the-policy-room

Policy perspectives: Not up to or feeling uncomfortable with Australia Day Celebrations? There are many other things that you could do instead on 26 January

Thu, 11 Jan 2024 00:50:38 GMT

Acknowledgement of Country

I grew up on Guringai Country before moving overseas to return many years later to live, work and raise with my husband our children on Larrakia Country. I acknowledge and respect the traditional owners and Elders of Larrakia Country. I also extend my respects to all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples – the First Nations people of this country who never ceded their sovereignty.

I truly appreciate the life I have in Australia though I acknowledge my ancestors were never invited to make their home here. I carry a deep unease that I am a descendent of either convicts or free settlers (most likely the former) who played a part in the colonisation of First Nations Countries. I am deeply sorry for this.

Australia Day in the burbs

From growing up in the 60s and 70s I have early memories of Australia Day celebrations. Aussie gourmet delicacies were on the menu – meat pies, sausage rolls, snag sandwiches and waves of tomato sauce. The grown-ups enjoyed their favourite bevvies – beer and chardy - and the kids were treated with fizzy drinks and cordial.

The day the world came crashing down

While those days may have been happy in the white burbs where I spent a third of my life, Australia Day marks something very different for First Nations people. As Mick Dodson, Australian of the Year 2009, said - we have to have a date that’s more inclusive than January 26, which is the date that’s chosen as the landing of the First Fleet and Sydney Cove. To most Indigenous Australians it really reflects the day on which our world came crashing down. 1

The making of Australia Day

Governor Lachlan Macquarie is credited with officially launching the Australia Day public holiday in 1818 in NSW 2 , a commemoration of the [e] stablishment of this Colony and of Arthur Phillip, the first governor of the Colony of New South Wales. 3 The inaugural dinner and ball for the colonial elite grew not only to become a fixture in the non-First Nations Sydney-siders’ annual social events; less than 50 years later it had been adopted across the nation’s capitals. 4 Family picnics, BBQs, fireworks, official balls and the occasional military salute became the norm. An annual celebration of British sovereignty and its power, masking the colonial violence reigned on First Nations people across every state and territory.

The underbelly of Australia Day

The British Empire’s legislative and policy framework authorised their colonisation of Australia. Their representatives, too eager to make this land their own to reap the abundance of its bounty, ignored Traditional Laws, practices and protocols; they stopped at nothing. The legal fiction of terra nullius was the starting gun of blood thirsty massacres, battles and wars across Australia culminating in the deaths of 100,000 First Nations and non-Indigenous people. 5 10,000 First Nations people losing their lives in over 400 orchestrated massacres. 6

Evidence of the Frontier Wars is held in official government records, newspapers and books, all accessible in the National Library of Australia. Packed away in boxes in the bowels of the National Museum of Australia lie the broken and unnamed remains of some of the Aboriginal people massacred by those willing to kill ‘legally’ or ‘illegally’ in the name of their King. A history hidden far beneath the honour and respect we pay to Australians who lost their lives in other wars, and peace keeping missions. 7,8

Change for good

There are many events across Australia on 26 January, some of which I’ve listed below. If you’re not up for heading out on the day, I’ve also added a ‘from the couch’ list. The lists aren’t exhaustive, there may be some crossovers, and I encourage you to have a look at what’s happening in your area to check what’s right for you.

Lest we forget

References

1.Edmund Rice Centre for Justice & Community Education, n.d., 6 ways to stand in solidarity with Indigenous Australians this Survival Day, link

2. Museums Victoria 2024, Australia Day, link

3. Macquarie University Archive n.d., Australia Day: Monday 26 January 1818, Sydney Gazette and New South Wales Advertiser 1818, pp.2b-2c, link

4.State Library NSW 2008, The Dictionary of Sydney, Celebration of Anniversary Day to 1900, link

5. Perkins R 2022, The Australian Wars, https://documentaryaustralia.com.au/project/the-australian-wars/

6. The University of Newcastle Australia 2022, New Evidence reveals Aboriginal massacres committed on extensive scale, link

7. Perkins R 2022, The Australian Wars, https://documentaryaustralia.com.au/project/the-australian-wars/

8. Australian War Memorial, link

From the couch and go to events

ANTAR Survival Day Events Listing

Pedestrian Group

Our Survival Day

Marrickvillemetro

The Australian Wars – The Documentary Australia site also has links to other documentaries and

The Australian Wars ( SBS )

National Museum Australia reading list

Five Ways to Be an Ally on Australia Day

The Survival Day Yarning Webinar (this is a free webinar though you need to register).

Curiosity may have killed the cat but it’s the life blood of the policy officer

Tue, 19 Sep 2023 04:13:55 GMT

Being curious is a critical part of being a policy officer and our number one curiosity tool is asking questions.

Asking questions however can be daunting. We may be afraid to expose what we don’t know, maybe we don’t know who to ask or we know who they are though don’t know how to access them. We may have been brought up understanding it was impolite to ask questions. Or perhaps we think we know everything there is to know about a policy; trust me, we don’t. Bottom line - we can’t afford to not ask questions.

Discovering a wealth of information:

We discover a wealth of information by asking questions. Stakeholders (aka people) give us access to data that we may not have considered or even been aware of by sharing their knowledge, their expertise, and their lived experiences. Their answers to our questions may support the data we have and they may challenge the premise to the policy commitment. This is all important data. Why? Because when we have the data we need, we can proceed to the next step of considering and analysing the collated data.

