As the Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic continues to evolve in the US and around the world, we believe now is an important time to convene policymakers and practitioners around the critical economic issues all cities, regions, and countries are facing. In response, Harvard Kennedy School Executive Education is shifting its longstanding residential Leading Economic Growth program to a highly…Continue Reading Register for our new Executive Education program: Leading Economic Growth (online)
Public Leadership Through Crisis 15: The COVID-19 Crisis in Bahrain

written by Matt Andrews Hamad Almalki is the Undersecretary for National Economy at Bahrain’s Ministry of Finance and National Economy. He is a graduate of the Edward S. Mason mid-career Masters in Public Administration program at the Harvard Kennedy School. My Zoom interview captures Hamad’s reflections (as of April 3) on Bahrain’s response to the…Continue Reading Public Leadership Through Crisis 15: The COVID-19 Crisis in Bahrain
Listen to our third virtual discussion on Leadership Through Crisis

On April 10th, 2020, we hosted a third virtual discussion with Matt Andrews, who answered audience questions on his new Public Leadership Through Crisis blog series. Here are some of the questions he answered: How do you best gain community buy-in to a response strategized and enforced by institutional and government actors? Given how long this crisis…Continue Reading Listen to our third virtual discussion on Leadership Through Crisis
PDIA Helped Me Find My Way and My Voice
Guest blog written by Yasmine Robinson At first I was not sure how PDIA would be applicable to what I do as an urban planner, but as I listened to Matt’s first lecture about why policies fail, lightning struck. Over the years I had witnessed the adoption of many policies that were not successful for…Continue Reading PDIA Helped Me Find My Way and My Voice
Public Leadership Through Crisis 13: Tolbert Nyenswah on leading through Liberia’s Ebola epidemic

written by Matt Andrews Tolbert Nyenswah is a Senior Research Associate at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. In 2014 he was the head of the Liberian Incident Management System (IMS), leading the operational aspects of the government’s response to the Ebola epidemic. Following this, he led the establishment of Liberia’s First National…Continue Reading Public Leadership Through Crisis 13: Tolbert Nyenswah on leading through Liberia’s Ebola epidemic
Public Leadership Through Crisis 12: Course correct; it’s hard, but you must—and can—do it

written by Matt Andrews My last blog post recounted, briefly, how Liberia changed the organizational structures it used to respond to the 2014 Ebola crisis, mid-stream through the crisis. I wanted to tell the story primarily to demonstrate how the country ultimately adopted a flat, fast, and flexible ‘snowflake’ like structure (in the Incident Management …Continue Reading Public Leadership Through Crisis 12: Course correct; it’s hard, but you must—and can—do it
Listen to our second virtual discussion on Leadership Through Crisis

On April 3rd, 2020, we hosted a second virtual discussion with Matt Andrews, who answered audience questions on his new Public Leadership Through Crisis blog series. Here are some of the questions he answered: What advice do you have for coordinating a cohesive responsive in Developing Countries that may be faced with increased development partner interest in…Continue Reading Listen to our second virtual discussion on Leadership Through Crisis
Remember the Sherpas!

Guest blog written by Marco Mastellari When I came in to the course, I thought to myself that what I really wanted to learn was a predesigned structure or framework, if you will, that would allow me and my colleagues down in Panama to approach policy problems in an organized way, or pre-structured format. This…Continue Reading Remember the Sherpas!
Public Leadership Through Crisis 11: Reorganizing to address the crisis

written by Matt Andrews I was on a call two days ago with a former student who is now deeply involved in his country’s Covid-19 crisis response. He said something like the following: “Our government is not set up to respond to this; there are multiple challenges coming at us all at once, requiring multiple…Continue Reading Public Leadership Through Crisis 11: Reorganizing to address the crisis