Guest blog by Kayla Brown, IPP ’24
The Implementing Public Policy course at the Harvard Kennedy School has taught me many things, particularly pertaining to the three aspects of my work: research, implementation and facilitation. Beyond, that it has given me tools that can be applied to my personal life too, particularly for my relationships.
In terms of its utility for research, through the course, I was able to develop deeper insights and understandings, as well as start real action, about a problem that I had been researching for two years – the problem of city infrastructure projects not being delivered on time or budget due to disruptions on construction sites. The course allowed me to organize my thinking and findings, which were vast and complex, and at times, chaotic, into a coherent and structured analysis of the root structures of the problem. Using the PDIA fishbone tool as a framework for the research, I was able to simultaneously hold many differing and even opposing views about the problem and why it exists. Unlike conventional academic research frameworks, PDIA allows for a “both-and” approach that facilitates the crowding in of multiple perspectives and contradictions.
I have come to appreciate that accommodating contradiction is key to understanding complex problems, which rarely fit into neat conceptual frameworks, and are better represented through a multiplicity of perspectives. Particularly for research about practice, that is meant to be useful to practitioners, using a fishbone diagram is inclusive of many different people and their lived experiences of a problem. It allows for the understanding of the problem from different sectors’ experiences and does not place judgment but enables a level of sympathy through understanding for all actors.
Secondly, the learnings around implementation have been the most transformative on a personal level, as the course is deliberate about working with us as individuals and developing our abilities to take the lead and build confidence. This part of the journey has been particularly transformative, as one of the youngest students in the programme and with less years of experience, I have not viewed myself as being a leader. However, through the course’s definitions of “leadership” and “leading” as a verb, I have been able to step into my self-confidence, and use my problem to test my leadership abilities to kickstart real action with different stakeholder, some of which have decades more experience than me.
To get to this point, the “change space analysis” tool was incredibly useful. As a researcher, I found that I only had high ability, authority and acceptance over quite a small number of subcauses, but that I had a large multi-sectoral network that had a much higher level of AAA, that I was able to leverage. Through leveraging this network, I convened the Working Group on Unlawful Site Disruptions and co-created a presentation on guidelines for built environment practitioners on how to manage unlawful site disruptions and include SMMEs on construction projects in meaningful ways that bring about local economic development and employment. The content of the guidelines was based on the fishbone diagram and was inclusive of the multiplicity of causes and subcauses. The Guidelines was also presented to the Council for the Built Environment’s forum on Safety and Universal Access and is now being used to shape a new national policy on social facilitation that is being developed by the Department of Public Works.
The third aspect to the key learnings for me, has been around honing my own facilitation skills through observing the way that the course is taught. My role at the South African Cities Network, is more than just research. We facilitate peer-to-peer learning and capability building for city officials to improve the ability of the local government sector to deliver. Before starting the IPP course, I had already been a team coordinator in a PDIA process that we ran with the City of Johannesburg. However, I did not appreciate just how powerful the PDIA process could be, until participating in the course, and understanding better the tools and conceptual basis.
Now having almost completed the IPP course, I have renewed energy to continue to implement PDIA in many other cities in which we work across South Africa. Along with some of my colleagues, I am pushing for my organisation to continue implementing PDIA for cities, and have put together budgets and project proposals that I have presented to my organisation’s executive committee. I also take the opportunity to present our work with the City of Johannesburg to other cities to spark interest in PDIA. We are currently looking for funding, either from municipality or an external partner, to allow us to continue to implement PDIA.
However, even without funding or a formal project to implement PDIA in the municipalities, I am still able to use the lessons from PDIA, and the IPP course in general, in almost all aspects of my work, as well as in my personal life. The personal transformation that the course has enabled is evident to my colleagues too, as I step into my confidence to lead more and more often. Three months after the on-campus module of the course, I was promoted in my organisation, from Researcher to Programme Manager. I have no doubt that this course could not have come at a better time, and is providing me with the confidence to step up.
I will be eternally grateful for the opportunity to become a member of the Implementing Public Policy family, as I take the lessons, and very real personal growth and development, with me into my future.
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.