When is enough enough:

This can open another potentially unnerving prospect. How much information is enough. I’m not aware of an easy-to-use system that identifies when enough information has been collated (please share if you know of one and I’m serious about the easy-to-use bit!). However, information or data saturation will be reached. This is when themes start to emerge from the growing information treasure trove and nothing new or different is being shared.

Planning for questions:

Let’s go back a couple of steps to think about the planning required to make sure you’re asking the right questions. The below checklist will be useful for you and your policy team.

1. Do we understand the issue we are trying to solve or the opportunity that we are trying to embrace?

2. Are we able to describe the policy commitment and the context in which the commitment was made?

3. Do we fully understand the change the policy is intended to make?

4. Can we articulate ‘what good looks like’?

5. What is it that we need to understand - the who, what, when, how and why?

6. Are we clear about what’s in scope and what’s out of scope?

7. Are we clear about what we know through evidence informed data and do we know where our knowledge gaps are (don’t forget the Johari Window’s [1] unknown unknowns!)?

Quick tip: A small tip re the above – don’t be satisfied with yes/no answers, you’ll end up in a right pickle. Discuss each question in detail and make sure you have a shared understanding of each issue and that you can provide a succinct answer to each question (that’s not a yes or no!).

Introducing the PESTEL or PPESCTLE:

The PESTEL analysis is a tool that has evolved since its first appearance in the 1960s as the PEST (political, economic, social, technological) analysis model (Aguilar F, 1967). With policy training work that I do for the Commonwealth Government’s APS Academy they have added an extra P for people that I find very useful. I’ve added C for cultural (that I also find useful!).

[1] Luft J and Ingham H, 1955, Johari Window, multiple online references

There are many ways to use this analysis tool. For this purpose, I find it handy to first identify what evidence-informed data we have under each category. Second, draft the questions we need to ask to identify what we don’t know, to explore the data we are not sure of, and to validate the data we have. Third, identify from whom we could seek the information. We need to engage with a range of stakeholders to get the breadth and depth of information required for the policy at hand. This is called triangulating data. Don’t worry if you come up blank on one or more of the ‘pie pieces’ – this is great! You’re about to learn even more new and valuable information.

Five actions to identify stakeholders:

We need to have five things in place when considering from whom we wish to seek information:

1. We are clear about why we are engaging them.

2. We respect their privacy and their right to decline.

3. We must ensure that they feel safe and secure to engage with us and that we are not causing them any harm by asking them our questions.

4. If ever in doubt of no. 3, we seek ethics advice and or approval before progressing. Trust your gut – if it doesn’t feel right to engage a stakeholder(s), leave them in peace.

5. We commit to ‘closing the loop’, which I call common courtesy - going back to stakeholders to let them know what we have done with the information they have so generously shared with us.

What to explore with stakeholders:

Essentially, there are four themes you need to explore, though this doesn’t mean you’re limited to or have to ask four questions!

1. How the policy commitment is understood. It’s common for there to be many understandings of a policy commitment. If there is significant gap between the purpose of a policy and how that purpose is understood, it indicates work may be required to adjust the policy commitment's wording (with approval from the decision makers).

2. What does good look like? This is a great question to explore how stakeholders visualise what a policy problem being solved, or an opportunity being embraced looks like, feels like.

3. The change that needs to occur from now (the policy issue at hand) to where we want to be (what good looks like). What needs to happen to drive the change.

4. How we will know if the policy has been successful. We need to explore from the get-go of a policy development, the measures and indicators that need to be monitored to identify whether the policy is on track, needs some tweaking or is not progressing as anticipated.

My go-to back up questions:

There are three questions I ask at the end of each stakeholder session:

1. What were you expecting me to ask that I haven’t asked?

2. What else would you like to share with me?

3. Who else should I talk to?

No need for rules:

There are no hard and fast rules about whether you engage with stakeholders individually, in small groups or large groups. You might wish to engage them by specific areas you wish to explore, or you might wish to bring a mix of stakeholder expertise together. You may engage with some stakeholders once and with others on multiple occasions. Again, be clear about how you wish to progress – put pen to paper and map the stakeholder engagement. Don’t fall into the trap by assuming your intended stakeholders will be available or willing to be involved as you planned. Have some back-up plans too.

Identifying the right person to ask the questions:

It's also important to discuss with your team, who is best placed to ask the questions. It’s quite possible you will have a mix of people from your team leading different stakeholder sessions. Consider the expertise of each team member and their rapport with different stakeholders. There are also times where an external party is engaged to do this work. Spend time on planning this too – a stitch in time and all that stuff comes to mind.

Time to pop your curiosity boots on:

Share this blog with your teammates and organise a one-hour session to do your first cut of the PPESCTLE together. At the end, schedule your next PPESCTLE session that may be the whole team, or you might break up the team and compare notes in a third session. Mix it up and make it yours. It’s amazing what we can do with a time limit and over a couple of sessions you’ll be on your way.

In my next blog we’ll look at how to keep decision makers and stakeholders informed of how work is progressing. We want to bring them with us and this too is an important part of our policy craft.

How to back a policy winner – numbers, stories or both?

