Can we have resilient public policy? Seven steps to resilience blog

Can we have resilient public policy? Seven steps to resilience

By Phil Haynes – Professor of Public Policy, University of Brighton, and Volunteer at Boingboing @profpdh

Government policy is very much in the spotlight at present given all the challenges with Coronavirus19. While the University of Brighton’s Centre for Resilience for Social Justice, has previously focused on community and organisational resilience, we also need to think about how to design and implement resilient public policies in challenging situations.

The first issue to appreciate is the complex environment that public policy operates in. This environment is incredibly challenging and unpredictable. It is composed of many people and organisations, often covering a wide range of different perspectives about the world. Even in an authoritarian dictatorship, politicians and civil servants cannot control all these groups. Far better if a government can get majority support for their policy, so most of the population ‘go with the flow’.

Policy is about making and linking decisions going forward. This involves coordinating lots of different organisations, and clearly communicating the ideas of the policy – to get everyone working in the same direction. Policies often run into difficulties when they highlight differences in social values. What at first appear to be small differences in priorities begin to lead to conflicts and disagreements. Worst case scenario: the policy loses its focus, and direction, and people start to attend to other things instead. The problem has not been solved, it persists!

How can politicians work with the public to design a ‘resilient policy’, one that can provide a shared focus on a social problem and even start to change things for the better? We want a policy that endures the test of time and does not fade away. Here are seven key ideas for designing a resilient policy:

1. Hearts and minds: building collective and shared approaches

Inspirational systems thinkers, like the late Donella Meadows, argue that passion is at the core of good policies. If we can build a strong and shared belief in the value of a policy, and most people really want it to succeed, we are onto something.

2. Talk the talk: developing public confidence through excellent communication

To achieve a shared approach, people need to feel constantly involved, not just at the beginning. This requires open, transparent, and brilliant use of information, with clear communication and feedback.

3. Local-Global: facilitating participation and coordination across geographical levels

Policies often have a ‘place of focus’, either a city, a country, or the world. But these levels are connected. Resilient policies know their place of focus, while also making positive connections ‘above and below’.

4. Money matters: making good use of money and resources.

Every public policy needs money. It needs to get it from somewhere, for example, from taxation. Policies that cannot command serious money really struggle, and so policy has to link with the politics of where money comes from. If you want to understand policy, understand money. Who creates it, where does it flow to, and why? Where are the stocks and flows of money and how can they be influenced? The same principle often applies to other key resources like professional staffing, buildings, computers etc.

5. Getting the right mix: coordination

Policy is about both small and big things. Many policies need small and local networks and connections to succeed. They need local people and communities participating and making the policy relevant, but this is not enough. Policies also need excellent coordination and sharing of the best practices and effectiveness at a higher level. You must find the right dynamic with both small and big scale activities. Resilient policies often have activities dispersed amongst different places and peoples, so they do not become dependent on one place or organisation which then gets overloaded.

6. The right kind of leadership: building trust

Most successful policies can be linked to a quality leader. Good leaders do not know everything. They are not superhuman. Rather, they need to be inspirational, enable us to believe in what they are doing, and be great team players. They bring out the best of all the other people involved, and delegate activities. They make good use of their life experience. They are positive and resilient in themselves (they do not give up too soon). Of course, eventually, a leader may grow tired and have to hand over to someone else. There is no shame in that.

7. Keep moving on: consider changes

Many people dislike change, but change is with us all the time. We cannot avoid it. The world does not stand still, and neither can policy. Policy must stay one step ahead of how society and the environment is evolving. Otherwise it will be out of date and irrelevant. Resilient policies must adapt. There is no single policy path to get to your destination, but several different paths that might get you there.

 

What all this shows is that resilient policy-making is about both ‘good politics’ and ‘good management’. Something I regularly tell my students – you cannot have one without the other.