Tuesday, April 19, 2011

Modelling Successful Behaviour

Here is a skype exchange with a friend:

[4/17/2011 10:17:00 AM] Mike: One of the aspects of the Project Strategy that I hope you will all get into is the actual activity from the service delivery folks in ministry of education and min health. That is the real test of the service delivery of course and also the test of how interested ministry management are in the REAL performance of their staff and whether their performance indicators (service delivery standards) really DO lead to/ point to MDG achievement. Somehow in all the bureaucratic busyness of those institutions, the real needs of the poor/ poorer/ poorest need to be addressed. "Making it real" needs constant reinvention!! You and the project are a golden opportunity for the rediscovery of the purpose of those jobs (and of course our own). We make the path by walking it. I envy you your opportunity!

[4/18/2011 9:00:00 AM] My friend: Agreed but just [see] ... how the basic ingredients to facilitate these grass roots activities has, by necessity, created our own bureaucracy of PMFs, with targets and indicators, databases and ... [all] at the higher levels of 'facilitation' of the process and not [the] 'implementation' of the process. A grass roots project is another animal all together that is dependent on these NGOs/CSOs to see it through. Our Project is not unaware of this next (implementation) step to achieving MDGs but the model we use has assumptions that after we facilitate something it gets implemented. If our Project starts to dig down to the implementation level within the basic machine, we will slow the facilitation role that we have to a crawl. It would be nice to do everything. See if you can get us another 100 million and more time! However, Our Project should take Knowledge Management (KM) snapshots at this level and disseminate honestly what we find. It could be that some 'killer assumption' prevents us from achieving our ultimate goal. We have to record this clearly to advance our true objective. What do you think?

[9:06:59 AM] Mike: I know what you are saying. I agree as well that the higher level requires a huge amount of maintenance and work. That's what you and I do. An approach I have found useful to this work is to try for a "modeling of behaviour" approach. This says that the systems that I help create and work on (and the PMFs, indicators, MGDs, etc.) have to be "scalable down" (reflect the working level reality) as well as "scalable up" (please the boss and bosses' boss). The ultimate test at each level has to be "relevance to the end user". The issue then becomes one of balancing the high level need with the low end need. My own liberal and popular sensibilities drive me to consider the "low" end, in the sense that the high level service delivery structures only exist to serve the low end. This is the "client driven" approach that is a well-known label.

So what is the modelling? Part 1 - By our own careful and consistent consideration of the need and constraint of the end user and aware of the pitfalls of the bureaucracy (because we live there), we ensure the balance of attention and favour processes that accomplish the effective delivery of services. Part 2 - We facilitate that delivery through the processes at each level that our management touches and (IMPORTANTLY) encouraging the next level to carry it on down/ up the line.

Do not be concerned or disheartened that it is too big a job. But observe and see how it works because the best people you ever worked for actually seemed to do that. Do not bewail the fact that one can forget insights gained along the way, but seek out people at each level mentioned who want to talk about these issues in this way. It makes the job so much fun to do and so rewarding. !! :)

[9:09:44 AM] Mike: Thanks my friend for reminding me again about all this!! You made my day!!

[20-4-11]My friend: Your comments have me revisiting the works of Moses Cody and his inspired Institute in Antigonish as well as 'put the last first and the first last' by Robert Chambers and others ... but then I reread your comments and settle on the phrase 'focus the balance of attention' and I realize that it doesn't have to mean that we fight the cause Janice Joplin style directly, but rather keep the faith and focus what every day work we do by pointing it in that direction, We must be cognizant of the presence or lack of that presence in our, our team's and our counterparts approach to our activities.

[9:05:25 AM] Mike: Very nicely put. Thanks!