Tue, 18 Jul 2023 02:14:00 GMT

The word on the street (and a whole stack of research and public expectation) is that policy needs to be evidence informed or evidence based (these terms are often used interchangeably). So, what does this mean? Simply, it means we don’t develop policy based on our personal opinions, biases or assumptions. We must develop our policy from a mix of quantitative and qualitative data and from multiple sources. Let’s break this down.

01. Quantitative data:

Quantitative data, or ‘quant’ to close friends, is all about the numbers – statistics, percentages, ratios, numbered codes. Quant data is usually presented in tables, graphs, charts and maps. Quant provides insights into how things are tracking – the percentage of grey nomads traveling in Australia versus those spending their retirement dollars overseas, how many Aussie kids are tracking at the expected level of literacy and numeracy for their age, the number of people who have had their flu shot, the number of seats won, held and lost on election night, the interest rate (ouch).

02. Quantitative data:

Qualitative data (yep ‘qual’ to its buddies) is all about the narrative. Qual provides the stories behind the quant. Think back to Covid-19. Daily and sometimes hourly the media would report on Covid-19 data – the number of people vaccinated and the number of people who weren’t, the number of hospitalisations, the number of deaths, how many vaccines were available in Australia and when the next batch was due to arrive. A lot of this was quantitative data – numbers, percentages, ratios. And then we started to learn more about the why and the how – the qual, that also picks up the who, when and what. Why there was a delay in vaccines arriving in Australia. Why some were choosing not to get vaccinated. How children’s learning was being impacted by successive lockdowns. Why some businesses were not allowed to operate, and others were. Why we needed to wear masks, wash our hands all the time, keep a physical distance from each other.

03. Is one type of data better than the other?:

Short answer, no. As with the above examples both data are useful in different scenarios, and in policy you will use both to meet different needs. What’s important in policy is having enough data from a range of sources to build a solid understanding of the problem, what to expect to see from the solution and of course data will provide the insights as to whether the policy solution has solved or is on track to solving the problem.

04. Data triangulation (fancy schmancy terminology!):

Data triangulation is when data is used from a variety of sources. This is valuable and necessary to ensure a policy position is not based on one academic paper, one stakeholder engagement, one expert’s advice. You need a range of data from different sources that confirms findings – it’s telling the same quant and qual story – and this is useful to demonstrate why a solution will or won’t work. Developing evidence based or evidence informed policy, positions you to provide robust policy advice and recommendations.

05. Data proxy:

Sometimes there isn’t a specific data source for what we need. In these instances, we need to rely on a data proxy, which is a comparable substitute. I strongly encourage you to get data expert advice on this – this is not something you want to guess.

Conclusion:

Data is a massive part of policy, and we can’t develop policy without it. We need data to develop, implement and evaluate policy. Qualitative (narrative) and quantitative (numbers) provide great insights for your work. At first, data can be a bit overwhelming though overtime you will make your peace with them, which doesn’t mean you have to be a data expert. It’s important to engage data experts in policy development. They’ll know where to find the data, what data is telling you and what it’s not.

Pin the tail on the donkey – defining policy

Tue, 18 Jul 2023 02:13:59 GMT

For a long time, I couldn’t define policy. I found it easier to talk about the policies I was working on, rather than turn myself into knots trying to define what seemed to be undefinable. I’ve discussed this with policy colleagues and confirmed it is something we all struggled with, and we all wished someone had clearly defined policy for us. You need not feel alone if you too are struggling to pin down a definition – this lack of clarity is prevalent. Let’s get this sorted for you.

01. What is policy ?:

Policy is a change that takes people and or things from where they are now, to where an organisation or a government wants them to be.

02. Three key policy adjectives

Polic ies must be definable, measurable and valuable.

03. Policy is everywhere :

Every day policy influences our lives. It impacts which public school our kids can go to, the safety standards at our work sites, if we can access public housing, whether we can buy alcohol, if we are eligible for income support, what pets we can keep at home, how fast we can drive, if we can have a surrogate baby, and whether our overseas relatives can migrate to Australia.

These policies are examples of public policies – policies made by the Commonwealth Government (also known as the Australian or Federal Government), state, territory or local government (often referred to as local council).

04. Policy, legislation and regulation :

Not all policies are public policies, nor are they all enshrined in legislation. Your favourite homeware store’s return policy is a requirement of legislation though it’s not a public policy. Your local watering hole’s dress code (and that of Australia’s Parliament House) is not governed by legislation or public policy; however, it can be legally challenged if it is discriminatory. And your kids’ sporting club’s policies encouraging appropriate parental behaviour are not public policies though they have the backing of public policy.

Other types of organisations, businesses large and small, the Aboriginal Community Controlled sector, the for-purpose sector including grass-roots volunteer groups (think of folks who volunteer at the weekend sausage sizzles for the year 9 school camp) all have policies, including those that are requirements of legislation, regulation and public policy and those that are not – i.e., how often the sausage sizzle roster should be changed.

However, not all policies, including public policies, are directly linked to legislation. Government departments, the very ones that are in the business of public policy have many policies that are crafted in the interest of their jurisdiction (the part of the country they are responsible for – the whole country or a state or territory or in the case of local governments, a region).

Take for example government-led tourism campaigns. Tourism is an important and valuable sector in Australia’s economy and every jurisdiction wants their share (if not the biggest share) of the tourism pie. It’s not a legislative requirement to market Australia’s many tourism destinations, though there is a lot of tourism public policy focussed on doing just that. On the flip side, there is a stack of legislation and public policy that regulates the tourism industry and its operators including how it is marketed.

