Guest blog by Kristin Fong
I’ve enjoyed the Leading Economic Growth (LEG) course immensely and some of the key takeaways I’ll continue to utilize regularly in the future are (1) the power of asking questions, (2) doing the hard work of listening before proposing solutions, and (3) airing hypotheses with partners from different backgrounds and with varying expertise.
Wyoming had a LEG up (pun intended) from the outset of my enrollment in the course since the State contracted with Harvard Kennedy School (HKS) for the Pathways to Prosperity Project last year. Now that we’re about 18 months into our contract with the HKS team and about 15 state representatives have completed the course, I see that the Growth Lab’s Growth Perspective and interpretation of data provided within was really just one input to our overall understanding of Wyoming’s Growth Problem itself.
The Wyoming Business Council team created a working group and utilized the bison emoji, Wyoming’s state animal and the United State’s designated national mammal, to concur, provide encouragement, and remind each other of why we live and work for the state.
We embarked on the PDIA process with the assistance of our HKS partners and identified agencies and firms across the state to interview and learn from. Through their partnership I and my colleagues at the Wyoming Business Council (WBC) learned to interpret the data presented to enhance our perspective and provide evidence of the need for change and the opportunities that lie ahead of us.
The Massachusets-based team that visited Wyoming helped the Business Council by guiding conversations with a focus on asking questions, listening for anecdotal evidence, and by remaining open-minded. In this manner, we worked our way through a variety of industries and geographic locations. The process of hosting visits, facilitating dialogue with business leaders, communities, and other agencies has been one of the most impactful portions of the project thus far, as the team modeled the ability to balance relationships with the need to stay curious.
In other words, the philosophy of iterative problem-solving took a practical approach toward collaboration and maintaining accountability. On that note, collaboration and the importance of teamwork and open-minded dialogue, has become another crucial takeaway from my time in the course. At its core, Collaboration is about relationship-building. It requires someone to take the first step and invite others to grow and learn alongside them. It also requires maintenance, so that as you tackle problems, especially difficult problems or issues with contentious history, you realign with your team, share accountability for progress made (or steps taken backward) and care immensely about pacing the work to avoid “fixing” a problem that is really only a symptom of a larger issue.
Collaboration can often be challenging due to personalities, political opinions, and individual egos and opinions. When done mindfully, however, it can also be immensely rewarding. Professors Hausmann and Andrews and the articles presented in the LEG course recommended establishing a shared vision and goal, as well as a clear definition of the roles and responsibilities of workstream participants. This was also modeled for us as we formed our small work groups, and put into practice by agreeing upon a ‘team’ constitution and shared note-taking responsibilities. As we continue our work with the HKS team and begin forming workstreams and defining problem statements, the meaningful connections with individuals at related partner agencies and firms will prove to be similarly valuable. When you summon the courage to reaffirm your growth problem together, you can better align toward a common goal, and unite under a common banner. What has been truly unique about Wyoming’s partnership with HKS is the ability to present evidence (data) it in a way that supports freedom from failure, creative problem-solving, and increased collaboration. I’ll hold on to this optimism and the impact of team effort as we forge into the future. I will also look forward to staying in touch with colleagues and friends at HKS as we progress, hopefully with news of growth successes, however small and incremental to share.
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.