written by Matt Andrews You will notice that the first three blogs have all been about the leader—not the crisis. This is intentional, as we think you—the leader—need to be ready in yourself for the challenge you are facing. You can never be fully ready, but the basics I am suggesting can help you. I…Continue Reading Public Leadership Through Crisis 4: You as a leader must be smarter than your brain
written by Matt Andrews In my last blog post I emphasized the importance of leaders in crisis situations being (i) motivated for the public good, (ii) honest about—but not hampered by—self-doubt, (iii) committed to communicating more than ever (to help people deal with fear and accept change), and (iv) aware of who their key people are…Continue Reading Public Leadership Through Crisis 3: Be brave, calm, adaptive; there is no perfect crisis response
written by Matt Andrews When the storm, wind and rain, of crisis is coming (or has come), how do you start to lead? Building on my earlier blog post, we are sharing two posts today with some rapid ideas on how leading organizations, towns, cities, regions and countries might start thinking about leadership in the face of…Continue Reading Public Leadership Through Crisis 2: Know your motivation, put communications and key people first
written by Matt Andrews Governments are most important in times of public crisis. This is where individuals—no matter how talented or self-reliant—look to their governments for help; to empower or use or deploy the powers and potentialities of the collective on behalf of that collective. But many people tasked with leading public organizations in times…Continue Reading Public Leadership Through Crisis 1: Can public leaders navigate high winds and big waves in little boats?
Guest blog written Jorida Zeneli When I came to IPP my motivation level was at the lowest it had been in a decade. After two years of struggle to revamp the policies that underpin resource allocation, operating on the edge of the established processes, knocking on many doors, speaking to many people, pouring a lot…Continue Reading Disaster Resilience in Australia
Guest blog written by Adepeju Francis-Abu, Beatrice Izeagbe Okpara, Kennamdi Charles Onwuliri, Lami Wendy Adams, Pemwa Danbaba. This is a team from Nigeria working for the Federal Ministry of Justice, Government Agencies and the private sector. They successfully completed the 15-week Practice of PDIA online course that ended in December 2018. This is their story. Our…Continue Reading Reform and Rebuild Nigeria
We work alongside other exciting initiatives at Harvard that also support state capability. One of these is the Bloomberg Harvard City Leadership initiative. The following is a description of their work. Funded by a four-year $32 million gift from Bloomberg Philanthropies, the Bloomberg Harvard City Leadership Initiative is a collaboration between HKS, HBS, and Bloomberg Philanthropies’ Government…Continue Reading Strengthening Capabilities in City Government
written by Matt Andrews Governments—and other public policy organizations—undertake many different tasks, implementing a diverse set of policies and projects. Many of these policies and projects are not considered successful. My recent blog post noted that failure occurs more often than anyone would likely consider optimal. There are many reasons for policy failure, and my…Continue Reading Why do public policies fail? Categorizing the challenges
written by Matt Andrews Polls suggest that governments across the world face high levels of citizen dissatisfaction, and low levels of citizen trust. The 2017 Edelman Trust Barometer found, for instance, that only 43% of those surveyed trust Canada’s government. Only 15% of those surveyed trust government in South Africa, and levels are low in…Continue Reading Implementing Public Policy: Is it possible to escape the ‘Public Policy Futility’ trap?
Guest blog by Alieu Fuad Nyei Like many other African countries, budget execution is a huge challenge in Liberia. Last fiscal year (July 2016 to June 2017), off-budget spending was over 15% of the approved budget while in-year budgetary transfers have been on the increase, significantly undermining the credibility of the approved budget. This huge…Continue Reading Using PDIA to tackle off-budget spending in Liberia
