Six-Chart Sunday (#48) – Resolutions
6 Infographics from the week + 1 Video (the incomparable Peggy Noonan)
No, this is not about the “continuing resolution” aka government funding deal. Instead here’s six resolutions business leaders should adopt for engaging Washington in 2025. The charts are from presentations I’ve been giving to boards, executive leadership teams, investor conferences & industry summits, on navigating policy trends & mitigating political risk in the volatile year ahead.
(Re)Introduce Yourself. There are 12 new Senators, 66 freshman in the House & over 4,000 incoming Trump Administration officials. They don’t know you, your priorities or how your goals align with theirs. Resolution for 2025: Introduce yourself before you need their help. They won’t help you if they don’t know you.
Show Up. People hate Congress but like their representative. They trust their own employer but not “big business.” They have no confidence in the media but believe the podcasters they listen to and Substackers they read. Why the trust chasm? Perhaps because the former are presented via mass media (whose incentives are to inflame), while the latter are experienced first-hand, in real life, offline. Resolution for 2025: Show up. All trust is local.
Be Bipartisan. It takes 60 Senators to overcome filibusters, and Republicans only have 53. It takes a majority to pass bills in the House, and Democrats will hold 49.4% of the seats. The party in the White House lost seats in 18 / 20 midterm elections since 1946, with an average loss of -25 seats… 8 times greater than the incoming GOP margin. Resolution for 2025: Be bipartisan. You’ll need friends on both sides.
Engage Stakeholders Strategically. The 2024 election didn’t end the culture wars. Activists tend to rise against the party in power, so look for renewed pressure on business leaders to speak out on issues such as mass deportation, bans on DEI or civil rights “rollbacks.” But businesses are not NGOs and they risk alienating customers & employees when publicly wading into culture war fights. Resolution for 2025: Engage stakeholders preemptively, substantively & non-performatively to minimize backlash & maximize impact. (I explain more here in Bloomberg).
Mind the Macro Trends. It’s difficult to make big bets when the parties in power keep changing and policy priorities keep shifting. Resolution for 2025: Look to trends that are bigger than election cycles for long term opportunities & risks.
Balance Your Media Diet. Just as you need a diverse investment portfolio & well-equilibrated nutritional intake, you need a balanced media diet to get an honest picture of reality. This takes intentionality: assessing what you presently consume (e.g. see chart below) and making purposeful adjustments. Resolution for 2025: Expand your media diet to include some perspectives you don’t always agree with, some outside your field of work and lots of history.
VIDEO
A journalist in the 1970’s, Presidential speechwriter in the 80’s, author in the 90’s & Pulitzer Prize-winning columnist since 2000, Peggy Noonan is the Norman Rockwell / Frank Capra of written commentary. She loves America, values tradition, finds the best in regular people and helps the rest of us see our fellow citizens’ dignity & grace. Chatting with her about her new book this week was the highlight of the year for this series for me.
This is fantastic! Only thing I’d add on the media diet one is to also make sure you are reading outlets/getting news with a global/international perspective.
Thank you for the conversation with Peggy Noonan.
Yes, we need more civility, class and seriousness about the issues facing the USA.