My PDIA journey!

This blog is a way to share my PDIA experience with all practitioners around the world!

[lparedesmorales]

Some final words!

Well, I have done my best trying to answer the questions of our final assignment! I tried to show the whole path. It was not easy at all. Actually, I thought more than once that I would probably come back to Matt, Salimah, and Anisha and told them I couldn´t do it. That it was so hard.

But then I remembered Matt telling us that “sometimes realizing that we don’t fully understand the problem is a huge improvement”. And I think that is what happened to me.

I asked myself: Why I am doing all of this? Why I am going forward on the PDIA? Is this Harvard thing that important?

I realized I was doing it -and I always did- for our citizens. The people we, as public servants, are supposed to serve.

PDIA showed me that there is no right way to approach a problem. The problem is not to approach it. Taking things for granted and stop questioning the very reason why they are done leads us to the same results: frustrated citizens and a great discomfort with democracy itself.

Thank you all guys! And as Matt told me “Keep doing development without limits!”

Luis

P.S.: I continue this journey with a group of local governments! But that is another story... ;-)

[lparedesmorales]

The PNSR and the PDIA

The PNSR is the acronym for “Programa Nacional de Saneamiento Rural” (National Program of Rural Sanitation). As its name implies, the program aims to improve the health of rural families through the provision of comprehensive water and sanitation services, of high quality and sustainable over time.

I spoke with their senior managers and convinced them to allow me to provide their staff with some support in change management (topic supported by the National Policy of Modernization of Public Management). After a couple of days, they accepted (it was not going to cost them anyway!).

So, we started!

I mixed tools: I used the Moore Triangle, then a flowchart, the fishbone, and finally a Pareto Diagram. They were used to the flowchart and the Pareto Diagram (I knew it) but not to the Moore Triangle and the fishbone.

They worked in groups so it was very interesting to see the contrast between all the alternatives they bring to the table. We work hard for 3 weeks. Just about the right time to tell my IPP group about this experience!

This was, for example, the effort -after the third iteration- of the group conformed by the people in the PNSR´s planning department.

Here we have the effort of the people in the operations department:

And finally, the tools developed by the people in the supervision department

I encourage them to iterate a lot! They were amazed about the possibility to think about the problem and deconstruct it in a way they could have a better understanding of the whole situation, even the context.

I was very happy for them. They proved to me there is so room for innovation in the public sector. We just have to find a way to go through our daily routine and start thinking about our citizens. They deserve it!

[lparedesmorales]

The light at the end of the tunnel

After more than five “iterations” -if I can consider my frustrating meetings with different public officers like iterations-, I talked to a friend and share my “journey” with him. He told me that he wouldn´t let me in either! “You are not the issue. What you are representing is the obstacle” I realized that I would have to change the way I was approaching the problem.

The realized that they didn´t trust what I represented. They perceived me as an outsider with a better-than-yours idea (and even worst!) endorsed by Harvard.

Fortunately, that was exactly what my IPP group was discussing on our last call: sometimes saying “this is Harvard” could be counterproductive. It was perfect timing!

What did I do? First, I started identifying the tools they would probably be more familiar with. Then, I reframed those tools in order to help me with the iteration process. This “intervention” on the tools came along with a contextualization effort for the speech: I have to adapt the PDIA message considering the problems they were facing and the tools should reflect that I am aware of that context.

And that was the moment I saw the light at the end of the tunnel. I had to use the PDIA to understand the problem in front of me and set a strategy to deal with the difficulty.

I am sure that was the moment when my way to tackle problems changed. I proved myself I can iterate in extreme circumstances and even the entry points to solve problems can be subject to iteration.

But that was not the end of the journey!

[lparedesmorales]

The path ... and the tunnel

Once in our home country, we faced again the same problems, but this time we had a new set of tools, an approach that will help us get the job done!

PDIA!

Well, Matt told us the path would be complicated and that maybe we won´t find all the answers. 

At this point, I thought I wasn´t making any progress. I didn´t realize the complexity of the process until I discover that my whole experience was about finding the public organizations interested in the implementation of the approach. In fact, in retrospect, this was my first way of iteration.

My country´s particular situation (the former President was impeached, the Vice President assumed the Presidential Office and the Congress was dissolved) made it very difficult for me to find any Ministry or National Agency interested in anything but the survival of their main policies (and jobs)!

So, I decided to deconstruct my own problem, and I prepared my fishbone:

I search for entry points and I realized that the main problem was the authorities don´t care about something they don´t understand. So, as Matt wasn´t coming to Peru any time soon, I decided to visit some public officers in order to explain to them the approach and find a way to go through this.

My first 4 or 5 attempts were a complete failure. But I kept trying. I traveled even out of Lima (my hometown) to find public organizations interested in the application of the PDIA.

I tried to keep myself optimistic but I was getting hopeless! Happily, I got my IPP family backing me up!

Anisha was amazing keeping us together! I guess we would never get this far without her. Thank you!

I understand that every time I visited a new authority, I have to focus on the relevance of the PDIA linked to the public value creation process. I learned that I can not avoid the context and I had to read about the problems of the region/institution/people I was visiting in order to be more effective.

Anyway, the time was running and I was trying harder. But there was no light outside the tunnel. Until I found it.

[lparedesmorales]

The gospel ...

As for my expectations about the course, well I thought it will be a very theoretical, book-oriented program with some interaction spaces and lots of academic work to do!

Of course, I was not totally mistaken! At HKS we had lots of readings, study sessions, and classes with world-class faculty. But it was not entirely theoretical, boring or book-oriented. We really learned by listening and participating through the debates and experiences of our professors...

Of course, not everything was that harsh, we had some fun too!

I really enjoyed the on-campus experience!

One of the key learnings from this course is that your work is never really done. PDIA is based on iterations, permanently trying to understand in a better way the problem in order to find comprehensive solutions to our citizens. These iterations are at the core of the whole process because they help to identify and delimitate the problem.

Another important learning is related to the ability to build relationships based on mutual trust. You can´t promise to solve all the problems (or even one single problem!) having only one iteration. You have to be very honest with the organization and help to shape expectations. Otherwise, they won´t believe you never again. People do appreciate transparency as a way to show respect for their time and effort.

Anyway, after that magical week, we had to return back home and spread the PDIA gospel!

[lparedesmorales]

The origins!

The first post I want to publish is about the origins of this amazing PDIA journey!

First, I want to share a  little about my feelings coming into the course. 

When I decided to apply for the Program, I wasn´t sure I will get accepted! With all the complicated crises around the globe, I thought my country’s problems weren’t that hard to solve or -even- that important.

Happily, I was totally mistaken. Once I arrived in Boston and interact with each one of this amazing group of people I realized I was in the right place. I couldn´t believe we share almost the same problems no matter where we live! Actually, the first photo in my blog shows each one of my new IPP family.

There is another photo, I hope the IPP family remember the moment!

Yeap, that was our PDIA song!

(Here is the link in case you want to hear it!)