Guest blog by Nada Ebrahim, IPP ’25
The learnings from Implementing Public Policy were endless but if I could summarize my top three:
- How a problem is framed, especially for senior decision-makers, deeply affects how it’s understood and prioritized.
- Positional authority doesn’t equal insight! Operational and junior staff often hold key knowledge about system bottlenecks that senior leaders may overlook or not know.
- Stop imposing views and lean in to listen because every conversation be it with CEOs, operations teams, and/or analysts reveals different perceptions of the problem. No single view is complete.
I focused on the growing volume of complaints in primary and secondary healthcare facilities. These ranged from delays in appointment scheduling and short consultation times to administrative inefficiencies, staff demotivation, and periodic drug shortages. At first glance, it seemed like an issue that primarily centered around staff accountability, but I soon came to learn that it was far more complex, and with every complaint, a new layer of the onion was peeled.
I moved beyond surface-level blame to uncover the root causes of complaints, recognizing that the issues were less about poor behavior or lack of will and more about overwhelmed systems and mismatched KPIs. This shift in perspective led me to propose new performance indicators that prioritize patient and staff satisfaction alongside clinical outcomes. Rather than focusing solely on gaining access to senior officials, I expanded the discourse to frontline workers and operational staff; the people who are closest to the problems and essential to shaping feasible, grounded solutions.
I learned to resist the urge to rush into solutions and instead take time to understand the problem from multiple perspectives. Embracing and valuing iteration over perfection no matter how frustrating it can be. Longer, slower processes often lead to deeper and more lasting insights.
One of the most powerful lessons I’ve learned is to truly listen to the quiet voices, the ones often overlooked because they carry the loudest truths. Progress may come slowly, but that doesn’t make it any less meaningful. Patience, humility, and emotional awareness matter. I’ve come to realize that understanding how people feel especially when they’ve been blamed or ignored, as it can unlock a level of trust and collaboration that no technical fix ever could. Sometimes, what moves the work forward isn’t a better solution, but a better conversation.
This is a blog series written by the alumni of the Implementing Public Policy Executive Education Program at the Harvard Kennedy School. 36 Participants successfully completed this 5-month hybrid program in September 2025. These are their learning journey stories.