There are also public policies that are couched in legislation but can provide citizens with choice for some things though not for others, for example the promotion of public health. Australia’s, indeed, the world’s awareness of public health rose exponentially during the COVID-19 pandemic. Australia and other countries under their respective legislations and within their public health frameworks, mandated COVID-19 vaccines with corresponding penalties for those who did not get vaccinated. Bio-security measures were also introduced as were restrictions on public movement and interactions, businesses, and schools among others – and with enforceable consequences for non-compliance.

There are also public health promotions and initiatives that are not obligatory for us to follow. For example, we are often reminded, be that through direct correspondence, advertising campaigns and advice from health professionals about the importance of making healthier choices. We are encouraged to have regular health checks including regular cancer screening, to stop smoking and to lead a healthy and active life fuelled by a balanced diet and a good night’s sleep. The driver here for governments is not to penalise citizens who do not follow public health advice, rather it is the value (including the financial value) of preventing disease and promoting health versus the increasing costs and financial burden of illness and disease.

As members of the public, we are not obliged to access or use the outputs of all public policies. We aren’t obliged to have a breast screen or to holiday in Australia, no more than we are obliged to send our kids to a public school or to ignore the hot chips at the hospital’s cafeteria and buy an apple instead. This clearly isn’t the case for all public policies however – imagine what the Australian Taxation Office, Fair Work, police or customs would have to say (and do) about that.

05. Chicken or egg?

For a long while I (mis)understood that legislation was the alpha partner in the legislation and policy relationship, i.e., that it came first, and policy followed. While public policy is generated by governments, it is often born in the community (or for the more sceptical of us, on the back of envelopes in shady bars), shaped by our social contexts and fabrics, influenced by powerbrokers, national bodies, and lobby groups, re-packaged and branded by governments of the day, developed by public servants, challenged by many or by some, and supported by some or by many. And – wait for it – public policy shapes legislation.

Policy informs and positions the drafting of amendments to and rescinding of legislation by articulating its scope, parameters, intentions and requirements. Consider how social and community aspirations and issues for example, suffrage, same-sex marriage, legal age to vote, food labelling and climate change to name a few, have shaped public debate and public policy, which in turn have shaped legislation. Chicken or egg indeed.

Avoiding Common Pitfalls: The Top 5 Mistakes Made by Policy Officers

Tue, 18 Jul 2023 02:13:25 GMT

Policy done well has the potential to change our lives and the world we live in. Policy done poorly is wasteful, costly and can be incredibly damaging. It’s more than just words on a page; it’s a craft. And it has real impacts on real people and on the things that matter to us.

Think the Voice, the ability for mining exploration to be approved on rural properties, expectations for local governments to have an active part in climate action, fracking, offshore detention, schools denying children an education because of their chosen identity, people not having access to all the things many of us take for granted because of where they live or who they are. These are real policies affecting real people every day.

Policy practitioners don’t make final decisions, but we must do everything we can to give those who do, the best policy advice.

01. True of False - Policy is all about writing:

False! Writing is one of the skills you need to be an effective policy officer but it’s certainly not the only one and if you don’t wrap your head around the four below steps you won’t be able to develop policy that drives valuable change.

02. Make sure you know what the problem is before you start identifying solutions:

If you don’t understand the problem the policy is trying to solve, then you can’t solve it. Generally, there are three ways a need for a public policy is identified. First, a government will respond to a problem that requires fixing. Second, the public will identify a problem that needs fixing and build a loud enough voice for the government to listen and act. And third, your team might identify a policy gap and recommend to your authorising environment (the people who make the policy decisions) a policy is needed. The common thread – there’s a problem that needs fixing. Your job is to make sure you clearly understand what the problem is, and this is often not reflected clearly in a policy announcement. You know, the ones that start with “we will…”? Take the time to pull each policy statement apart so that you can pinpoint the problem – it’s the Goldilocks’ measure – not so big that it’s loose and impossible to measure, let alone implement, not too small that it’s unable to make any real change. It needs to be just right – easy to understand and clear as to why the given problem needs to be fixed.

03. Identify what good looks like:

Once you have nailed what the problem is you need to turn your attention to consider what ‘tomorrow’ will look like without the problem. You need absolute clarity on this too. First port of call – the authorising environment. How do they envision what good will look like? Have they articulated the policy in a manner that is measurable, i.e., how will the authorising environment demonstrate that they have achieved what they set out to do, what they promised to do? You need to do all the leg work on this and keep checking in with your authorising environment to make sure you are on the right track. You also need to keep checking that the ‘what good looks’ make sense in relation to the problem. The Goldilocks’ measure works here too – make sure the solution is easy to understand and clear as to how it will make a difference and how it can be measured.

04. You need informed, evidence-based policy:

Once you have clarity on the problem (the starting point) and what good looks like (the goal) you have your two policy anchors. It’s now time for the really fun stuff to begin – this is the space between the problem and what good looks like that you need to explore and test with an array of stakeholders. You’re also going to do a whole lot of critical analysis of all the data you gather – quantitative data (statistics, ratios, percentages) and qualitative data (the narrative that explains the quantitative data story). Key to this is lived experience – genuinely listening to those people who have experience of the problem and who will be impacted by the policy is a must do. And with all stakeholders you’re going to ideate, ideate, ideate. Create as many solutions as possible that you can think of – then collectively turn your minds to which ones could work .

