The policy phoropter

Lens 6 — practical and pragmatic

All of our policy advice must be achievable, realistic and reasonable. We can test and stress test whether our policies meet the practical and pragmatic yardsticks by:

·????? working with implementers

·????? seeking input from a diverse array of stakeholders, including those with lived experience

·????? calculating returns on investment, including social and environmental returns

·????? understanding, controlling and mitigating for risk

·????? ensuring financial viability

·????? establishing a framework for review, monitoring and evaluation from the get-go

·????? checking and double checking.

How to be practical and pragmatic

The above dot point list captures nicely the ‘how to be practical and pragmatic’. In addition, I suggest you go back to chapter 8 and have a look at Griff’s list of questions. In Part 4, we are also going to have a look at Design Thinking, which asks four key questions that relate to being practical and pragmatic:

1.??? Can ‘it’ be done?

2.??? Can we do ‘it’?

3.??? Can they do ‘it’?

4.??? How will we know?