Who are your swing voters?
And how will you tip them to your side?
It’s one of the hallmarks of modern voting today, and probably not in a good way, that the votes of a very few people can determine the government of the day and often the fate of a nation.
Now, I grew up in Australia (where there’s compulsory voting, which I approve of) and limits on how much election communication can take place. And I live in Canada, where there are also limits on how much you can spend to communicate.
I live on top of America, and watching the election cycles there is … um … illuminating.
The vast amounts of money. The relentless campaigns. The gerrymandering and disenfranchising. That weird electoral college system.
I’m hoping that the strategy to reach people in your organization has mostly none of that.
But what we can learn is that political parties have come to realize that they’ve got to target the key voters in the specific districts.
Yes, they’ve got to do enough to get their stalwarts to get out of bed and vote.
But really, they’re looking to reach the people who will tip things one way or another.
I’m reminded of the conversation with Rachel Botsman who said:
[Change leaders] don't ask the question, “What trust state is someone in?” So in the same way that people in marketing would think of customer segments and understand that you have to adapt communications and support and messaging based on that segmentation, it's no different for employees, where everyone is going to be in a different trust state in terms of their perception of the risk and therefore their willingness to change.
You might well segment your people by business units, or geography at the moment.
But what if you could find the people who were on the cusp of engaging with the change … which means, on the cusp of not engaging.
How do you find your swing voters?
