Getting Best Fit in Development Projects is like buying a new suit
written by Matt Andrews I often hear talk of moving from best practice to best fit in development. When I ask what people mean by this I seldom get the […]
PDIA 101
Getting real about development; It is hard
Written by Matt Andrews I’m reminded so regularly that development is about change. If it’s done well it is about change that sticks, and even more about countries becoming adaptive […]
How do you keep 100 students awake on a Friday afternoon? Fast feedback and iterative adaptation seem to work
Guest blog written by Duncan Green There’s a character in a Moliere play who is surprised and delighted to learn that he has been speaking prose all his life without knowing it. […]
Tacit Knowledge: What and How?
written by Matt Andrews Tacit knowledge is an important focal point of my work. I think that many reforms fail because they try to transfer formal, codified knowledge only; when […]
Contexts and Policy Implementation: 4 factors to think about
written by Matt Andrews I recently blogged about what matters about the context. Here’s a video of a class I taught on the topic at the University of Cape Town […]
How can we learn when we don’t understand the problem?
written by Salimah Samji Most development practitioners think that they are working on problems. However, what they often mean by the word ‘problem’ is the ‘lack of a solution’. This […]
Why many development initiatives have achievement gaps…and what to do about this
written by Matt Andrews Yesterday I blogged about Hirschman’s Hiding Hand. As I interpret it, a central part of his idea is that many development projects: focus on solving complex […]
Hirschman’s Hiding Hand and Problem Driven Change
written by Matt Andrews I referred to Albert Hirschman’s work on the “Principle of the Hiding Hand” in my class today. It is a great principle, and has real application […]
Hello Organization Man: the importance of old (and boring) administration in a new (and exciting) world
written by Matt Andrews Earlier this week, the New York Times ran the following great Op-ed on the lack of administrative focus in governance systems. This is an important article. […]
What is Action Learning?
written by Matt Andrews Action learning is a key part of PDIA. It is “a hybrid technique that allows participants to use what they learn to tackle priority problems within […]