Guest blog by Alvina Sharpe, IPP’23
Some key learnings from this course are about being or managing oneself to be a strategic lead. A leader who understands the direction of his or the team goal(s) and is in the position to clearly articulate the goal to the least person in the organization for understanding. It is also important to note that for the ideas or goal to be bought by the management team of the organization or authorizers, the goal(s) must be in alignment with the strategic direction of the organization. A strategic leader must be aware there are external factors that could alter the achievement of the team goal and as such he/she must be aware of the environment in which the organization is operating.
Decision making often involves considering different scenario for the good of the organization, but those decisions should focus on the long-term benefit of the organization rather than the short term. There are times where a decision will be required for the short term but often the long term is where the complexities are.
Communicating and building the skill of team members is the most sustainable and effective way of maintaining or growing the organization. Strategic leadership is a combination of skills and traits that requires action and development.
“Revenue collection is the life blood of any government. With the decrease in aid and donations from donor partners and other western nations, the shift to domestic resource mobilization is the focus of Sub-Saharan countries.”
The approach as setup in this course or learnt during the course is greatly going to change the way problems are going to be tackle in the future. Change comes in three ways, it is either psychological, emotional, and behavioral processes. The knowledge has been gained and behaviorally, it going to be a standard in handling day to day problems faced.
From the PDIA, I have already setup iterations in achieving complex situation of Tax Revenue Compliance in my country. Understanding and lesson learnt from the 4ps and strategic leadership and among things that have broaden my horizon in dealing with complex organization and solving real world problem.
As a student of the IPP program, I might not have a full end to end experience of how the PDIA works in development and problem solving that is to see the full outcome or result of the step-by-step approach or methodology in achieving organizational goal. I am a middle level manager at the Liberia Revenue Authority where the institutional legislative responsibilities are to collect revenue for the functioning of the State and protect our territorial boarder to manage international trade and border protection from illicit trade. As a manager for Compliance of Inland Revenue where large taxpayers are concerned, I have instituted the methodology of the PDIA within my section and it is gradually adapted by not only members of my section but also the Division and Department as a whole.
We firstly identify the problem impeding the collection of domestic revenue and started breaking them down into components and activities with the full participation of the team of Compliance Officers. By breaking down the broad or identified problem into specific, manageable components, the team were able to point to ramifications and activities. There were various pointers, documentation (Standard Operating Procedures), service delivery (education of the Compliance Officers, Tax Practitioners and Taxpayers), Corruption and Accountability as collusion between Tax Officers and Taxpayers.
As an experiment of the PDIA, the team is currently working on the aspect of documentation using the PDIA methodology with several iterations emphasizing the role of team members and approval levels thereof. It is also important to note that the creation of approving levels or authorizing environment is to allow individual members within the team the freedom of exploring their ideas and learn from their failures without fear of reprisal but again said failures would not affect the ultimate goal of the organization because hierarchy of approval.
In the used of PDIA as a methodology, there must be lot of engagement with either the authorizer or units within the organization for whom the outcome will concern and even those within the organization that is may does not concern. seek for positive deviance, seeking out individuals or units within the organization that are already achieving better results or handling the identified challenges more effectively. Solicit the idea of every relevant player within the organization by clearly explaining your goal and steps taken to achieve them.
The PDIA we are involved with is to create Standard Operating Procedures for Compliance and for that we have set up iterations trying out small, incremental changes or experiments to address specific aspects of the problem Tax Compliance.
Over time, through a series of small, context-specific experiments and learning cycles, we have achieved a lot where the Standard Operating Procedure for Tax Compliance is Concern. And after the finalization of this component, the teeam will follow the same approach in achieving the other components. The PDIA process allows for adaptive learning and continuous improvement, fostering a culture of problem-solving within the organization.
These experiences can vary widely based on the specific context, the nature of the problem, and the commitment of individuals and organizations to the PDIA process. The key is the iterative, adaptive approach that allows for learning from both successes and failures in addressing complex challenges.
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.