Q. Can you instruct the Goy to turn them on with a shinui such as using an unusual object to push on the switch?
If no Goy is available, and it is already bein hashmoshos, and the lights are fluorescents, can you do it yourself with a shinui?

A. Horav Shlomo Miller’s Shlit’a opinion is that when in need for the performance of a mitzvah of many, such as davening or learning Torah, one may follow the opinion of the Poskim who permit instructing a Gentile to turn on the lights with a shinui, (an unusual and uncommon way of performing a melacha on Shabbos) such as using an odd object to push on the switch.
However, one should not do so himself, even on a rabbinically prohibited melocho.

Rabbi A. Bartfeld as revised by Horav Shlomo Miller Shlit”a