Guest blog written by Pinky Ferland, IPP ’24
Are you struggling with implementing your organizational or country policy? If your answer is yes, then read on and experience the journey I travelled with Harvard Kennedy School which led to my capability of implementing my organizational policy with success.
A catalyst for change – that is what I have labeled the PDIA course. Designed to assist technocrats around the world to solve complex organizational or country problems. The course introduces a different method of implementing that beautifully narrated policy which everyone in the office seems not to have the capability of implementing it.
The PDIA method helped me on the problem I continue to solve for my organization which is: Inability of the municipal entity of the City of Johannesburg, in South Africa to implement its waste minimization strategy. A strategy was meant to ensure that by 2026 no waste goes to the landfill sites as the airspace has diminished significantly.
I worked on the challenge of implementing the waste minimization strategy in the City of Johannesburg’s waste management company called Pikitup. My organization has a strategy which was developed ten years ago but has never been implemented in its entirety. The team which was supposed to implement this strategy focused only on one aspect, which is the Separation of waste from Source. Although this one aspect is important, failure to implement other components in the strategy created challenges for the organization. Their choice of warehousing the other areas of strategy set the organization backward.
Exposure to PDIA taught me the following learnings:
- Exposure to PDIA taught me the following learnings:
- Solving complex problems.
- Building a team. (Teaming)
- Building authority.
- Building Psychological safety.
- Building accountability.
- Building legitimacy.
- Celebrating small wins.
- Interdependence.
- Iteration to build authorization.
- Emergence.
- Managing difficult conversations
- Business as usual can no longer be the order of the day.
- Red tape and approval processes delays implementation BUT in PDIA approval is not the first step to start working.
- One does not have to wait for the budget. The budget finds you in the way.
- Building authorization is essential.
- Even when authorization is absent, PDIA provides room to start implementation using the various entry points in the fishbone.
- PDIA kills the silo mentality. You cannot work alone. You need a team to be successful in policy implementation using the PDIA approach.
- Entry points create many opportunities to start.
- Teamwork makes dream work. Your team is your GIFT.
- Delegation.
During the training session of cooperatives on how to handle electronic waste. The picture on the right depicts a session with the Team.
Training of waste reclaimers – introducing them to e-waste
Thanks to PDIA I made impressive inroads. In the beginning when I started to work on the challenge, I was hopeless. I did not see the light at the end of the tunnel but through learnings and consistent encouragement from the lecturers and group members I managed to start even without authority. Interestingly I began to receive authority as soon as my authorizers saw some small results. It is then that I realized that I wasted so much time on seeking authority. The beauty of PDIA is that it allows you to crawl within the fishbone – there is no wrong or right way of implementing it. For instance, when I hit a bottleneck, I moved to another cause and tackled it. There are many entry points from where to start. If one doesn’t yield results, there is an opportunity to move to another entry point. This afforded me the opportunity to get further leads and made progress from them. The PDIA process enabled me to identify agents that were going to be involved in the course of action. This is where I started: I developed the stakeholder list and asked myself questions like what I want from these stakeholders and what is their interest in my organization. The mapping process propelled me to start. I engaged the stakeholders and built my own authority. Upon realizing that there is a potential to work together with these stakeholders, I negotiated that we formalize our relationship and agree on areas of collaboration.
We moved on to sign the Memorandum of Understanding with at least three organizations that are working with me to implement other waste streams which were ignored. I managed to build a committed and supportive team; this wasn’t easy at all. I was confronted with negativity and resentment when I started. I never gave up working, when they saw the results, they slowly rejoined the team, and we began to work. To date the following has been achieved by the team:
- Implementing the recycling of electronic waste.
- Facilitated training for waste reclaimers to be trained on handling e-waste.
- Organized shipping containers, Personal Protective Clothing for the waste reclaimers.
- Organized dismantling equipment for the waste reclaimers.
- Brought on board other organizations to support the electronic waste initiative.
- Got a commitment from the council to provide resources for the initiative.
- Helped to create more jobs through this initiative. The Coperatives managed to hire more people. These people are focused on electronic waste.
- The team is preparing to tackle the other waste streams such as builders’ rubble and. green waste.
PDIA has changed the way I view complex issues. It has made me realize that there is no problem that cannot be addressed. The PDIA approach helps to steer direction towards success. The strategy of eating a big elephant bit by bit is truly practical in PDIA. It has shown me tools and ways to be successful in policy implementation. What I like about it is that it allows you to build your own authority where it is non-existent. Work continues to be done even without a budget. One doesn’t have to wait for approval or allocation of a budget and other resources. The fishbone has many spaces from which one can start to work. One could say PDIA outsmarts bureaucracy.
For me, after learning PDIA, there is no challenge big or small I am tackling without applying PDIA. My team and I are continuing to use it as we implement the waste minimization strategy. We have successfully managed to introduce the electronic waste recycling at work. We are moving to tackle the green waste disposal; it will be followed by the builders’ rubble and tyre waste. All our work is delivered through the PDIA approach.
Mr Joseph Ramogale is one of the trained Cooperative members. He created an open day where invited the residents around his area to drop off their unwanted electronic waste. The ship containers are donated by eWASA an Extended Producer Responsibility Organization that we signed a Memorandum of Understanding with.
My fellow PDIA practitioners, I am sure you will agree with me that in PDIA we have found a solution for world problems. Let us build many successful PDIA teams in our organizations and countries. We have at our disposal a powerful tool that we tried, tested and proved that it indeed solves problems. We cannot keep this knowledge to ourselves; our organizations and countries have struggled for so long with implementing well written policies. We are the agents of change, the trailblazers and problem solvers – Let us introduce as many people as we can to make this world a better place to live. We have the tool – We have been well equipped. Let us build nations.
This is a blog series written by the alumni of the Implementing Public Policy Executive Education Program at the Harvard Kennedy School. 42 Participants successfully completed this 6-month hybrid program in November 2024. These are their learning journey stories.