
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They need to have there be an obvious critical mass of people who care enough about this, or a critical mass of influential people in some cases.
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Where it's clear that when they take the action you've asked them to take, that part of the reason they're doing that is because there's demand for it that's substantial.
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So in those scenarios, when they say some version of that to you, then it's your job to go out and create that.
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To do the organizing that it's going to take to actually bring that pressure to bear.
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But they want that for political cover and to be able to explain to their colleagues why they're doing what they're doing.
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And perhaps even influence some of their other colleagues who may not yet be feeling that pressure.
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But they can say, Hey look, my constituents are pretty amped up about this.
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Yours might be too.
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That kind of cooperative pressure is one of the five ways that is really effective in the appropriate circumstances.
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So that's that scenario.
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Now let's talk about the other scenario that you're probably thinking of more when you think about pressure.
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And that's where there's a decision maker who, for whatever reason, really doesn't wanna do the thing you need them to do.
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And probably you don't have much of a relationship with them.
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If cooperative pressure isn't on the table, then probably you don't have a lot of a relationship or maybe you don't have any.
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So in these cases, the goal of pressure is to create a situation in which doing what you're asking of them, becomes the better strategic option for them than doing the thing that they wanted to do.
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Because absent that pressure, they're just gonna do the thing they want to do.
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And too bad if it's not what you want.
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Knowing a bit about your decision maker is critical because what kind of pressure is gonna work on a particular decision maker has a lot to do with them as individuals with their specific set of circumstances and what they care about.
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For example, they might care deeply about what a group of influential people in the community think.
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A very effective way to create pressure in that situation is to have some of those influential individuals push on that decision maker.
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This is also known as grass tops organizing.
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And you've probably used this at least once.
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Think about when you've had a, maybe an influential board member put a bug in the ear of a decision maker that was otherwise not really listening to you.
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It's those kinds of things.
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But in this case, you're adding pressure.
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So you don't just want them to talk to them.
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You want to have your intermediary apply actual pressure.
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Sometimes with elected officials, the most effective pressure is a vocal group of constituents.
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You're basically showing them that there's a whole lot of support for your position and that people are invested enough in your position that they're gonna be pretty unhappy if the decision maker doesn't do what you're asking.
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And we've certainly seen lots of examples of this in recent months with crowds at town halls and demonstrations, pressuring elected officials to take a particular action on a whole range of issues.
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And a lot of these have been quite effective.
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The decision makers like to pretend that they're not, but they do have an impact.
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And in many cases they have changed votes, they have influenced actions and it's been very valuable.
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Now, these kinds of pressure have the added advantage of generating a lot of visibility for your cause, which in turn recruits more people to raise their voice on the issue.
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It also creates an unwanted spotlight on the decision maker, which just increases the pressure.
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So this is basic grassroots pressure advocacy.
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Other effective grassroots pressure tactics include mass calls and emails to elected officials, and I'll say more about that in a little bit.
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Now, with other types of decision makers, including government agency people and contracting partners, there can often be a situation where they're under competing pressure.
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And this is super important to be aware of, that you're not operating in a vacuum here.
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Let me use a really common example.
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Maybe you're in a situation where you're trying to secure a contract for services with a state agency or a city agency, and there's a decision maker who's resistant to partnering with you on this contract.
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The first thing you wanna find out is what is the source of their resistance?
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Why don't they wanna play?
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It could be a number of things, and they kind of fall in two main categories.
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One category tends to go like this.
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They don't wanna do a contract at all, because they think it'll be too much work for them, or they think your prices are too high, or they think you're gonna be high maintenance or pain in the neck.
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Maybe they have a negative belief about nonprofits.
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If it's those kinds of things, those are actually beliefs that need to be shifted.
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So you don't need pressure in that situation.
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What you need is to counter their objections, which is a strategy we've talked about in other episodes.
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But if the source of their resistance is along the lines of they want to give the contract to their friend or a political ally instead of you.
