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