Strategic Policy Influence Workshop

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Strategic Policy Influence Workshop
DFID, 22nd - 23rd November
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Day 2
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Overview of Today

• Day 1
• Presentation on policy influence
• Group work on context and stakeholders
• Group work on desired change and forces for and
  against
• Day 2
• Reporting back from yesterday
• Group work on strategy
• Chat show on monitoring and learning
• Simulation on communications
• Needs assessment

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Review of Day 1

• What did we learn yesterday?
• KM in stealth
• A review of the group discussions?

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Developing a strategy

• Deciding what to do to bring about change
• It is not enough to think about what WE need to
  do to bring about change
• We also need to think what OTHERS are doing to
  support and prevent change

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Developing a strategy

• Strategies are not business plans
• Or lists of activities/programmes/projects
• A strategy for change needs to be related to
• Change
• Time
• And consider
• Priorities
• responsibilities

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Group Work

• 1. 2 from each group move clockwise
• 2. In groups, outline basic strategies to
  address them and achieve the desired change.
  Consider
• Priorities (you did that yesterday)
• Activities
• Responsibilities
• Timing

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Monitoring and Learning

• Why invest in developing a monitoring and
  learning strategy?
• How to decide what to do?
• What to do?
• What are the most important aspects/factors a
  strategy?
• What problems might you encountered?

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Why did you invest in this?

• Public service reform programme, Indonesia
• c20 staff (c100 others)

• Development Think Tank, UK
• c100 Staff

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Why did you invest in this?

• Rapid growth new staff bigger teams
• Growing frustration with existing (IT) systems
• More competitive market (need to put bids
  together)
• New people with new ideas
• New cross-cutting themes
• Needed to assimilate better

• Needed to learn from action-research (and
  research) elements
• use lessons to influence policy

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How did you decide what to do?

• Built into project
• Log Frame activities
• Informal Survey
• Developed internal and external Comms Strategy
• Discovered what worked

• Friends of IT group
• Information and Communications committee simple
  surveys
• TCS (resources and people)
• KMRO (Ben)
• Knowledge Needs Assessment
• KM Strategy

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What did you do?

• KM Strategy
• High-level support
• Communication engagement
• Research
• Intranet
• TTs, TRs, TMs etc
• Peer Assists, AARs
• Induction
• Appraisals
• Exit interviews

• Communications Strategy
• 25 programme spend
• Log Frame
• Intranet
• Impact log
• Mentoring
• Stories updates
• Contact database
• Specific responsibilities
• Team Meetings

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What are the key elements?

• Commitment of senior management
• Champions
• Research element
• Resources (PPA)
• The intranet

• Resources
• The intranet
• Engagement
• Involvement

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What problems did you have?

• Intermittent support from TCS
• People problems
• IT took over the intranet
• Pressure of other work

• Staff capacity interest
• Time
• Technology

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Effective Communication

• What is communication?
• Forms of communication to influence policy?

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Effective Communication

• Title
• Landscape time place
• Location
• Characters
• Challenge obstacle or task
• Action before/after turning point
• Turning point when change happened
• Resolution - ending, lesson, moral
• Visual anchors/hooks

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Effective Communication

• Use of Story Telling in Policy Influence
• Adds qualitative to quantitative
• Explores values
• General to specific
• Complex to simple
• Moves from persuasion by rhetoric thats why to
  what if
• Creates new points of connectivity
• Identifies connections between policy and ground
  reality

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Effective Communication

• Use of Story Telling in Policy Influence
• Impact of
• Smelling it
• Hearing it
• Feeling it
• Seeing it

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Capacity needs

• Group Work Rapporteur - Plenary
• What have?
• What is needed?
• How?
• When?
• Next steps?

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What Now?

• Learnings
• Action

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Taking this forward Some options

• A strategy workshop
• Series of meetings to apply tools to other
  priority stakeholders
• Develop a communication strategy for the team
• Acquire specific personal skills
• Knowledge Management strategy

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One possible way forward

• Review the Opportunities and Threats
• Focus on the other priority stakeholders
• Set out a vision for their behaviours
• Force field analysis
• Strategy
• Compare cost-benefit
• Prioritise implementation and ML

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End of Day 2

• Evaluation forms
• Thank you