Part 2: Program Advocacy
"The Great Uncertainty" Series: Preparing for your program's cancellation
The United States government is quickly reducing the size of the federal government, freezing research dollars, and cutting grants designated for non-profits. You're far from alone if you and your program are caught up in this tsunami of change. Given that much of the work under fire is administrative, program management professionals (PgMPs) are a sizable part of the workforce impacted by the recent and impending cuts.
You may feel quite helpless against the prospect of program and job termination. As covered in the first article of this series, “The Challenges,” the prospect of being separated from your work represents a professional heartbreak.
Keep your chin up, because there’s still work to do. As long as you’re at the job, you can still advocate for your program, most effectively by crafting an elevator pitch for that moment when you’re speaking with a decision maker about your work.
The Great Uncertainty Series
If you’re new to “The Innovative Program,” welcome! This series, “The Great Uncertainty,” offers advice on preparing your program and your career for the prospect of cancellation. These insights come from a mixture of my experiences with program decline and cancellation, as well as what I’m reading about in the news, particularly here in Boston.
Check out “Part 1: The Challenges,” published on April 15th, which covers the retraction of the program management profession and specific challenges faced by program management professionals (PgMPs) whose programs may be cut. This article, “Part 2: Program Advocacy,” covers crafting an elevator pitch for those in the squishy limbo where funding cuts loom large. Future installments in this series cover actions you can take to preserve your program’s work, prepare your negotiation strategy if resources come under threat, and assess your job prospects elsewhere.
Prepare to advocate in short, less formal moments
If your organization is on the road to downsizing, a leader in your chain of command is currently considering what work will stay and what will go. The news reports that these decisions often have limited choices, as the government has cut funds for specific studies and programs. But for many, you may land in the mushy middle of centralized budget cuts, where your organization’s leadership will make these tough decisions.
Given the tension that surrounds layoffs, a formal opportunity to present your program’s case to decision makers will be minimal to non-existent. That 30-minute presentation you often give that’s paired with beautifully formatted PowerPoint slides won’t be helpful. Decisions over the upcoming weeks/months will be based on your past performance and communications, which sans a time machine, you can’t change. You should expect more ad hoc opportunities to arise: conversations at routine status meetings and in front of the metaphorical or real office water cooler, as the chance for advocacy.
To prepare, I highly recommend you create and practice your elevator pitch.
My story of failed advocacy
I once worked long hours to create a novel “Summer Internship Program” for a healthcare consulting company. My team met the program’s goals that summer, but unfortunately, the program’s champion left the company, and the summer internship program was reassigned to new leadership. He asked for a check-in, and given that the organizational culture was pretty loose, I went into the conversation with a rough draft of a 10-page report debriefing the summer. He said thank you and would get back to me.
If you see where this is going, he (obviously) never followed up. I learned the program was axed through leadership’s silence and by passively asking around for tidbits of news. Based on broader company turmoil, I knew the winds were unfavorable for my program’s continuation, but that “meet and greet” was my one opportunity. I squandered it by not effectively advocating for work that I cared about.
You will likely get a moment to advocate for your program between now and budget cut decisions. Given that chance can come at a less-formalized time, ensure you have three to five sentences ready to confidently communicate why your program matters.
Create your elevator pitch
Elevator pitches are most closely associated with an early-stage entrepreneur with an “elevator ride” to tell prospective investors about their business idea. I’m using the term elevator pitch here because the fundamentals are similar – verbal, time-limited, clear, focused, and impressionable – but there is a big difference. This is YOUR leader, who has already approved and funded your program. This leader has already heard your program’s overview and updates. They are knowledgeable, but it doesn’t mean they couldn’t use a reminder, particularly in times of stress and BIG decisions.
In your elevator pitch, you're not presenting new ideas, but instead looking to reinforce the messaging your leadership already knows while projecting positive energy about your program’s future. When leaving the conversation, your leader should feel engaged and have a few easy facts at hand to defend a decision to keep your program in a future budget meeting.
Elevator Pitch Essentials
Your elevator pitch should answer these questions:
1) What is your program’s mission?
2) What did your program do last year?
3) What is your program going to do next year?
4) How does that help the company or your leader’s key pain points?
