Reuters recently reported that Wal-Mart was mounting a "tough
new public relations strategy" to counter its critics. This
development represents more than another interesting chapter in how
the world's largest retailer is confronting the challenges of being
Fortune's Most Admired Company and, at the same time, what Playboy
calls the "epicenter of retailing's evil empire." It's the latest
chapter in a saga that began with so-called NIMBY (Not In My
Backyard) opposition to big-box stores and has now grown into a
conflagration involving wages and benefits, allegations of sex
discrimination, global manufacturing practices, and pressure on
suppliers.
Rare is the large organization that doesn't find itself playing
catch-up when a bloc of determined and scrappy opponents begins to
knock the company's motives and throw sand into the gears of the
company's plans for expansion.
The term "NIMBY" has been around since the early-1980s, yet it
remains one of the least-understood management challenges for three
important reasons: First, because proponents of local projects too
often lapse into NIMBY name-calling without truly understanding the
rational and emotional factors underlying opposition. Second,
because proponents almost always underestimate the resourcefulness
of their NIMBY opponents. And, finally, because there is so little
research, and very few resources, available to the practitioner. So
much time is spent reinventing the anti-NIMBY wheel.
Here are some key findings from recent NIMBY skirmishes:
Understand - truly understand - your opponents...even if you
can't stand them. Many project proponents - developers,
government agency heads, CEOs - operate in "gentlemanly"
environments where different points of view may be aired, but
within the constraints of civility. It rarely gets personal. Truly
effective opponents will get personal with your clients very
quickly, attacking them by name, exposing their salaries,
criticizing the fact that they don't live in the affected
community. These tactics are designed to drive your client crazy,
and they often work.
As practitioners, it's our job to find out just what opponents
find so offensive about the proposed development, even if they have
succeeded in causing your client to sputter at the mere mention of
their name. Has the client slipped up or broken promises in the
past? Is yours the latest in a series of developments that really
has changed the character of a town or a neighborhood? Do truly
credible people sit on the other side of the debate?
Likewise, it's rare to find community opposition to a project
that argues its point at two levels - the lofty, legalistic, and
process arguments that appeal to reason (and are often expressed on
the record), and the emotional, fear-driven arguments that are
necessary to keep the group motivated and recruit more supporters.
A good communicator will make an unbiased decision and present all
of this effectively to the client, even if the client is hell-bent
on breaking ground right away.
Underestimating the opposition is death. When an
opposition group materializes - through flyers, a Web site, a press
release - the first (and worst) thing project proponents often do
is to respond incrementally. Project managers, who are already
stressed, are given additional community and governmental relations
responsibilities. Often, they're quickly overwhelmed by the
guerilla-like nature of opponents' tactics. They're caught
off-guard by pitched messages that skirt the truth or characterize
the company's motives. They're sometimes bamboozled when issues
that seemingly have little to do with the project at hand rise to
the top of the agenda.
Again, as practitioners, we need to nip in the bud any tendency
to dismiss opponents as "crazies," "little old ladies in tennis
shoes, " "NIMBYs," and the like. Dismissing them out of hand is not
only arrogant, it's dangerous.
Focus your client on the need to deal with the opposition's
messages at two levels: the appeals to the public interest that are
stated on the record (arguing points of law, process, and that
there is a better way to achieve the project's goals - elsewhere)
and those that represent "red meat" to the troops, that often
appeal to fear and prejudice but are inevitable given the need to
keep people motivated and to recruit new members.
You'll never succeed without a real campaign. And the
campaign for a project's success never really ends. Your client
needs to understand that his project will take more time than he
thinks and cost more money than he's planning for. From the very
beginning, focus the client on playing offense, which takes
discipline and resources. It's your job to organize a real
campaign. That means opinion research to gauge how key demographics
of the community feel about aspects of the project. It means
building support committees that will attend the very same council
and planning commission meetings that the opponents attend. It
means a media relations plan. Lobbying. Formal and informal
presentations. Research. And a Web site that can serve as the
"go-to" source for information and chat.
However, the campaign does not end when the project is approved,
or even when it opens for business. The more pitched the battle for
approval, the longer the "wait and see" period will be when
remnants of the opposition will serve as watchdogs, ready to point
out any breach of any agreement made to secure support. This
requires the client to be vigilant in its communications and to
adhere to the letter of such agreements.
Contact: By Larry Kamer, director of issues and crisis
management at Manning Selvage & Lee. He can be reached at
415.364.3816, [email protected]