Course outline

Understanding the principles of government relations and public affairs

This module covers the founding concepts and best practices that underpin effective public affairs.

• Understanding the origins of public affairs and government relations
• What public affairs and government relations can achieve
• Introducing public affairs and government relations activities
• Evaluating the threats and opportunities of acting and not acting

Creating a government relations and public affairs strategy

This module presents a practical step-by-step approach to designing a lobbying strategy for any organisation.

• Learning the components of a public affairs and government relations strategy
• Identifying objectives and goals, stakeholders and key messages
• Measuring success

Stakeholder analysis and management in public affairs

This module covers how to shape and adapt government relations activities according to the needs and expectations of stakeholder audiences.

• Identifying, categorising and evaluating stakeholders
• Understanding what and how they think
• Identifying and researching political targets
• Mapping relationships with your stakeholders

Understanding and mapping your public affairs and political landscape

This module covers how to extract insights from a big-picture view of the government and policy environment.

• Understanding government influences on the policy agenda
• Evaluating sources of available intelligence
• Understanding the policy development cycle

Practical tools for powerful messaging

This module covers how to focus and distil complex or nuanced ideas into clear messages that will drive effective communications.

• Understanding the fundamentals of strong messaging
• Creating messages for your organisation

Effective positioning for stakeholders

This module covers how to tailor messages to the needs of particular stakeholder groups.

• Using message development tools to focus on stakeholders' needs
• Aligning interests of your organisation with your stakeholders
• Understanding how to position your organisational goals with the public interest

Proof and persuasion

This module covers how to use facts, proof, stories and emotional appeal to make messages relevant, memorable and convincing.

• Providing proof to make messages credible
• Understanding the power of framing messages
• Using language techniques to amplify the power of your message
• Putting a narrative and values in to your message

Leveraging communication channels

This module covers how to deploy positioning consistently and effectively across multiple communication channels and over time.

• Evaluating the effectiveness of different communications channels
• Harnessing new media and social media
• Understanding channel segmentation to maximise the impact of communications