Guest blog by Shanequa E. Moore, IPP ’22
When I applied to the IPP program, I envisioned a traditional academic experience; yet, what I received has helped me to embrace both my passions and frustrations with public policy and uncover the possibilities of what we can accomplish when we work together.
I recall the words of Professor Matt in an on campus lecture, “The thing that gets us stuck is when I say I am the vehicle for everything.” Up until my experience with IPP, I had been trying to solve my challenge alone. I believed that my 20 years of experience in Government and non-profit qualified me to develop a solution in silos; but quickly learned that I had been doing things backwards. I had to unlearn most of what I’ve been taught in the field and discovered that I needed to first define and understand the problem, and then deconstruct it through a messy and imperfect process.
I resisted the urge many times to go into problem solving mode during the problem deconstruction stages. I learned through the fishbone activity and the 5 Whys that problems require uncovering and layers to be peeled back first, before developing solutions.
I did not buy into the material right away and felt a sense of resistance as my mind was being challenged to adopt a new paradigm and a new way of thinking. By the end of my time on campus, my paradigm had shifted. This new paradigm allowed me to see my policy challenge with a reborn mind.
The scrabble exercise was one of the most profound activities while on campus; during which Professor Matt gave every classmate a scrabble piece, divided the class into small teams, and instructed us to to form a complete word. I extracted lessons from this exercise that remained with me.
We don’t have all the pieces-Professor Matt said it best when he stated, “ You don’t have it all, that’s why you’re stuck.” I discovered that the reason why I was stuck and couldn’t make progress in my policy challenge was because I was trying to do it all by myself. There is absolutely no way we can solve complex problems on our own. It takes humility to acknowledge this fact and accountability to do something about it.
- We have to talk to one another-I was surprised during my policy challenge how much we operate in silos. In a roundtable discussion, I held around my policy challenge, I brought together over 40 agencies, and for the first time individuals who had been working on this crisis separately, came together to talk. This roundtable brought stakeholders together and allowed us to put our scrabble pieces together; it was there that we formed words and phrases that led us closer to a collective solution.
- We must work together– In the case of the scrabble exercise we had to recognize that each of us played a vital part in solving the problem and were just as essential as the next team member. In the case of the roundtable discussion, each of us walked into the room symbolically holding our own scrabble pieces but we had to be willing through collaboration to put those pieces together. The 3 A’s were at work as we all accepted that there is a youth mental health crisis, we joined together in our individual and collective abilities. We identified our authorizing environment and began to think strategically about the authority we have and needed to obtain.
- We have to be willing to listen– I realized that when working in teams, individuals must feel comfortable enough to contribute their ideas and thoughts and we must be responsible enough to listen. Through building connections and having conversations with people around me, I re-learned the art of active listening, from a place of empathy. This allowed me to discover new information and insight I was oblivious to, that was in front of me for years, all because I became willing to listen.
In many respects, solving complex problems is like scrabble; we are trying to find the word, the phrase but the pieces are scattered, messy, and ambiguous. We have to be willing, patient, and care enough to talk, iterate and connect the pieces in order to create form the words.
Here are some key takeaways of IPP
Iteration: Iteration, iteration and more iteration. As someone who always wants to control the outcome, iteration was one the most difficult techniques to grasp and implement. Yet, at the end of this program, it is now one of the most beautiful parts of the journey, full of discovery, aha moments and growth.
Smaller Asks and Smaller Steps: Making smaller requests rather than grandiose asks helped me to develop relationships with key individuals and to build legitimacy, trust and political support. Taking smaller steps towards solving the problem through iteration also helped my team to metabolize our steps, and gave room for mistakes, failures, reflection, and growth.
Give the Work Back: I had to learn to trust my employees and team members enough to give back the work. I taught and empowered my employees to see work as a gift, and through doing this, noticed changes in staff acceptance and abilities. I saw a revitalization of their joy and connection to the work. I have come to realize that work is a gift that must be shared-when we choose not to share it we rob others from that sense of fulfillment, empowerment and inspiration that happens
when we engage in the work together.
Learning as Gains: I recall Professor Matt words“We allow our solution to emerge and the emergence happens through the learning.” Learning as gains was one of the most profound activities for my team and I. Through weekly discussions and using the reflective log, we were able to identify new lessons, new people, new relationships, new ideas and new strategies.
Be willing to lose in order to gain: In one of on campus activities, we were paired with a classmate and instructed to change our appearance without our team member watching and our team member would identify the number of changes in their partner. We realized that most of us did not remove anything when changing our appearance and understood through this exercise that most people see change as a loss and therefore resist change because they are afraid of losing. Yet, I have learned that in order to gain we must be willing to loose.
It’s about People: As leaders, we often lose sight of the purpose of our work; however policy is all about people. People are at the center of our work; engaging with people, listening, valuing and connecting with others is at the core of it all. It is what makes excellent public policy. Robert Wilkinsons 4ps were transformative not just for me but for my entire agency. I shared my aha moments of Rob’s work and it led to my team members also having aha moments, and led to a more collaborative and engaging workspace. I realized that there were many things I was doing wrong as CEO including projecting my own world-views onto my staff and others. When I applied the principles learned through Rob, I witnessed results and transformation within my staff who showed a deep motivation for the work.
To fellow PDIA practitioners around the world- It is about working and engaging with people around us, together, intentionally with empathy and strategically. It is less about getting to “the staircase to heaven” fast and more about everything else that happens and takes place on the journey up. It’s about the failures, embracing them as wins and celebrating them because there are truly gains. Every time we attempt something that does not work, it leads us to uncovering more unknowns, discovering more information and finding another way, together. I am reminded of Professor Matt’s words in closing, “We don’t need to do something perfect but we need to do something good enough together so that we can do something together”.
I borrow the words of Professor Matt, “If you don’t have the fire then don’t lead. Because leadership requires that fire.” We are all here because we have the fire to lead…for some of us that fire may be buried deep, but we have to be willing to dig deep, flame the fire so that it grows in strength enough for others to catch on fire, it is only then that our work is effective, and we are implementing public policy in a way that propels us all forward.
What’s Next……
This experience has inspired me to take PDIA and this work to a new level…through launching a Social Work firm which focuses on solving the youth mental health crisis in schools throughout NYC and beyond the PDIA way.
We must keep climbing, keep going & never give up!
This is a blog series written by the alumni of the Implementing Public Policy Executive Education Program at the Harvard Kennedy School. Participants successfully completed this 6-month online learning course in December 2022. These are their learning journey stories.