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Maybe they've decided that cost is the only factor that matters, and so they want to give the contract to the lowest bidder rather than the provider of the best quality of services that yields the best outcomes.
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Maybe they're under pressure from someone else somewhere to make a different decision.
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Maybe they believe there will be a cost, political or otherwise, for them acting in your favor.
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In those situations, pressure is probably needed.
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And in any of those situations, there are two things at work.
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The decision maker is hoping to do what they want without being subjected to scrutiny or having to answer for their actions publicly.
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And in some way, they're already under pressure from another source, whether it's friendly pressure or unfriendly pressure.
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What kind of pressure you decide to use will depend on what you know about the decision maker, what they care about, what other kinds of pressure they're under.
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And on what kinds of pressure you're capable of executing on.
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There's also the question of where to apply pressure.
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And this is basically a choice between applying pressure directly to the decision maker or applying it through another person or persons.
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That includes the grasstops organizing where you go to an influential person or group of people that you know they listen to and whose respect and opinion they really care about.
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And you may have those folks engage that decision maker and put some pressure on them.
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There are also ways to go over someone's head.
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When the decision maker is part of a larger power structure, either within an organization or in more complex scenarios, they can be in different organizations, but subject to outside power structures.
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An example where a decision maker would be subject to inside the organization pressure.
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You've got a mid-level gatekeeper inside an organization, where maybe you have a relationship with their boss or with someone who's a couple layers up in the agency.
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Now a caution with this, as you know, you always have to be careful about how you go over someone's head.
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'cause if it gets back to them that that's what you did, that can really poison the well further.
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But there are ways to raise questions and engage other folks within the organization to say there may be some things that haven't been considered and I'd just like to share those with you and.
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You open the door a little bit first and find out if they are open to exerting some pressure on that decision maker.
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In some cases they will, in some cases they won't.
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So you explore it carefully.
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But once you find receptivity, then you can engage that person who's the higher up, however many levels higher up.
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And let them dictate what the best pressure strategy is going to be.
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Because they'll understand the politics within the organization and the power dynamics far better than you do.
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So you get'em bought in to being part of this and then let them really dictate that strategy.
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Now there's also a situation where you've got a gatekeeper who's a big fish in one power structure, but a small one in a larger structure.
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In that case, you can use pressure in an outside power play.
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I had a client who did exactly this when there was federal money that had been allocated to this organization's work, and because of the way it was structured it was supposed to flow through a city agency on the way to my client.
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But somebody in the city agency decided they didn't really wanna release that money, and they were trying to figure out if there was some way they could avoid doing that at all.
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But they were certainly holding it up and creating a lot of problems for my client.
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And the client tried a number of different angles within that city agency and they weren't getting anywhere.
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They tried going over the person's head.
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They couldn't get someone to engage to do that.
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So they looked outside that city power structure and said, who's got more power than that?
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Well, this is federal money, so I bet our member of Congress, who is our good friend and ally, would be very interested to know that the city is holding up our money.
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So they met with the member of Congress and their staff.
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And it took exactly one phone call from that congressional office to that city agency to say, what's going on here?
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Uh, this organization's supposed to have its money.
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What's the holdup?
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The money was released instantly.
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Because basically what happened was, within the city power structure, that decision maker felt comfortable wielding that power.
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But as soon as a bigger fish tapped him on the shoulder and said, uh, excuse me, that's not okay.
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As soon as that happened, that city decision maker had no interest in picking a fight with a member of Congress.
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So they backed down.
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The money was released, problem solved.
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One phone call was all it took.
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So these are five of the most reliable and effective ways to exert persuasive pressure on a decision maker.
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And they belong in every Nonprofit leaders toolkit.
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But I cannot overstate this.
00:14:43.107 --> 00:14:50.607
In order for them to be useful to you, you must have comfort and confidence in using those tools.
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It doesn't do you any good to know what pressure would work or suspect that pressure would work, but then be afraid to go ahead and use it.
