How to be heard when no one is listening

When I first heard about the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) I wanted to tell the world, but there was a problem.

Who on earth would listen to someone like me? If I was being honest with myself the answer was not many. I was unemployed, had no permanent residence, I was young and struggling with addiction. How could I possibly get my message across to enough people to make a difference?

I decided that if I used a little common sense, followed a few rules and let go of a little ego I might just be able to make a small difference.

I think this is a good example of how you can get people of different political persuasions to at least consider an idea, no matter who is delivering the message.

Rule 1: Know Your Audience

I had to ask myself a few questions. If no one is prepared to listen to me, who would they listen to? What parts of the TPP do I think are relevant to the most people? What are the things that are likely to stop a person from even considering the issues? In what ways might I risk turning people off?

I ended up choosing to focus on a small detail in the TPP regarding the patents on pharmaceuticals. To begin with I thought it wasn’t necessary to sell the whole idea at once. Any attention drawn to this deal was good attention.

I was inspired by a documentary I was watching at the time that spoke about how Canadian water was a symbolic issue over there. People cared about it.

So what do we care about here in Australia? Not only are very proud of our pharmaceutical benefits scheme (PBS), many of us either benefit from it directly or at least have someone close to us benefiting from it. I thought that would be a great place to start.

Rule 2: Get in the ear of someone people will listen to

So, if no one was prepared to listen to me, who would they listen to? I tried to think of the smallest number of people that would reach the largest audience. I chose pharmacies. I figured if I were to get enough pharmacists to at least read the information, it might create enough chatter in this small community to make a difference.

Rule 3: Think about your mode of communication

I thought if I were to just start barging into pharmacies simply raving about an issue, not many people would pay much attention. On the other hand, I thought an email or a letter in the mail is simply too easy to ignore.

You’ve got to find a balance between making it clear the issue is urgent, but still giving your audience an option about whether they want to look at it.

If you are too pushy, most people will be turned off.

I decided to put the information in envelopes, put on a suit, and deliver the information by hand to the head pharmacist at every pharmacy in Hobart. I wouldn’t take up too much of their time, but simply say that there was something I was concerned about that I think they might also be interested in regarding pharmaceutical patents.

Rule 3: Find a source of information that your audience will accept as legitimate

If you can’t agree with your audience on at least what is a legitimate source of information, you’ve lost before you’ve even begun. Especially if you are a person like me, it is important to reference your information, and stick clearly to what is contained in that information. Be clear that is is not you saying this, it is this organisation or this professional.

Make sure you are able to point people to further information if they choose.

So I chose the Australian Fair Trade & Investment Network as the source of my information as it was the most legitimate organisation out there that was opposed to the TPP:

http://aftinet.org.au/cms/

I printed out there information on the clauses which were relevant to pharmaceuticals, along with a letter to the relevant minister (printed directly from the AFTINET website) and a reply paid envelope. It was around three pages, but had links to further information.

Rule 4: Be humble, let go

If you reference well, keep what you are saying short and concise, and speak to issues your audience cares about, it’s not hard to get peoples attention.

Once you have their attention you just need to make sure you are prepared with a quick, confident answer, and be able to point people in the right direction for further information.

It helps to remain humble. When you do things this way you are not likely to ever get any credit for it. It is a solo exercise. You will never really know the results of your labor, and you certainly never get any credit for it.

But I still think the right idea whispered into the right ears can spread like a virus.

Rule 5: Listen to your audience, pick your battles

In this case all I was trying to do was draw some initial attention to the TPP. It wasn't important to sell the whole argument.

Parts of what I was concerned about, particularly the issues regarding investor-state dispute settlement (ISDS) sounded quite scary and extreme depending on how you speak about them.

If there is an issue that you think will turn your audience off immediately, there is simply nothing gained by raising those issues. You are better off listening to your audience, determining what issues they do care about and picking issues that speak to the concerns of your audience.

Keep it short, and limit the scope of what you are talking about to the things your audience cares about.