Guest blog by Tejumola Abake Abisoye
I was hoping for a magic bullet to implementing public policy and I learnt it is simply the ability to focus on the problem and be driven by iterations until ones sees the expected outcomes – PDIA.
I currently manage a Government Agency – The Lagos State Employment Trust Fund (www.LSETF.ng), that was established to address youth unemployment by implementing different programs that enable job creation. The Agency provides this through access to affordable finance for growth of MSMEs, skills to aid employability and tech echo system support.
The challenge that I shared when I started the program was how to provide a coordinated and sustainable approach to getting all the required data – an advanced Labour Market Information System (LMIS) – to drive intervention areas and to influence policy direction for solving youth unemployment
As the days turned into weeks, I no longer focused on using the learnings on just the “challenge” but started developing capabilities for solving our identified bottlenecks across different programs. At the LSETF, we implemented PDIA and reduced the timeframe for granting loans to MSMEs (from an average of 110 days to 30 days or less) and found solutions to improve the turnaround time for employability training (organized training for 5,000 plus Digital literacy Beneficiaries in 8 weeks instead of an average 12 months projected). We broke down each step in the process, identified the issues and started to try solutions that improved results. We also received the authority to change process by communicating to the Authorizers
There were many learning points during the IPP Program and for me it was especially developing capabilities for the team through effective structures for delegating, leadership and self-care. With regards to managing stakeholders, I learnt a critical element is communications that is especially effective and useful for the Authorizer – find the appropriate way to talk to ensure they are listening and will act. It is also useful to always study and understand the “Chain of Command” such that you can identify and recognize who is really needed to execute or implement. The truth is this is not always the most senior person in the chain.
A critical learning point was using a learning log to track the progress and identify wins. This learning is very helpful for the implementing team as it helps in identifying strategies that works, areas where there are roadblocks and what needs to change. Identifying wins also provides motivation for the implementing team to keep going.
The PDIA process has changed the way I will approach any problem. This involves breaking down the problem to the smallest level of abstraction. This allows one find connectivity between identified causes of challenges and using that to find entry points that can provide the necessary impact towards solving the challenge.
We have made some progress on the creating a digital platform for collecting data from different stakeholders but we are still some long way to getting an advanced Labour Market Information System in Lagos State. This past few months has taught me a method for solving complex challenges as those encountered in the Public system.
In conclusion, public policy implementation requires methods that are dynamic and agile to ensure there are results that solve the many challenges and provides public services that such Policy seeks to solve in the first place. PDIA is one of the methods.
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.