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And a word of advice.
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Decision makers don't like pressure.
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That's why it works.
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The whole reason it works is you're creating discomfort.
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And natural human reaction is to move away from the discomfort.
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Your job is to create a strategically designed discomfort that will move the decision maker away from it and toward what you need them to do.
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And they may very well yell at you for making them uncomfortable.
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I've certainly had this happen to me, and it's probably gonna come up at some point.
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I remember some years ago, I was working with a national organization.
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We were in a coalition and one of our colleagues from another organization was doing some hill visits talking to congressional staff.
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We were in the middle of a national grassroots pressure campaign to restore some very critical federal funding that had been on the chopping block in the appropriations process.
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And we needed to stop that because there were literally thousands of direct service programs across the country that depended on it.
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My organization was representing those thousands of programs and my colleague was representing the 50 state directors of those systems.
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She had gone to do a visit with one of the more critical members, and we had a huge email and call campaign going in that was, they were getting hundreds of calls and emails on this topic and, and they didn't like it.
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So my colleague goes in and she's barely in the door.
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And the chief of staff just takes her head off and starts screaming at her.
00:16:40.322 --> 00:16:42.783
Call off your dogs, make it stop.
00:16:42.873 --> 00:16:44.163
What do you think you're doing?
00:16:44.163 --> 00:16:46.413
People are calling and emailing us nonstop.
00:16:46.413 --> 00:16:47.253
This is ridiculous.
00:16:47.253 --> 00:16:47.913
Make it stop.
00:16:47.913 --> 00:16:49.113
Call off your dogs.
00:16:49.666 --> 00:16:53.566
So she kind of finished the conversation and got out of there as fast as she could.
00:16:53.566 --> 00:16:58.537
She came back to our office and she was visibly shaken.
00:16:59.019 --> 00:17:01.919
She was horrified that this had happened.
00:17:02.392 --> 00:17:07.761
I'm standing there with another colleague from my organization and she says, I, I think I blew it.
00:17:07.811 --> 00:17:09.102
He was furious with me.
00:17:09.102 --> 00:17:10.031
He screamed at me.
00:17:10.031 --> 00:17:11.142
This is what he said.
00:17:11.471 --> 00:17:11.981
I don't know.
00:17:11.981 --> 00:17:13.061
What do we, how do we fix it?
00:17:13.842 --> 00:17:14.112
And.
00:17:14.612 --> 00:17:17.703
The two of us from my organization are standing there smiling.
00:17:18.326 --> 00:17:20.969
And she's like, what is wrong with you people?
00:17:21.338 --> 00:17:22.838
I just told you how bad this is.
00:17:23.375 --> 00:17:27.326
We just smiled and said to her, this is actually really good news.
00:17:27.746 --> 00:17:29.546
That's how we know we're getting to them.
00:17:30.046 --> 00:17:35.385
The fact that he is telling you to call off your dogs means that the pressure is working.
00:17:35.776 --> 00:17:39.796
And that's a signal for us to dial it up, not dial it down.
00:17:40.605 --> 00:17:43.645
If he doesn't like it, he needs to get his boss to change his vote.
00:17:43.976 --> 00:17:45.536
And that's exactly what happened.
00:17:45.746 --> 00:17:53.276
We changed a number of critical votes with that pressure campaign, and in the end, the funding was restored.
00:17:53.776 --> 00:17:55.076
So that was a huge win.
00:17:55.076 --> 00:17:58.945
But it was also a huge lesson for my colleague who had not experienced that before.
00:17:58.945 --> 00:18:03.307
She hadn't been part of a pressure campaign so she didn't know that this was coming.
00:18:04.048 --> 00:18:12.538
The other thing that's important to know about that story is that after that was all over and we won, which was awesome, and we got the funding restored.
00:18:13.038 --> 00:18:17.657
We had other things that we needed to work with those same members of Congress on.
00:18:17.657 --> 00:18:20.117
It's not like this was a one and done.
