“If I’m ever going to be taken seriously, I need to take a much deeper dive into policies and politics.”

This is what an old friend (and former colleague) said to me today when we were on the phone discussing her perspective on public affairs, and it really gave me pause. She went on to say that many times, things seem like good ideas but when you dig deeper, you discover how complex things really are… Sometimes people can’t do that digging, sometimes they won’t do it and it is easier to vilify something than understand its complexity.

But as a public affairs professional, you have a responsibility to be more informed about politics, about policy, and about where funding comes from.

She also brought up several other interesting things that she said which gave me some different perspectives on public affairs…

One of the biggest challenges is balancing stakeholder groups you need to work with and cooperate with.

Seems like that might be a no-brainer, but when Karen mentioned it I realized how difficult that could probably be. Every stakeholder group is not going to have the same needs or priorities, and it may not always be easy to build the cooperation you  need on an issue.

You need to balance public and vocal statements about issues with the times that you need to work quietly and behind the scenes.

It is easy to simply box public affairs with the word “public.” It is easy to interpret that as out in the open, and in many cases it is. But Karen brings up an important point when she mentions behind the scenes work as well. As a PA professional, you’ll need to develop a sense for which is the appropriate method.

It was great to have the chance to catch up with Karen, and also to get her insights on public affairs and what it entails. What I really took away from the conversation was that there is much more nuance involved in public affairs than one may assume when looking in from the outside. I think this information is invaluable for anyone who is considering this area of communications for their professional future.