Guest blog by Christi Bell, LEG’23
Having spent my career as an economic development practitioner, I’ve taken many courses, have a certificate in economic development, and have worked well beyond 10,000 hours on complex challenges. The Harvard – Leading Economic Growth (LEG) class, reinvigorated by spirit, helped wash the rust from some tools and repackaged lessons and perspectives in a way that makes me wish I had another 30 years to practice this trade of economic development.
I was captured from the very first class and have many key takeaways. For starters, I’ve long considered the work of economic development complicated. At a dinner party, when asked what I do for a living, there is never a simple response, yet, the Harvard LEG class helped to reframe this work from complicated to complex in a way that I’d never considered previously. In the past, I’ve always described economic development as a puzzle, but never as a 3-dimensional puzzle with pieces moving as you’re building. I learned a new language and perhaps received permission to describe my work as complex, more like an 1804 journey than a drive across the US in 1984. The class helped me feel better about the fact that there is no one-size-fits-all solution to economic growth and that perhaps economic stabilization might be better than growth or a starting point. I was reminded to be more curious, ask why questions, learn, adapt, and navigate according to the unique complexities and context of the place served.
As an economic development practitioner, I’ve used many of the PDIA (Problem-Driven Iterative Adaptation) toolkit elements. I really appreciated how the PDIA toolkit, as packaged, provides a structured approach to problem-solving with a focus on learning and iteration. The toolkit recognizes upfront that complex problems require adaptive solutions, and leaders must be prepared to learn and pivot to achieve sustained growth. This new toolbox not only repacked some well-worn tools but provided an opportunity for me to communicate the work of economic development to community stakeholders and leaders in new ways.
A component of the PDIA toolkit was the introduction of the Triple-A Change Space framework, including Authority, Acceptance, and Ability. While I previously understood these elements to be limiting factors, I’m now thinking of these more in the form of a Ven Diagram and taking the time to more strategically access: who has the authority to engage, which stakeholders have the greatest interest in solving the problem and who might be counterweights; as well as what is my ability and what is the ability of the other stakeholders. My takeaway was to use these elements to help identify where there are opportunities for action and where there is an opportunity for testing ideas and learning. Incorporating this thought process and the Triple-A’s will ultimately help me to be more inclusive and prepared to adapt to changing circumstances over time.
Another tool, the Atlas of Economic Complexity, provided a visual representation of the complexity of an economy, showing the interconnections between different industries and sectors. Through this tool, it was easier to understand the “know-how” of a place, what competitive advantages might exist, and how to perhaps win at the community game of Scrabble.
As the course continued, the questions posed by classmates were excellent, and these deep thinkers helped me better understand various aspects of my growth challenge. As an economic development practitioner, I’ve always considered my job is to create wealth and ultimately improve an area’s standard of living. I had not previously spent the time to consider how to navigate better some of the complexities of growth I’d seen. I appreciated how the class or group discussions helped me better consider how to achieve inclusive and sustainable development.
As I learned across the course, the result was that my growth challenge iterated most weeks. At or around week 7, I had non-class related work and travel take over my ability to spend as much time on iterating my growth challenge. I plan to spend some time in the coming months sharing my fish diagram with others and finding ways to learn from peers and other high-bandwidth stakeholders to iterate my growth challenge further. I learned that I need to first use the input of others to ask more questions to deconstruct my growth problem to identify the root causes of the problem. I also learned to broaden my engagement with high-bandwidth organizations or those having the interest, skills, and resources to tackle the problem. I look forward to engaging others to test whether I have a correct diagnosis of the problem and how better to approach it based on the insights of other local leaders.
As I continue to learn from the materials, engage other local leaders, encourage them to take the course and learn from their perspectives, I expect we will follow a path of learning, pivoting, and iterating the plan forward. I’ll be more mindful to identify those areas for action and areas for learning and look for more opportunities to gather feedback. I know those in political power need to achieve results, and I’ve learned that this process can strive to achieve both immediate and long-term results.
My particular growth challenge focuses on transitioning a state from heavy reliance on a petroleum-based energy economy to clean and alternative energy solutions. Therefore, I’ve largely been focused on minimizing the negative impacts of growth on the environment and identifying how new clean energy solutions could open opportunities for industry growth through sectors such as mining, value-added processing, and even related manufacturing. I have spent little time in comparison considering how all state residents could benefit from the economic growth and how housing, education, healthcare, and even social services delivery might be impacted. I’ve learned I need to step back, ask more questions, and learn how to ensure that any resulting growth is inclusive.
When I reflect on recommendations for others considering the course, I’d say be prepared and in a personal space to take in lots of information via readings, videos, and class discussion. Be open to it disrupting your thinking and learn to iterate on how perhaps you’ve considered addressing the complexity of economic development challenges previously. Get to know your classmates and ask lots of questions to learn from their situations and how they interpret the materials. Over the 10-week course, I’ve learned to reassemble tools, deconstruct growth challenges and arrive at a more refined diagnosis of my state’s challenges. Do I have more questions and learning to accomplish? Of course, but in the end, I feel more empowered to be curious, test proposed solutions, and iterate more rapidly.
This is a blog series written by the alumni of the Leading Economic Growth Executive Education Program at the Harvard Kennedy School. 72 Participants successfully completed this 10-week online course in May 2023. These are their learning journey stories.