Guest blog by Melissa Banks, LEG ’24
The greatest learnings I’m taking away from this course are related to identifying achievable, incremental, and specific solutions that address binding constraints relevant to nearly any challenge (beyond development challenges). The idea of evolving solutions that build upon one another over time alleviates the pressure taking on significant challenges. A common hurdle I’ve witnessed, and unfortunately participated in, in my industry, is “analysis paralysis” – a trend toward over-analyzing a seemingly complex problem’s many constraints and hurdles, to the point where solutions feel intangible. By focusing on incremental solutions, ones that are aimed solely at solving for the constraints that are most directly and impactfully limiting growth, you can progress solutions and related, targeted growth.
I quickly realized my growth challenge was much more complex than simply reducing the cost of residential solar technologies in New Mexico. By deconstructing why electricity in the state was so expensive, and why over one-third of residents can’t afford to pay their electricity bills today, I learned their were many interconnected binding constraints to solving for my initial growth challenge statement. I also learned focusing on solving for just one of these binding constraints, at least initially, would have a tremendous impact on solving for this complex problem. By honing in on making solar generation and electricity cheaper through skilled workforce training and related subsidies that make these solutions possible, I learned that building local capabilities and know how would have an incredible impact on one of the most critical binding constraints of the market.
I will continue using several lessons learned from this course. First, I will continue to leverage my gained understanding of incremental progress as a guiding light toward solving complex development and business problems (and even personal goals). I will also leverage my understanding of effective collaboration, that is, seeking recurring buy-in from stakeholders, partners and authorizers when aiming to solve highly complex challenges.
We had an exceptional team! I’m grateful for their collaboration despite communication and technology hiccups. We had an exceptionally bright cohort who respected and prioritized our collaboration.
This is a blog series written by the alumni of the Leading Economic Growth Executive Education Program at the Harvard Kennedy School. 47 Participants successfully completed this 10-week online course in December 2024. These are their learning journey stories.