| Paschim |
Posted
on 26-Mar-02 08:52 PM
A good friend and colleague, Michael Woolcock, shared his original tips on what it takes to be a “Reform Monger” in development...or any other profession for that matter. Since I've found these tips very useful, and see room for its broader applicability, especially in Nepal, where one of the biggest challenges is to introduce ‘good’ ideas, rally popular support around them, and implement them for the greater common good, thought I’d post these here in this lively forum.
The Top 10 Strategies:
1. Be on the right side of history (or, challenge the people who are on the wrong side of history).
Reform what is already being reformed. Look at the current trends in development - where do you believe the greatest transformations will be taking place?
2. Be an anthropologist of your adversary.
Learn their ways and means. Co-opt or adopt their discourse to introduce more “revolutionary” ideas. If you can spark a disagreement (rather than being ignored), you are moving forward. But, try to foster more dialogue and diplomacy and less “civil war.” And remember to challenge the assumptions, questions, and methods NOT the intelligence or motivation of your adversary.
3. Cultivate relations with allies on the inside.
Find and support pockets of sympathy for your cause. Try to find people that you can work with who can do what you can’t do.
4. Identify and promote a credible champion.
Look for someone who is charismatic, senior, politically savvy, thick-skinned, highly competent, and an alliance-builder.
5. Support key superiors.
Supply them with key ideas and evidence needed to make your case. Make sure they know what you know!
6. Build a broad base of constituencies.
Learn to speak different languages (of the poor, policymakers, parents, public, power).
7. Do your homework very thoroughly.
Read broadly; synthesize incessantly. Always have an emerging but coherent story about the world and the way it works.
8. Generate solid evidence and coherent theory.
This is very necessary, but very insufficient. Be sure to engage all policy questions from the outset.
9. Learn from your critics and from your mistakes.
The higher you climb, the more of these there will be. Be sure to differentiate constructive feedback from shameless politics. And, always recognize the high opportunity costs of responding. Sometimes it is better to keep quiet, remaining confident that good ideas will (eventually) drive out the bad ones.
10. Be eternally vigilant.
“Only the paranoid will survive.” (Andy Grove, Intel.) But, remember not to take either your successes or your failures too seriously.
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