Canadian Government Executive - Volume 23 - Issue 09

Not encouraging combative debate or seeking gainsayers in both the design and setting up of implementation. Don’t just shoot the messenger, exclude them from the process. Think Groupthink. Readings Brief December 2017 // Canadian Government Executive / 21 from the process. Think Groupthink. o Failure to Backwards Map: Policy de- signers and implementers often are guilty of optimistic bias (What pos- sibly could go wrong?) when, in fact, they should be looking at the end goal and working backwards to iden- tify not just what could go wrong, but how the whole process will roll out. Instead, they focus on the beginning, the announcement, the first stages. • Busy and Distracted people and organi- zations are often proud of their capac- ity to react and handle many issues at once. If a policy is just the flavour of the week and something else is next week, it starts to lose momentum, needed at- tention, reaction and adaptation to inev- itable challenges, and gears start to slip. This is where effective implementation governance over time comes into play. • Churn of Actors at both the political and bureaucratic level is a consistent theme in projects failing or in govern- ments responding poorly to crises as they arise. The champion for a policy simply moves on and his successor is left to decide how much energy to put into someone else’s pet project. Similarly, the rapid turnover of senior managers in government often leaves well-intentioned people to respond to emergencies in areas where they have little experience. There is no magic potion to heal these af- flictions. Recognize they are there. Avoid optimism bias. Both authors strike some broad approaches to building the archi- tecture of success: • Kick the Tires: Give careful consid- eration to policy design that is fully implementable, rings true for the end user, and is clear about what is happen- ing here. • Test Drive and Shop Around: Take time, when you have it, to either pilot or ex- periment. Get reactions from critics and curmudgeons; as unpleasant as that can be, that’s why you are paid the big bucks. • Sharpen the Mission: Get clarity on what success and failure mean. • Clear the Way: Stand down impedi- ments such as unclear funding or pre- sumed but unproved savings until vic- tory can be achieved by actually doing rather than talking. A ndrew G raham is an Adjunct Professor at School of Policy Studies, Queen’s University. THE RISE OF YOU. You to the power of data. You to the power of expertise. You to the power of cloud. You to the power of AI. You: Who make markets. Who invent. Who serve customers. Who teach our young. Who move products, energy, people from here to there. Who are reimagining the world in code. Who treat. Today, you have more power than any human being before you. This is you to the power of IBM. ibm.com/you IBMand its logoand ibm.comare trademarksof InternationalBusinessMachinesCorp., registered inmany jurisdictionsworldwide.Seecurrent listat ibm.com/trademark. Otherproductand servicenamesmightbe trademarksof IBMorothercompanies.©InternationalBusinessMachinesCorp.2017.P32681

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