00:18:20.117 --> 00:18:22.637
We had other things before appropriations.
00:18:22.637 --> 00:18:25.698
We had other things before legislative committees.
00:18:26.057 --> 00:18:32.482
And we had to continue interacting with those staff and with those members of Congress, and it was fine.
00:18:33.153 --> 00:18:38.163
They had gotten their feathers all ruffled and fluffled and they settled down eventually.
00:18:38.163 --> 00:18:42.423
And then the next time we had to work on something else, we sat down at the table and worked on it.
00:18:43.053 --> 00:18:46.682
Or we brought another pressure campaign as was needed.
00:18:47.608 --> 00:18:48.659
I won't lie to you.
00:18:48.739 --> 00:18:54.439
That can be really tough in the moment to have someone yelling at you and angry and carrying on.
00:18:55.008 --> 00:18:56.897
That is not for the faint of heart.
00:18:57.397 --> 00:18:57.548
So.
00:18:58.522 --> 00:19:14.303
You have to kind of fortify yourself internally and know that sometimes pressure can get messy and scary, but when done strategically and well, it can be incredibly effective, even while it's being messy and scary.
00:19:15.039 --> 00:19:28.900
It's also important, especially these days, to make the distinction that anger and upset and yelling and carrying on, while uncomfortable on the receiving end, is not retribution.
00:19:29.740 --> 00:19:30.609
There's a difference.
00:19:31.210 --> 00:19:36.579
It's just venting and it's also a little bit bullying, quite honestly.
00:19:36.910 --> 00:19:41.859
They're kind of hoping that if they bluster and carry on, it'll scare you off.
00:19:42.359 --> 00:19:47.845
And if our colleague hadn't had us there that day to help her understand what was going on.
00:19:48.535 --> 00:19:52.845
If it had been up to her, she would've called off the pressure campaign cause she didn't know.
00:19:53.345 --> 00:19:55.865
So, you know, is it bluster?
00:19:55.914 --> 00:19:56.704
Is it bullying?
00:19:56.704 --> 00:19:58.654
Or is it about to be retribution?
00:19:59.420 --> 00:20:08.630
Part of that is you have to know your decision maker well enough to know if they have a track record of being vindictive and punitive to people who cross them.
00:20:09.559 --> 00:20:17.089
And if a particular decision maker has that kind of a track record, then the pressure you use is gonna need to be subtle.
00:20:17.589 --> 00:20:32.263
I wouldn't probably go after them with a giant grassroots campaign unless I could do it through a coalition where there were gonna be so many different people involved that they couldn't single out one organization to try to punish them in some way.
00:20:33.074 --> 00:20:42.284
But I probably, as a solo organization, would not organize my grassroots to go after that person if they're known to be vindictive and punitive.
00:20:42.961 --> 00:20:45.295
So it does have to factor into your strategy.
00:20:45.694 --> 00:20:53.186
But be careful not to confuse that with just good old fashioned baseline bullying, which happens a lot.
00:20:53.426 --> 00:20:55.737
And basically the answer to that is to shrug it off.
00:20:56.237 --> 00:21:01.666
So you can still use pressure even in those situations, but it'll be probably one step removed.
00:21:02.086 --> 00:21:09.977
Maybe doing some grass tops organizing or other strategies to apply pressure, but that's not coming directly from you.
00:21:10.743 --> 00:21:15.814
The truth is most decision makers are not vindictive and punitive.
00:21:16.354 --> 00:21:23.074
They just want to do things the way they want to do'em, and they don't like it when somebody else pushes on them to do it differently.
00:21:23.763 --> 00:21:24.693
So they push back.
00:21:24.693 --> 00:21:25.233
For sure.
00:21:25.233 --> 00:21:26.584
They react, yes.
00:21:27.213 --> 00:21:31.593
But unless they have a reputation for vindictiveness, you're probably good.
00:21:32.141 --> 00:21:34.682
You just have to kind of develop your thick skin.
