Engaging Executives

One of the best strategies for engaging executives is to ask their advice.

We usually think of advisory councils in a corporate setting, but they apply to public policy as well.

President Obama set up a group of advisory councils to advise the transition team on the policies that should be enacted when the President took office.

The goal of these Policy Working Groups was to "develop the priority policy proposals and plans from the Obama Campaign for action during the Obama-Biden Administration."

There were seven groups:

• Economy
• Education
• Energy & Environment
• Health Care
• Immigration
• National Security
• Technology, Innovation & Government Reform (TIGR)

Irving Wladawsky Berger wrote about his experience on the TIGR group:

"My team members represented a variety of experience in technology, public policy, business and all levels of government - federal, state and local. Some of us were external advisors, while others had taken leaves of absence from their day jobs and were working full time in the transition.

"We had frequent meetings, some physical, many virtual. We were constantly in touch with each other over e-mail.  We collaborated in writing quite a number of documents. We had excellent discussions on a variety of topics. After a while, our work focused on a specific set of initiatives and concrete recommendations.  These were used to put together an internal briefing book that will hopefully help the appropriate officials in the new administration get up and running quickly once they are appointed and take office."

There is also a good video about the work of the TIGR team produced by the transition team.

The policy working groups have a number of lessons.  First, the ability of advisory councils to engage senior leaders in productive collaboration.  Second, the applicability of advisory councils to public policy settins.   And third, a potential model for government relations and a way for corporations to raise their profile and influence the public agenda in an era of transparency and responsibility.