Miss this and you risk not getting the policy right and more seriously, creating policy that is going to negatively impact people.

05. Can you do this? Can they do this? Can it be done?:

No matter how good your final policy looks like it’s not a policy if it can’t be implemented and if it can be measured. This might be number 5 on the list, but you need to start thinking about this right from the beginning – of every single policy you work on. Your stakeholder group must include the people who will be implementing the policy. They will have a deep understanding of what will and won’t work, how potential solutions will impact people, if for example, solutions require skills, technology, or infrastructure that they may or may not have, and they’ll have a good handle on which solutions are likely to be effective and efficient – critical when considering required resources and associated budgets. Remember your two anchors – the problem and what good looks like? You must consider how you will demonstrate the problem has been fixed, and this requires review, monitoring, and evaluation. At every step of the way you need to ask – can we measure this and how will we measure this? Why? Because you, the authorising environment and the people impacted by the policy (and possibly those who aren’t) will rightly want to know.

Conclusion:

Policy impacts and shapes so many parts of our professional and personal lives and it’s important we get it right. It makes sense it is a complex process with many moving parts and many things to consider and analyse.

You will need lots of tools in your policy kit bag of which only one is writing! And remember these four things:

Clarity – be clear about the problem you are trying to solve.
Purpose – have a vision for what good looks like for when the problem is solved.
Informed – build a sound evidence base that demonstrates the solution you identify is the best one to solve the problem and why others won’t be as successful or successful at all.
Achievable – if the policy can’t be implemented then quite frankly it’s not a policy and if it can’t be measured you and everyone else won’t know if it has been successful.

Designing a policy training package: Supporting Alison’s team to upskill jurisdictional policy capability

Tue, 18 Jul 2023 02:11:57 GMT

Alison (name changed) leads the learning and development team that provides training across government departments. Alison’s team had been driving a big policy training push as feedback from whole-of-government surveys identified policy capability as a significant gap. Alison’s team had training packages though they weren’t hitting the mark.

Identifying the challenges

Departments weren’t registering staff to attend the policy training sessions.
Alison’s team didn’t have the in-house capability to develop an appropriate training package.
Alison understood that an off-the-shelf policy package wouldn’t solve the problem they were facing – they needed tailored training to meet their specific needs.

Our Solution

Understand the problem: we worked with Alison and her team to understand what was and what wasn’t working including reviewing participant feedback and analysing their training package.
Clarify what good looked like: it was important to have a clear understanding of what good looked like – to the learning and development team, department heads and staff.
Ideate, ideate, ideate: Once we had a sound understanding of the problem and what they wanted the training package to do, we were able to turn our minds to identifying as many solutions as possible.
Test and stress test: Once we had identified and developed the most feasible solution, we rolled out a pilot program to test it and continued to refine it based on participant feedback.

Results and Impact

Alison and her team can now offer departments a contemporary and dynamic policy training package that has been designed to meet their needs.
Participants in the pilot program were instrumental in enhancing the policy training package to make sure it worked for them.
Through the pilot program there is increased awareness of the new package and individual departments are now enrolling their staff to participate.
Participant feedback from the new package is identifying increased levels of satisfaction and confirmation that they would recommend others to attend.
As more staff complete the policy training Alison and her team are steadily upskilling cross-department policy capability.

Conclusion

Alison knew she had to deliver policy training to upskill policy capability across the service and she knew she needed external expertise to develop and deliver a new program. By working closely with Alison and her team, and with participants from a range of departments we were able to develop and continue to deliver a training package that has met their brief.

Quote on policy design and implementation

Engaging The Policy Room to design and implement a new training package made sense. Their deep knowledge and experience of policy and their ability to share this with others was really important to us - and they delivered.

Policy professional development: Engaging and re-energising Selwyn’s policy team

Tue, 18 Jul 2023 02:11:31 GMT

Selwyn (name changed) leads a large government department team that has a mix of policy and operational staff whose focus is improving outcomes for families and their children. Selwyn is responsible for an extensive policy suite that includes strategic and operational policy, guidelines, and procedures. The department works within a complex legislative and regulatory environment.

Selwyn’s team has a mix of skills, experience, and expertise. Selwyn wanted to provide her staff with engaging and impactful policy professional development that would give her team a shared understanding of what policy is, a kitbag of tools and methods to ‘do policy’, and a re-energised appreciation of how their policy work can deliver exciting and important outcomes for families and their kids.

Identifying the challenges

1. Selwyn needed to ensure her team had a shared understanding of:

Critical thinking and analysis
Identifying policy purpose and scope – what’s in and what’s out
How to respond to their authorising environment’s needs, motivations, and concerns
How to respond to stakeholder, partner and user/client needs, motivations, and concerns
How to provide written and oral policy advice that ‘talks in the audience(s) language.

2. Selwyn also wanted to build individual and team confidence, flexibility, and adaptability to pivot to:

Changing needs and priorities
Across and between development, implementation, review, monitoring, and evaluation.

