Dealing With Special Interest Groups

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Dealing With Special Interest Groups

• Or
• Everyone Wants A Piece of the Pie

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The Sub- Publics

• Formal or informal
• Examples in schools
• Special education parents
• Athletic boosters
• Business owners
• Politicians
• Minority groups
• Civic organizations
• Religious organizations
• And more!

3
Fact of Life

• Special Interest Groups will be a force to deal
  with in almost any leadership position.
• So..does anyone have any advice for dealing with
  these forces?

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Yes! First of all

• Be involved in the greater community
  surrounding your school or organization to
  ascertain who has the most influence on issues
  that may affect your organization.(Anticipate!)
• Rub shoulders with those in power (Form
  alliances)
• Go looking for support
• Establish advisory councils to review programs/
  curriculum

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More advice

• In schools, have an up-to-date policy on the
  curriculum selection process
• Keep your finger on the pulse of what is
  happening in constituent groups
• Drop in once in a while on meetings of these
  sub-publics

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Secondly..

• Be a Listener! (L of AFLAC)
• What are influential leaders saying?
• What are the dynamics of their policy-making
  processes?
• What can I learn about the motivation of the
  leaders of a particular group?

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Thirdly..

• When you do encounter pressure from a special
  interest group, analyze the methods being used to
  propagate their ideas
• If there is a specific challenge to your
  organization.identify it.
• Know your allies and cultivate those
  relationships
• Ask for support from those who represent
  mainstream opinion (Activate networks)

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Casey Stengel said..

• It is important to distinguish between those who
  really hate you and those who havent made up
  their minds yet!

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Some Personal Considerations for You, The
Leader..

• Always show polite consideration to all
  constituents
• Dont be confrontational or vulnerable
• You cannot win by debate
• Have ground rules for how dissenters can voice
  their concerns (pressure groups like large
  audiences.have a policy that first lobbying is
  done with you face to face)

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• For a school leader.. Communicate this important
  fact constantly
• It is our obligation to keep the entire district
  focused on the academic and personal achievement
  of all students.

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• Use various media to communicate the goals of
  your organization (or district, school). Work
  toward establishing a climate of trust
  Communicate!

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• Support public input, but tell people the proper
  way to give it.

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• Meet people face to face whenever possible
• --- it diminishes the unknown and softens the use
  of they

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• Be positive!
• Not all challenges are negative ones.
• There are times when some things do
• need to be changed.

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• Listen carefully
• Try to understand where each group is
• coming from and what each hopes to
• accomplish.

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• Remind people that you do not have individual
  authority, but that you must function as a part
  of a (school, organization, department) team in
  making decisions and that many decisions require
  formal board action.

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• Check out rumors and ferret out the truth.
• Ask that others do the same for you!

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• Do your own research on hot issues so you can
  offer the best advice when called upon
• (Information Power!)

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• Encourage open communication
• (Dont shut down)

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• Build on areas of agreement
• (You can usually find at least one thing to agree
  on!)

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• Keep information flowing to all key constituents
  so they know about issues, changes, concerns.
• Share information equitably
• Have a no surprises rule

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• Prevent emotional actions
• Provide others with the best research and data
  for their decision making
• (again, information is power)

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• Avoid taking sides yourself
• Neutral is a hard place to be, but
  sometimes necessary

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• Be prepared to be scrutinized by the media and
  sometimes a hostile public
• Work with the media
• Respond as quickly as you can with
• their requests for information
• Try not to take anything personally!

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• Speak for yourself only
• Dont speculate about what your superintendent or
  boss thinks

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• Stay on track
• Focus on whats important (in schools, students!)
• Conduct business as usual in your continual
  excellent way

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• Townsend, R. (1993). Coping with controversy.
  The School Administrator, 9, 24 - 27