What’s Your Public Affairs Workflow?

For senior public affairs leaders, managing a public affairs strategy means balancing alignment with corporate goals while navigating a constantly shifting political landscape. There’s a lot to juggle—and that’s where having a structured workflow can make a difference.

My inspiration for developing a Public Affairs Workflow comes from my passion for photography. In photography, there’s a workflow—from composing the shot to editing and publishing—that provides structure while leaving space for creativity. In public affairs, a workflow serves the same purpose: giving your team the structure to adapt, create, and implement strategies that make an impact while maintaining alignment, agility, and flexibility.

How a Public Affairs Workflow Can Help

Without clear processes, public affairs teams can become overwhelmed by competing priorities and struggle to demonstrate their value. A well-structured workflow streamlines operations, keeps you aligned with your organisation’s strategic goals, and facilitates internal alignment and leadership buy-in.

It provides clarity by mapping out the essential elements public affairs teams need to act consistently across regions. It helps public affairs leaders in organisations to focus their efforts on what matters, provides a clear mandate to act, and encourages adaptability and learning.

The Public Affairs Workflow highlights the elements that I believe public affairs leaders should embrace when developing their strategy, building their teams, executing their activities, and demonstrating the benefits they deliver. It offers a structured yet adaptable way to manage your strategy, engage stakeholders, and measure success.

This isn’t meant to be an exhaustive list, and you may have your own ideas of what to include. However, I believe it provides a strong starting point for public affairs leaders to follow.

Key Elements of a Public Affairs Workflow

1. Strategy Development, Alignment, and Understanding the External Environment

• The workflow begins with clear strategy development. This phase ensures that public affairs efforts are aligned with corporate objectives while also taking into account the external policy, regulatory, and stakeholder environment.
• An in-depth analysis of the political landscape is essential to identify potential risks and opportunities. Scenario planning helps you remain proactive and prepared for any shifts.
• Internal alignment is equally crucial. Public affairs teams don’t operate in isolation, so ensuring that legal, communications, sustainability, and other departments are aligned with public affairs goals is vital for success. This creates clarity, ensures that everyone understands their roles, and builds a strong foundation for the workflow.

2. Building the Right Capabilities

• Once the strategy is in place, the next step is ensuring that your team has the right capabilities to execute it effectively. This stage focuses on capacity building—both in terms of technical skills (such as policy analysis or using AI) and soft skills (such as agile working, adaptability, and negotiation).
• This element is about creating a sustainable framework for capability development, ensuring your team can handle evolving challenges and stay ahead of external changes. By embedding the right skills and fostering a culture of continuous learning, you ensure your public affairs function operates efficiently and with confidence.

3. Stakeholder Engagement and Agile Implementation

• With the right capabilities in place, the next step in the workflow focuses on engagement and execution. This is where strategy turns into action. Engaging stakeholders effectively means delivering a consistent message while remaining adaptable to feedback and new developments. Tailoring engagement strategies to different stakeholders is crucial, ensuring alignment with both internal objectives and the external landscape.
• Agile implementation plays a central role in this phase. Using agile project management methods, public affairs teams can maintain flexibility, incorporating feedback loops and iterative planning. This adaptability allows you to refine strategies as you go, ensuring that public affairs efforts remain relevant and impactful while keeping everything under control.

4. Continuous Improvement, Measuring Outcomes, and Reporting

• The final phase of the workflow is measurement and refinement. It’s not enough to simply execute a public affairs strategy—you need to track its success and adjust it over time. Establishing clear KPIs and measurement frameworks ensures that you can measure your impact effectively, while regular reporting cycles demonstrate value to your stakeholders.
• Measurement must have a clear purpose: to improve and learn, to demonstrate contribution to corporate benefits and purpose, and to capture ROI. This information feeds back into the workflow, driving continuous improvement and ensuring that future strategies are informed by the lessons learned from previous initiatives. Measurement is not just about tracking success—it’s a feedback loop that keeps the workflow flexible and responsive.

Bringing It All Together

The Public Affairs Workflow gives you a structured way to manage complexity while still allowing for creativity and flexibility. By aligning your strategy, building the right capabilities, engaging stakeholders effectively, and measuring your impact, you’ll be better equipped to handle the challenges that come your way.

So, what is your Public Affairs Workflow? What have I missed? What would you add? Does your organisation already implement a workflow for public affairs? Share your thoughts below.

Visit my website to learn more about my ideas and approach to enhancing your public affairs.

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