Our Solution

Clarifying the organisational context: an important first step was to build an understanding of the department’s bigger picture and then to understand how this impacted the work of Selwyn and her team.
Nutting out the challenges: discussions with Selwyn and two of her senior staff leading this project, helped clarify what was working well in the team and what wasn’t and removed any assumptions we had about what should be included in the professional development.
Developing a professional development experience: as we crafted the professional development workshop, we tested it with Selwyn and her two senior staff to make sure it was on point and to also build their ownership of what they wanted their staff to experience, learn and share.
Policy professional development delivery: we delivered a two-day interactive workshop with a day’s break in between.

Results and impacts

Staff regardless of whether they were senior or junior were able to explore and experience together policy in a safe and encouraging environment.
Staff worked with people they don’t normally work with extending their team’s networks.
The confidence of staff to do policy work increased noticeably and staff applied learnings immediately back at their desks.
Team managers gained enormous clarity about their roles and what was expected of them and how they needed to engage and support their staff.

Conclusion

By committing to her staff’s professional policy development, Selwyn created an opportunity for team learning and team building and achieved her goal to develop a shared understanding of what policy is and how to do it across her team. Over the two-day workshop, Selwyn’s staff had applied a range of policy tools and methodologies that they now apply in their work that has increased their policy effectiveness and efficiency.

Quote on policy professional development:

We engaged The Policy Room for tailored professional learning on the architecture for policy development within government for our team that has a diverse range of policy experience.

Salli used very relevant examples to extract and de-mystify process and strategy, while focussing on social value and the political context. Salli is an excellent facilitator and trainer and demonstrated her expertise in this field by demystifying policy while focussing on social value and the political context.

Everyone found it highly engaging, well-paced, well informed, and relevant to people’s respective roles.

Getting the policy house in order: Giving Harrison clarity about what he needed to get done

Tue, 18 Jul 2023 02:11:09 GMT

Harrison (name changed), the CEO of a training provider required an urgent policy audit to meet upcoming accreditation requirements and to re-set the organisation’s approach to policy.

Background

Harrison had recently been appointed to his position and quickly identified that the organisation needed to focus on its policy responsibilities. The organisation had been going through a significant change management process that resulted in both a functional and organisational restructure, staff movements and a revised strategic agenda. During this change there were limited staff to focus on policy and the organisation’s overall policy capacity and capability had substantially reduced.

This case study explores how we were able to conduct a policy audit in a timely manner so that Harrison had a clear understanding of what he needed to do to ensure his organisation met all the requirements of their upcoming accreditation.

Identifying the challenges

Harrison knew he had to get the policy suite in order but didn’t know where to start to tackle this problem efficiently and effectively.
Harrison identified that there wasn’t anyone in the organisation who had ‘ownership’ of the problem, nor did he have the policy capability in his team to do this work.
The organisation could not afford to fail accreditation.
The organisation’s policy suite was out of date, incomplete and did not reflect legislative and regulatory obligations.
The clock was ticking.

Our Solution

We recognised the importance of conducting a policy audit for Harrison. This would give him a clear picture of what was required and a roadmap of how to get there. Our audit included:

Clarifying the organisational and environmental context as the frame for the audit: this included two regulators, unions, their jurisdictional and Commonwealth legislative framework, the organisation’s governance structure and the decision-making hierarchy.
Mapping the ‘to be’ policy suite: the organisation’s policy requirements in accordance with their regulatory requirements and legislative framework were mapped, grouping policies as the auditors would expect to see them.
Mapping the ‘as is’ policy suite: reviewing the existing policy suite to build a thorough understanding of what was needed.
Regulatory and legislative review: two regulatory frameworks and three pieces of legislation relevant to this project were reviewed and mapped to the current policy suite to identify what work needed to be undertaken and in what timeframes.
Regulatory guidance notes: lifting the organisation’s awareness of guidance notes that the regulators provide to assist with policy development.

Results and impacts

Governance structure: we provided a clear governance structure of the organisation’s lines of authority, accountability, and responsibility.
Policy suite ‘to be’ map: we developed a map of what the organisation’s policy suite should be based on regulatory and legislative requirements.
‘As is’ policy suite map: we developed a map of what the current policy suite was. Overlaying the ‘as is’ and ‘to be’ policy maps clearly identified what Harrison had to get done to meet accreditation requirements.
Source of truth: we provided a regulatory and legislative checklist that Harrison could use to focus the organisation’s policy work.
Go to resource: we developed a simple tool that linked regulatory guidance notes to the ‘to be’ policy map so that Harrison had a sound policy development starting point.

Conclusion

Harrison knew the risk the organisation was facing with the impending accreditation, and he also knew that he didn’t have a clear understanding of what the organisation needed to do to get their policy suite in order. By undertaking a thorough audit, we were able to provide Harrison with the clarity and tools he needed to complete this critical work.

Quote on policy audit

We now have a clear policy roadmap of what we need to do, a framework as to how to do it, key indicators to ensure we meet legislative and regulatory compliance and a timeframe to do this in.

Delivering Fast and Effective Results Under Pressure: Supporting Neave to get a high-profile policy over the line

Tue, 18 Jul 2023 02:11:06 GMT

Neave (name changed) is a senior public servant with a complex workload, tight timeframes and a very capable but small team. This case study explores how we were able to provide hands-on policy development support to Neave to get her strategic whole-of-government policy over the line to meet ministerial, executive, internal, and external stakeholder expectations.

Background

Neave works for a large government department that has responsibility for multiple portfolios. The department’s policy suite reflects the breadth of the department’s remit and includes whole-of-government policy responsibility.

