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Inclusive practices are integral to successful policy implementation. By involving all stakeholders, from community members to experts, in both policy development and execution, outcomes are more likely to benefit systems and communities.
Be inclusive in implementation design by creating a coalition who can jointly plan the implementation of your initiative/policy/strategy.
It might take time to set it up and nurture, but it will pay off in the long run.
You are more likely to have a successful implementation. Plus, you will have a coalition to constructively troubleshoot implementation issues as and when they inevitably arise.
“Don’t tell me what. I know what. Tell me how.” Margaret Thatcher
Margaret Thatcher might divide opinion, but her plea for implementation advice resonates with most of us who are working to ‘get things done’.
Good implementation is just as important, if not more so, than policy. Good policy ideas can fail if they are not implemented in ways that are sensitive to delivery agencies and their communities and contexts.
A big part of this is ensuring the community that will be affected by any change is involved in both your policy development AND implementation planning.
Around the traps in government, NGOs and research organisations, in one corridor people talk about ‘inclusion’ – and along another corridor all the chatter is about ‘implementation’.
I argue that when we put inclusive practices together with implementation planning we are more likely to get successful outcomes for systems and communities.
Inclusivity has wide implications, it is more than just what cynics may consider a ‘nice thing to tick boxes’. It is an essential ingredient to implementation planning.
For example, when designing research strategies best practice is to include all involved in research, including citizens/consumers, in the implementation planning – not just the professors.
Recently I had the privilege of hearing Zione Walker-Nthenda from Change Architects present at Sydney Local Health District’s 2018 EquityFest* and was taken with a quote she presented:
“Diversity is all are invited to the party. Inclusion is all can dance at the party.”
If all can dance at the party, then it instantly becomes a success – like you want your implementation plan to be.
Look at the photo and guess who was not included in the implementation plan for the batman fancy dress party!
Guess who wasn’t included in the implementation planning?
Zione gave an example of a Victorian domestic violence policy implementation that she believed was successful because all involved helped implement it – including policy representatives, magistrates, and, importantly, women from a wide range of communities.
One reason for the rapid response to the HIV/AIDS epidemic in Australia in the early 1980s was because the whole community, including many volunteers and community groups, worked together with clinicians, researchers, health services, and all levels of government as a ‘coalition’ to plan and implement strategies.
As a result, Australia’s response to the HIV/AIDS crisis was recognised as one of the best in the world.