Concerning my missed opportunity with the Summer Internship Program, here’s my pitch from a wiser, more experienced, and admittedly older perspective:
“The Summer Internship Program delivers a pro bono analysis of medical practice operations for the consultancy’s top clients. This past year, we recruited four interns from two prominent universities on both coasts. We developed a novel analysis of Meaningful Use data in eight weeks and presented it to the client’s executive leadership. In that meeting, we provided views on how their medical practices provided care that no one had seen before. Next year, we are set to expand the program, ideally to multiple clients. Along with developing a pipeline for recruiting top-performing students and building goodwill with our clientele, we can use this program as a testing ground for our data analytics services. It would be a big competitor differentiator for those seeking Meaningful Use coaching and support.”
Tips and Tricks for Crafting Your Elevator Pitch
Be short on your program’s mission: When describing what your program does, you can list a big goal, as many programs have ethereal missions, but do not be long-winded. Particularly in non-profit or related programs, you’re in a crowded space of do-gooders. That leader making budget cuts knows every decision will impact someone who comes to work trying to make the world better. Funding decisions will not be made based on whose mission is morally superior to another’s, so don’t spend time there. You need to be short on the why and move into concrete, memorable examples of what you do.
Include quantitative evidence: Similar to writing your resume, you want to describe your value, ideally in numbers. For example, your program grew by X percent, helped X number of people find Y resources, etc. Ensure you have at least one number related to your program’s value or impact in your elevator pitch.
Give yourself permission to name drop, compare, and brag: A common theme in women’s leadership training is overcoming the discomfort of communicating achievements and understanding the social stigma behind bragging. That is to say, the bragging is tricky business. A pitch to advocate for your program under the threat of budget cuts equates to a time when you will need to be boastful and bold. Your leader must know about your program’s fabulous accomplishments, the prestigious people you work with, and why you’re the best at it. Regardless of your gender, if you are among those who struggle to say their accomplishments beyond a low mumble, this is where facts and practice are your friend. Stick to the facts that best highlight your program and don’t exaggerate your pitch. Even ignoring the ethical mores of where harmless exaggeration ends and lying begins, such actions will quickly make you more nervous. Then go practice. Get out and find low-risk opportunities, such as a networking event, to start saying these facts out loud. Your first attempts may be strange, stammering, and even off-putting, but you’ll get better. When the moment that matters arrives with your leadership, those crucial sentences will be there for you, and you’ll place them into the conversation with savvy.
Say enough to impress, then be prepared to give more details if asked: When discussing what you did last year or plans for the future, it’s natural to begin drifting into detail. At least it’s one of my weaknesses. Practicing helps you keep it short. If the leader is interested, they will prompt “Tell me more about ____?” and give you the opening to shift into the longer stories.
Address your leader’s pain points in the close: Consider what keeps your leader up at night (outside of the aforementioned budget crises and impending layoff problem). The closing line has to tie how your mission and activities solve a burning issue for your organization. My example above is about differentiating our services in a competitive field. Another example is in healthcare, where there’s a massive provider burnout issue with doctors leaving the profession at high rates. Working on improving operations within a practice that reduces provider stress is a meaningful closer to your pitch.
Apply this monologue flexibly in real life: Writing down and practicing these statements is an exercise. It will help you clarify your thoughts on your program’s value and provide talking points if/when a key decision maker asks. Similar to preparing for the “Tell me about yourself” question in a job interview, you likely won’t say this speech verbatim. It would come off stiff and inauthentic if you do. For that moment when you’re packing up your computer after a department meeting and your leader asks, “How’s the work going?”, you’ll have a concise summary at hand to weave naturally into the response.
“Beautiful People Say Go, Go, Go”
It is a difficult world out there, and notably an uphill battle to defend your program if your organization faces large and sudden budget deficits. Leaning into the mantra that “you can only control yourself,” you can prepare to advocate for your program. Whether you seek out a chance to advocate directly or it arises more organically, a moment will likely occur when you can speak effectively about why your program should continue. Having an elevator pitch at hand is one way to know that you “left it all on the field,” regardless of the outcome when budget decisions unfold.
Please share your pitches with this community in the comments below, and let me know if this advice was helpful.
Finally, this series needs a soundtrack! To cheer you on in your advocacy adventure, check out Sia and David Guetta’s “Beautiful People.” I’ve updated Part 1 of this series with an excellent song: a little sad and easy to belt out in a low moment. :)