Neave is responsible for developing, implementing, and monitoring whole-of-government policies that also impact external stakeholders. Neave works in a complex, fast-paced, and demanding environment. As with all policy teams, Neave was juggling multiple policy projects, something that she and her team are very adept at doing though they were at tipping point. They needed additional policy expertise to get a high-profile policy finalised, approved, and implemented.

Identifying the Challenges

Ministerial expectations: it had been made very clear to Neave that the minister wanted the policy ‘now’, which of course meant that her CEO and executive needed it before ‘now’.
Time pressure: re-prioritising the policy to urgent put a significant strain on Neave and her team.
Not enough capacity: As Neave’s team was already at capacity it was difficult to allocate this policy effectively and deliver high-quality results within a very short turn-around.
External pressures: influential external stakeholders also wanted the policy implemented sooner but had different expectations as to what the policy should achieve. While not uncommon in policy development, this was an additional challenge for Neave to balance the problem the policy was trying to solve with what it was intended to achieve.

Our Solution

We offered hands-on policy development support to Neave that gave her the time she needed to manage and advise internal and external stakeholders. It also gave Neave enough breathing room to continue to lead her team’s other work.

Our policy development support included

Establishing a timeline: the first job was to plan backwards from the due-by date to where we were. This included identifying all the process requirements to get the policy approved, external stakeholder engagement and briefings, executive and ministerial briefings, and cross-government engagement.
Policy review: our next job was to review the work that Neave and her team had already done on the draft policy to identify the clarity of the policy’s intent, gaps, duplications and alignment to other relevant policies, strategies, and legislation. The review coupled with the timeline gave us a clear focus on where we needed to invest our efforts.
Policy development: our work focussed on lifting the draft policy, so it was suitable for circulation, consideration, and feedback. This included ensuring the policy was positioned to drive the required changes to solve the problems the government and stakeholders had identified, researching, and analysing other jurisdiction’s policy positions on the same issue, reviewing stakeholder input, crafting guidelines, FAQs, and review and evaluation processes.
Briefs and reports: we supported Neave by preparing draft correspondence for her signature to relevant stakeholders and to her decision makers. This support enabled Neave to communicate key information concisely and effectively across a range of stakeholders and saved her valuable time.
Alleviating internal and external pressure: We worked closely with Neave to manage and negotiate expectations with the executive, CEO, and minister’s office. By effectively communicating project timelines, milestones, and progress, we were able to relieve the pressure on Neave and her team.

Results and Impact

Streamlined document processes: Our document crafting support helped Neave develop concise and impactful documents, enabling her to communicate effectively with stakeholders while saving time on document preparation.
Reduced external pressure: Through proactive communication and expectation management, we successfully eased pressure from the minister’s office, the CEO, and the executive.
Enhanced policy capacity and capability: we provided the additional policy capacity and capability that Neave needed to meet the compressed timelines to complete this policy. By providing Neave with an experienced policy practitioner who was able to get stuck in straight away, Neave and her team were able to continue with their other priority policy commitments and they learnt some new skills along the way.
Increased efficiency and time management: by prioritising tasks and being able to dedicate a resource to this project, Neave was able to ease the pressure on her staff’s heavy workload and re-gain stability across her team.

Conclusion

By providing Neave an experienced policy practitioner who could quickly pick up the ropes, understand the complexity of the environment and knew how to navigate the competing requirements of multiple stakeholders, Neave was able to rebalance her team’s workload and reduce internal and external pressures and expectations. Neave turned the tables on the mounting tensions and successfully had the policy approved and implemented.

Quote on hands-on policy development

We couldn’t have got this policy over the line without The Policy Room. Salli’s policy expertise and experience was just what we needed to get the job done.

Engaging, sharing, learning: Connecting through policy with Yves and his team

Tue, 18 Jul 2023 02:09:16 GMT

Yves (name changed) owns an international healthcare consultancy based in Australia. Yves was keen to explore connections and opportunities between sector specific expertise and Salli’s policy expertise.

The Oppertunity

Focussed: Yves and his team are dynamic and focussed operators, with an unwavering commitment to improve healthcare outcomes.
Curious: Yves was curious to explore how zooming in on policy skills could enhance his team’s work to increase the value they provide to their clients.
Valuable time: with a significant workload and client commitment, Yves needed something that respected their availability, was impactful and applicable to his staff and his business.

Our Solution

We delivered The Policy Kaleidoscope workshop, a fast paced, energised, and engaging workshop that explores the complex pattern of policy development to provide Yves and his team new perspectives on how policy influences their work and how they can influence policy to add value to their clients.

Conclusion

At the end of the workshop Yves and his team had new policy insights and language and a newfound excitement about policy to add to their kitbag of skills, knowledge, and capability.

Quote on Policy Kaleidoscope

Sal, what a brilliant policy

tour-de-force – the team were full of praise.

Shifting gears: Empowering Elly to meet her policy challenge

Tue, 18 Jul 2023 02:04:49 GMT

Elly (name changed) worked in Sydney for a not-for-profit organisation that delivers tailored services across Australia to meet the everyday needs of people experiencing vulnerabilities and to support their families and communities.

Our aim was to support Elly to do what she needed to do through policy action learning. Policy action learning supported Elly to build her policy craft while getting the job done.