00:21:35.425 --> 00:21:39.700
So add these pressure techniques to your toolkit if they're not already there.
00:21:40.569 --> 00:21:43.390
And I recommend doing a little test.
00:21:44.259 --> 00:21:50.545
See if you can think of a decision maker in your world who could use a little pressure about now.
00:21:51.055 --> 00:21:55.615
About whatever it is that you need them to do that they have not been coming through on.
00:21:55.914 --> 00:22:00.025
And the relationship that you have with them isn't such that it's going to work some other way.
00:22:00.525 --> 00:22:08.865
Think about which of these five techniques, which are not the only five, but they're five that are super reliable and easy to understand.
00:22:09.548 --> 00:22:15.577
Think about which technique might be most effective with that decision maker and game that out in your head a little bit.
00:22:15.607 --> 00:22:17.137
Like, okay, well what would that involve?
00:22:17.137 --> 00:22:17.978
What would we be doing?
00:22:17.978 --> 00:22:19.657
Which of these strategies makes the most sense?
00:22:20.258 --> 00:22:25.327
Or maybe a combination, but maybe we'd try this one first and then this other one second.
00:22:25.327 --> 00:22:29.768
Maybe we'd try grass tops first, and then maybe we'd try grassroots if that didn't work.
00:22:30.127 --> 00:22:35.748
You know, it depends on who you're working with and what the situation is, but think about what might make sense.
00:22:36.223 --> 00:22:40.223
Game it out a little bit, and then pay close attention.
00:22:40.463 --> 00:22:45.055
Examine your comfort level with actually following through on that.
00:22:45.555 --> 00:22:57.585
And check that piece, because if you find resistance, if you feel like, oh, well that's all good in theory, but if I gotta be the one who goes in there and talks to them while this is going on, I don't know about that.
00:22:58.214 --> 00:22:59.025
It's okay.
00:22:59.025 --> 00:23:03.479
Whatever your reaction is, is what's true for you right now.
00:23:04.348 --> 00:23:18.730
But that's a heads up that then you've got some internal work to do to improve your comfort level with a little bit of conflict, a little bit of confrontation that you are not gonna initiate, but they may initiate.
00:23:19.305 --> 00:23:24.644
Can you be on the receiving end of that and not get totally undone by it?
00:23:25.144 --> 00:23:35.700
It's definitely possible to achieve, but it really helps if you're self-aware enough to realize where you are right now and think about how you can work toward improving your comfort level.
00:23:36.664 --> 00:23:40.994
And role play is great for that, as is real world experience.
00:23:41.262 --> 00:23:46.722
Simply actually doing it in real time and surviving the experience and discovering, actually, you know what?
00:23:46.722 --> 00:23:50.502
It was not pleasant, but I'm still here.
00:23:50.532 --> 00:23:51.553
I'm still alive.
00:23:51.583 --> 00:23:52.452
It's okay.
00:23:52.482 --> 00:23:53.712
It wasn't the best day in my life.
00:23:53.712 --> 00:23:56.803
But you know, I don't have a scratch on me.
00:23:56.803 --> 00:23:57.522
I'm okay.
00:23:58.366 --> 00:24:13.446
Unless you're already really comfortable with this, it's probably gonna take a little time and some repeat exposure and some spaced repetition before you get to where you're like, yep, I'm as comfortable using that as anything else in my advocacy toolkit.
00:24:14.136 --> 00:24:15.517
That's where you wanna wind up.
00:24:16.237 --> 00:24:20.817
But it helps the journey if you assess right now kind of where you are to start.
00:24:21.267 --> 00:24:22.257
And then begin the work.
00:24:23.201 --> 00:24:24.912
I know it'll make a difference for you.
00:24:25.241 --> 00:24:29.352
Pressure techniques are absolutely essential for any Nonprofit advocate.
00:24:30.071 --> 00:24:35.021
Thanks for listening, and I'll see you in the next episode right here on the Nonprofit Power Podcast.
