Inconvenient answers - The perils of asking too general a question

The Government in Dublin will not be winning popularity polls among the leaders of the European Union right now. The result of its referendum on the Lisbon Treaty is, let’s face it, downright inconvenient, for without complete unanimity, reform of the EU cannot proceed. But, for us, it also prompts some wider reflections on the answers sometimes thrown up by consultation exercises.

In theory, the referendum is the highest form of consultation. It probably engages more people and forces a verdict – one way or another. But critics have always argued that referenda organised by Governments rarely manage to confine the debate to the issue supposedly meant as the focus of attention. All sorts of extraneous factors come into the equation, usually the popularity – or unpopularity of the Government itself. No wonder other national leaders are thankful they did not have Ireland’s commitment to go to the polls, and possibly why our own Government would not do so. With energy costs hurting every household and the credit crunch working its way through every economy, leaders fear the answer to any plebiscite would be no – regardless of what the question was. Hence the prevailing mood in Brussels - Our friends in the Irish Republic must have been thinking of something else .......

Quite possibly! Consultation specialists know that it is only too easy to confuse an issue, through publishing incomplete, misleading or incomprehensible information. The Lisbon Treaty seems to tick all those boxes – and some others besides. No doubt some voters found the issue difficult to fathom; but then, partial understanding of an issue has never been a reason to discount anyone’s views. Consultation always accepts that those who respond come from a range of backgrounds and that their credibility may reflect the extent to which their views have been formed following detailed consideration – or maybe just on the basis “gut instinct”. Either way, their voices deserve a hearing.

Then there’s another aspect – the precision of the answer tends to reflect the precision of the question. Had the Irish been able to dis-aggregate the question and break down the Lisbon Treaty into its component elements, they might have had some meaningful results. If asked whether they wished to have a single Commission President, they might have said Yes. If asked whether they agreed with “qualified majority voting”, they might have said No. Asking them to say yes or no to the entirety of the Treaty itself (A summary document prepared for the Irish was 71 pages long!) invites trouble. It provides innumerable opportunities to escape from the main case and meander into so many by-ways – important in themselves but difficult to absorb into a wider question. In this way a dozen meaningful answers can be aggregated into a single nonsense.

Many consultors make the same mistake. How meaningful is it to answer a frequently –expressed question that goes something like this: Do you agree with the Government’s overall approach to Issue Y? Or how helpful is it to ask people’s views on the Community Strategy – itself a document covering dozens of subjects?

Responses to such consultations will include those who have thought a lot about many aspects and formed a view. They will also include those whose view has been influenced by nothing more than a vague idea of the integrity of the organisation seeking their support. They may not have read the Planning department’s plan, but respect the Councillors who advocate its adoption. They may not be highway engineers but they can see the need for a new road, and trust the Council.

Many of the people of Ireland may not have swotted up on the Lisbon Treaty, but in the absence of specific questions, their only option was to rely on an instinctive reaction to the bodies which brought them to the ballot box. In better circumstances, the political establishment might have won. In today’s times, asking the public too general a question is a high risk strategy. Trigger points

• Look at the core questions of your consultations; are they sufficiently specific?
• Are you taking sufficient steps to prevent consultations from degenerating into a superficial popularity poll?
• Avoid consultations becoming a vote; a distorted result from a small turnout will still have immense influence

This is the 113th Tuesday Topic; a full list of subjects covered is available for Institute members and is a valuable resource covering so many aspects of consultation and engagement