Background

The organisation was implementing a change management plan that included a significant change to Elly’s role. She was now responsible for reviewing the organisation’s policy suite, and preparing advice for her manager as to which policies need to be updated, merged, or ceased and where there were policy gaps. She was also required to do all the necessary policy work including developing time-sensitive policy that met legislative requirements and that wouldn’t jeopardise the agency and or human rights of their clients. Elly knew how important this work was though she was anxious as this responsibility required not only someone with more policy experience and expertise than her, but it also required a policy team. Though for now it was just Elly, and the timeframes were tight.

Challenges Faced by Elly

The enormity of her role: Elly knew that she could not achieve everything that had landed on her desk, but she wanted to make sure that what she could do was done well.
Jeopardising service delivery: Elly was acutely aware and anxious as to how policies impact services to clients and impacts the staff who are delivering the services.
Not knowing what she doesn’t know: Elly was new to policy though keen to develop her career in policy. Though right now, this job required far more skills, experience, and expertise than what she had.
Identifying the must haves: Elly knew she needed to quickly enhance her policy skills though she couldn’t afford to develop skills that she couldn’t apply straight away.
Engaging people along the way: the essential part of policy work to engage stakeholders with everything else Elly had to do was overwhelming.
Governance, legislation, and compliance: the sector Elly worked in requires legislative and regulatory compliance that was a job in itself and contemplating getting her head around this in the required timeframes and reflecting it appropriately in policy was very scary.
Managing expectations: Elly was aware of the mounting pressures and tensions everyone was experiencing during the change, particularly her own supervisor. She was very worried that she would let down her supervisor and that that would reflect badly on them both.

Measuring the value of policy action learning

We worked with Elly to identify what good looks like for her and to develop quantitative and qualitative measures for:

Having role clarity – what’s in and what’s out
Being impactful
Ability to navigate policy development
Enhancing policy skills, capability, and confidence
Positioning policy work to reflect the organisation’s strategic plan, goals, and values.

Conclusion

By working closely with Elly, we were able to guide and support her during a challenging and disruptive period. Elly’s understanding of policy and how to develop it increased, evidenced by her growing confidence and capability in doing her job.

She provided constructive and solution focussed policy advice to her supervisor that also raised awareness of risks and what was required to mitigate them. This helped to prioritise her workload and gave her the space to effectively complete policy tasks.

Quote on policy action learning

Sal, you have definitely been the most influential person in the development of my policy craft;

it’s amazing what I have learned

from you.

the-policy-room

Policy perspectives: Not up to or feeling uncomfortable with Australia Day Celebrations? There are many other things that you could do instead on 26 January

Acknowledgement of Country

Australia Day in the burbs

The day the world came crashing down

The making of Australia Day

The underbelly of Australia Day

Change for good

Lest we forget

From the couch and go to events

Curiosity may have killed the cat but it’s the life blood of the policy officer

Discovering a wealth of information:

When is enough enough:

Planning for questions:

Introducing the PESTEL or PPESCTLE:

Five actions to identify stakeholders:

What to explore with stakeholders:

My go-to back up questions:

No need for rules:

Identifying the right person to ask the questions:

Time to pop your curiosity boots on:

How to back a policy winner – numbers, stories or both?

01. Quantitative data:

02. Quantitative data:

03. Is one type of data better than the other?:

04. Data triangulation (fancy schmancy terminology!):

05. Data proxy:

Conclusion:

Pin the tail on the donkey – defining policy

01. What is policy ?:

02. Three key policy adjectives

03. Policy is everywhere :

04. Policy, legislation and regulation :

05. Chicken or egg?

Avoiding Common Pitfalls: The Top 5 Mistakes Made by Policy Officers

Policy practitioners don’t make final decisions, but we must do everything we can to give those who do, the best policy advice.

01. True of False - Policy is all about writing:

02. Make sure you know what the problem is before you start identifying solutions:

03. Identify what good looks like:

04. You need informed, evidence-based policy:

05. Can you do this? Can they do this? Can it be done?:

Conclusion:

Designing a policy training package: Supporting Alison’s team to upskill jurisdictional policy capability

Identifying the challenges

Our Solution

Results and Impact

Conclusion

Quote on policy design and implementation

Policy professional development: Engaging and re-energising Selwyn’s policy team

Identifying the challenges

Our Solution

Results and impacts

Conclusion

Quote on policy professional development:

Getting the policy house in order: Giving Harrison clarity about what he needed to get done

Harrison (name changed), the CEO of a training provider required an urgent policy audit to meet upcoming accreditation requirements and to re-set the organisation’s approach to policy.

Background

Identifying the challenges

Our Solution

Results and impacts

Conclusion

Quote on policy audit

Delivering Fast and Effective Results Under Pressure: Supporting Neave to get a high-profile policy over the line

Background

Identifying the Challenges

Our Solution

Our policy development support included

Conclusion

Quote on hands-on policy development

Engaging, sharing, learning: Connecting through policy with Yves and his team

The Oppertunity

Our Solution

Conclusion

Quote on Policy Kaleidoscope

Shifting gears: Empowering Elly to meet her policy challenge

Elly (name changed) worked in Sydney for a not-for-profit organisation that delivers tailored services across Australia to meet the everyday needs of people experiencing vulnerabilities and to support their families and communities.

Background

Challenges Faced by Elly

Recommended Solutions

Measuring the value of policy action learning