My Handy-Dandy Client Advocacy Checklist:
I’ve been doing this work for over a decade, and I have come up with a fairly simple formula for client advocacy. It’s only got a few steps, and I have been undeniably good at this work, so if you’re in the same field, it might be worth taking note of. I usually envision each roadblock to providing individual clients with what they need in terms of a destination along a long, windy, mountain road I have to get to, obscured by an enormous boulder. I will get to the destination, it’s only a matter of how.
1. Will the boulder remove itself so I can pass?
2. Can I talk to or negotiate with the boulder in a certain way that would enable it to remove itself so I can pass?
3. Is there some larger boulder—preferably one my boulder is beholden to in some sense—who will remove the boulder from my path, or is there some other unrelated boulder that can help clear my path if I appeal to it in the right way?
4. Can I remove the boulder myself?
5. Can I go around the boulder?
That’s it. Any good advocate will understand that the path will be cleared, and they will utilize whatever tools are available to them to clear the path. You will reach your destination. The only question is how.
That is advocacy.