Mastering the Policy Process: The Essential Skill in Public Affairs

Paul Shotton, PhD

Co-Founder Advocacy Academy, Advocacy Strategy and Owner at Paul Shotton Consulting

April 8, 2025

I often spend a lot of time emphasizing the importance of viewing public affairs not just as a set of tasks or relationships, but as a structured process — one made up of steps, tools, deliverables, and interdependencies.

It’s essential to adopt this lens if we want to assess whether a comprehensive public affairs process is actually in place. It helps us evaluate whether the tools and practices being used at each step are effective, whether ownership of different parts of the process is clearly assigned across the team, and crucially, whether performance can be measured in each of these areas. These are just a few of the reasons why mapping and structuring your public affairs workflow is so important.

As I run workshops with people who have different levels of experience — and different degrees of responsibility for public affairs within their roles — I also see how important it is to emphasize and explore policy-making processes. It’s all well and good to walk someone through the institutions of the European Union, their histories, actors, and formal responsibilities. You can even base this on the treaties that establish the EU and its institutional frameworks. This provides important context.

But when it comes to actual engagement with the institutions, context and knowledge of the issues is not enough.

This is where understanding both the formal rules of procedure and the more informal practices becomes critical. Maybe it’s just my bias — my preference for structure and my tendency to look at human interactions and policymaking through that lens — but I believe that a detailed grasp of how policy-making functions is essential if you want to engage with it meaningfully.

Too often, we focus almost exclusively on the substance of policy. We chase the details of specific files — whether it's the implementation of the REACH Regulation, the finer points of CO₂ emissions for cars and vans, or biodiversity protections. And fair enough — we need to know our positions and what we want to change. In other words, what problems are we identifying, and what solutions are we proposing?

But equally — if not more — important is our understanding of how the institutions work and how to engage them effectively. Whether you work in regulatory affairs, engineering, scientific advisory roles, or public affairs, you need to ask:

• What are the key steps in the policy process for this policy?

• Who is responsible for each of these steps?

• What documents are prepared, published, and when?

• What is the duration of this step?

You need to understand the internal processes that determine, for example, which parliamentary committee will scrutinize a proposal, how rapporteurs and shadow rapporteurs are nominated, and what the rules are for tabling amendments — at both committee and plenary stage.

This knowledge allows for deeper, more strategic engagement. It gives you the foresight to see not only the steps ahead, but also the actors involved and the strategic choices that need to be made at each moment. It helps you move from reactive to proactive advocacy.

You begin to shape internal processes — for example, by scrutinizing an impact assessment, influencing the analysis of public consultation results, or ensuring that your amendments are eligible to be tabled in time.

The most practical way to do this is to build this mindset into your daily practice. When working on a file, begin by mapping out the policymaking process in detail. Ask:

• What are the current and upcoming steps?

• Who are the key actors?

• What documents are involved?

• What are the timeframes?

Then layer onto this your own analysis of what engagement is possible at each step and what resources or internal alignment are needed to make that engagement effective. Keep the rules of procedure for each institution close at hand and look at them through a process lens. Consider what tools work best for you — be it a wall chart, an Excel file, or a collaborative dashboard — and use those tools consistently.