Guest blog by Parrish Spisz, IPP ’23
I need to tell the truth. I almost didn’t make it to this Harvard Kennedy School Implementing Public Policy (IPP) course. I glanced the first email announcing the course and deleted it. Another email was sent and I deleted it. A third email was sent. I read it more closely and I thought, maybe this is worth considering. I asked the Mayor who he’d like to send to the program. He asked me for my recommendations. I wanted to go but thought it would be strange to recommend myself. I told the Mayor I that I would talk with the City Manager to create a shortlist for him to choose a candidate. To my surprise the City Manager included my name on the list. With my name on his list, it wouldn’t be rude to take the opportunity. However, I still felt I needed to defer to someone else. I called another colleague on the list. She was interested but her job demands wouldn’t allow her to participate. She asked me, “Why don’t you go?” I replied, I will go. The Mayor agreed.
As the course work began, I had to think of a policy problem to solve. This was a challenge. I knew that there would be classmates from all over the world tackling big problems and here I was in a mid-sized city working on mundane issues like alleys. I had to think bigger. I also had to select a problem that would make it easier to access resources. On the Mayor and Council’s Strategic Priorities list was “Reducing Poverty from 21% to 18% by 2030.” I knew there hadn’t been any work done on this problem. Plus, it’s always bothered me that there is poverty in the United States when I think there doesn’t need to be. My problem statement became “Reducing poverty in Tempe from 21% to 10% by 2030.” I believed that with new energy and focus it could be achieved.
The key learnings from this IPP course have been invaluable. I feel like I’ve been on a spiritual policy retreat. I have been allowed to enter the sanctum sanctorum of policy success. I’m no longer intimidated by the “stuffed-shirts” with their high-minded, know-it-all attitude about creating policy. Policy ideas have no value without implementation. The meaningful work is when you can successfully implement policy. Understanding the concepts of Authority, Ability, and Acceptance has been a missing piece for me. I also have learned some patience in getting things done. I’ve learned it through reframing my perspective about the problem, who’s working on the problem, the environment, and its importance. These concepts were learned from the readings and discussions about Functionality and Legitimacy. But were further understood by discussions in regard to capabilities and mobilizing resources. My frustration leading up to the course were my own recognition that policies were failing. Finding this course gave me a connection to my own search from why things fail. I recognized there was a gap between elected officials’ strategy and outcome expectations and the capabilities of staff to deliver the intended outcomes. These mediocre outcomes were just accepted and never questioned. I knew there had to be more to learn and IPP confirmed my suspicions. The other significant learning has been confronting the unknowns. This approach is energizing because it gives a tangible opportunity to be a leader and explore, to take the risk on the things that matter. Why else do we do what we do?
The progress I’ve made on my problem has been somewhat slow with this caveat. There hadn’t been any organizational focus on the problem prior to it becoming my project. Raising the problem’s awareness has made a positive impact. Clearing framing the problem with root cause analysis has started conversations at the executive level about removing barriers to employment and reimaging how we can solve local poverty issues. A very important change is that through the process I uncovered a disconnect among the “communities of practice.” While they report annually on the number of clients served to the City’s Health and Human Services Department, there is no sharing of individual client progress on the multiple steps to rise from poverty. We are planning to create a data dashboard to measure progress similar to the dashboards we’ve created for other strategic priorities like measuring public safety response times. This will create the opportunity for partners to have more conversations and share data reports frequently. This will make the system more agile in responding to problems. In my opinion, the solutions to the problem already exist within the system but the operating structure hasn’t been set-up to allow them to emerge. I do hypothesize that the Economic Development Department has a key role to play in reducing the barriers to employment. This will be a new idea we can pursue during the next iteration phase.
What I’ve learned in IPP and the Problem Driven Adaptive Iteration (PDIA) method has changed the way I look at problems and my approach to solving them. The experience of learning at each phase and looking for leads to give insights into the next iterative phase is something that can’t be forgotten. I will use PDIA and what I’ve learned in this course on every problem I’m trying to solve. All the tools and resources we were given have given me confidence to make a contribution to any team working on policy strategies and projects. There will be challenges and frustrations, but the tools give you options to overcome them. One challenge to be especially aware of as you maintain the team’s acceptance you might not have 100 percent acceptance from everyone. This might be manageable to move many of your project plans forward. However, one member who doesn’t accept the plan or parts of the plan can undermine your position with the authorizer, and you won’t know it until the authorizer pulls support. There is hard work in keeping a 360-degree view on your operating environment.
If PDIA is all you have in your tool box, you are positioned for success. For me, PDIA has enhanced my professional capabilities and has taken me to the next level of thinking. It’s very exciting to use what I’ve learned on projects. I’m also using them in my other duties I have the responsibility to manage. Always practice them even when the stakes are a little lower. During our week at the Harvard Kennedy School, Dr. Matt Andrews would join students at breakfast. This was always a treat to ask questions and hear his thoughts. But it’s the questions that he would ask that impressed me. He would ask things like, “Is what you’re learning making sense?” “Are the ideas you’re learning useful?” These were the gems. With my team, I’m always asking if what I’m sharing is making sense, or do you find value in the ideas we’re discussing?
What you can do is ask more questions and make fewer statements. Be a leader and take the risk to know the unknowns on the things that matter. And, always open and read an email from Dr. Matt Andrews.
This is a blog series written by the alumni of the Implementing Public Policy Executive Education Program at the Harvard Kennedy School. 47 Participants successfully completed this 7-month hybrid program in December 2023. These are their learning journey stories.