Navigating an Uncertain World: Future-Proof Your Organization Amid Emerging Crises

by Lydia Stowe, FiscalNote

These insights equip government affairs teams to better position their organizations to withstand uncertainty and manage issues effectively both in the near term and for the future.

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In a world characterized by volatility, uncertainties, and crises that seemingly emerge out of nowhere, organizations of all kinds are challenged to stay resilient and adaptable.

Nonprofits, associations, and corporations must not only mitigate risks but also seek opportunities and establish a strong foundation for the future. As they navigate the unpredictable landscape, it's essential to have a well-thought-out strategy to future-proof their operations. This page explores key strategies for public and government affairs teams to future-proof their organizations, ensuring they can weather the storm of an ever-changing and challenging public policy environment.

Amid the chaos of global crises, including pandemics, cybersecurity breaches, and geopolitical upheavals, staying ahead of the curve in the realm of public policy and government affairs has become increasingly demanding. The ability to adapt and thrive in such an environment requires the right tools and strategies. With the insights discussed here, government affairs teams can better position their organizations to withstand uncertainty and manage issues effectively both in the near term and for the future.

How to Future-Proof Your Organization in a Crisis
Checklist: Preparing for the Unknown
Staying Ahead of the Next Global Crisis
Tools for Managing Your Issues in a Crisis

How to Future-Proof Your Organization in a Crisis

Nonprofits, associations, and companies across the world must be constantly preparing to mitigate risk, find opportunities, and build for the future in ways that will make them rock solid when the next crisis occurs.

Here are three ways public and government affairs teams can future-proof against the rapidly changing and difficult public policy landscape.

1. Create a recovery plan with stakeholder management

Creating a recovery plan for your government relations or public affairs team to map out the necessary stakeholders and processes you need to activate in a crisis will mean you’re ahead of the curve. Creating a stakeholder management strategy will allow your team to hit the ground running when a crisis emerges, and swiftly connect with lawmakers, business leaders, and grassroots networks.

2. Identify new risks at every level

Your team should take the lead in tracking and monitoring the next wave of legislative and regulatory risks for your organization so that when the worst-case scenario occurs, you’ll have a domestic and global outlook prepared and be aware of the immense changes that could come.

3. Bring your team online

To future-proof your organization for the inevitable “worst-case scenario,” you need to create an online workspace and repository for your team to access in the absence of a traditional office setting. It’s important to get into the habit of placing relevant files, news articles, and links all in a single shared place your team can access from anywhere. Doing this will drive alignment and also help you capture valuable work products that may otherwise get lost in someone’s inbox or be left to hope people follow best practices.

Pro Tip:

Although preparing for the worst may not equate to immediate revenue generation, it will undoubtedly make it easier to manage inevitable obstacles. Getting out in front of issues will allow organizations to withstand the turbulence that results from times of uncertainty, and by future-proofing your organization, your team can have the best resources to plan effectively for the near term and beyond.

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Checklist: Preparing for the Unknown

As the world grapples with one global crisis after the next, navigating policies and politics, especially in rapidly changing geopolitical and economic environments, is becoming increasingly challenging for all types of organizations.

Staying on top of emerging trends across multiple time zones, languages, and legislative bodies isn’t easy. From a global pandemic to cybersecurity breaches and geopolitical upheavals, mitigating risk and identifying opportunities can be a mission impossible — unless you have the right tools in place.

Some of the ways you can stay ahead are through:

✓ Global policy reports to visualize your issues
✓ Custom global policy analysis and reporting
✓ A deep dive into global geopolitical trends with expert insights
✓ Global market intelligence
✓ Engagement with key stakeholders
✓ Alignment across global offices

Learn more about tools that can help.

Staying Ahead of the Next Global Crisis

As the world moves rapidly between global crises, it is more imperative than ever that organizations nimbly manage issues in ever-changing geopolitical and economic environments that inevitably affect public policy. Even amid the chaos of a global crisis, there are concrete steps government affairs can take to mitigate risk and identify opportunities, regardless of the changing landscape and the upheaval it may bring to your organization.

Watch FiscalNote’s virtual discussion on how to mitigate risk, find opportunities, and future-proof your organization against a global crisis, featuring professionals in global affairs. Here are some of the key quotes from the conversation:

“It's not just what you do in a crisis, it's what you say and how you say it. It's very important for the government affairs team to keep that top of mind in the rush to be responsive to the questions that they inevitably get in a crisis situation.”
“Dry runs show you what works and what doesn't. You can also bring in a third party who can give you a different perspective of the audience you would be communicating to. Because, obviously, you have your own biases, your past experience predicates what you think is going to work, and the external environment is always changing.”
“One of the biggest value-adds we can do as government affairs officers is to take the cacophony of noise during a crisis and distill it for the leadership into what's important and what's relevant. Being able to do that is absolutely critical whenever we face a challenge like that. There is a lot of information coming in, a lot of data. Not all of it is as important or relevant, so being able to translate that into what's most critical at that moment to make that decision in an advisory capacity is one of the biggest value-adds we can lend during a crisis.”

Learnings from crises informs future response

If you think you have all of it answered, go back again. There's probably a question that you wouldn't have thought of until you're actually in that situation. If there's one certainty about crises, there will always be another one to navigate. What we can learn from this one is going to help inform us to be able to respond in an even more able manner moving into the future.

Adam Miller, Head of Policy and Government Affairs, International Markets
Astellas US

Managing Your Issues in a Crisis with FiscalNote

How can we help? FiscalNote solutions are designed to help you navigate through risk and uncertainty, and get you the information you need at the right time. Use this checklist to help you manage the next global crisis with our products — from tracking developments at the local, state, federal, and global levels to engaging and advocating for your industry or business.