Building State Capability Podcast

PDIA in Practice 7: Deconstructing Problems

Episode Summary

The Practice of PDIA: Building Capability by Delivering Results Podcast is a 12 part series that will walk you through the PDIA or Problem Driven Iterative Adaptation approach to solving complex development problems. 1,500 development practitioners in 90 countries have used the PDIA approach. Visit www.bsc.cid.harvard.edu for more information about PDIA or download our free DIY Toolkit: bsc.cid.harvard.edu/PDIAtoolkit Watch the Practice of PDIA videos: vimeo.com/84361642 --- Intro music(edited)Artist: Pictures of the Floating World. Title: England. freemusicarchive.org/music/Pictures…World/England/

Episode Notes

The Practice of PDIA: Building Capability by Delivering Results Podcast series

Part 7: Deconstructing Problems

Welcome to Part 7 of the Practice of PDIA: Building Capability by Delivering Results Podcast series. This 12 part series, based on a video series used for our PDIA online course, will walk you through the PDIA or Problem Driven Iterative Adaptation approach to solving complex development problems. More than 1,500 development practitioners in 90 countries have used the PDIA approach.

Most problems in the public sector are wicked hard and therefore it is easy to get stuck. These meta problems need to be broken down into manageable problems to help you mobilize support and to ultimately solve. In today’s podcast, Professor Matt Andrews and Lant Pritchett will discuss how to deconstruct problems.

Lant, you often say PDIA is hard. Can you explain this to our listeners?

You cannot juggle without the struggle

Thanks Lant. Matt what else would you say about the role of struggling in PDIA?

PDIA is a way to structure your struggle

Matt, you often say, PDIA is an approach to solving complex problems where the problem needs to be broken down into smaller, more manageable sets of focal points for engagement, that are open to localized solution building. Can you explain how you do this in PDIA?

Deconstructing sticky problems.

Thank you for listening to Part 7 of the Practice of PDIA: Podcast series. Tune in to listen to Part 8 where we will discuss the triple A change space analysis. To learn more about the problem deconstruction process in PDIA, download our toolkit at bsc.cid.harvard.edu.

Episode Transcription

Part 7: Deconstructing Problems

Welcome to Part 7 of the Practice of PDIA: Building Capability by Delivering Results Podcast series. This 12 part series, based on a video series used for our PDIA online course, will walk you through the PDIA or Problem Driven Iterative Adaptation approach to solving complex development problems. More than 1,500 development practitioners in 90 countries have used the PDIA approach.

Most problems in the public sector are wicked hard and therefore it is easy to get stuck. These meta problems need to be broken down into manageable problems to help you mobilize support and to ultimately solve. In today’s podcast, Professor Matt Andrews and Lant Pritchett will discuss how to deconstruct problems. 

Lant, you often say PDIA is hard. Can you explain this to our listeners?

You cannot juggle without the struggle 

Thanks Lant. Matt what else would you say about the role of struggling in PDIA?

PDIA is a way to structure your struggle 

Matt, you often say, PDIA is an approach to solving complex problems where the problem needs to be broken down into smaller, more manageable sets of focal points for engagement, that are open to localized solution building. Can you explain how you do this in PDIA?

Deconstructing sticky problems

Thank you for listening to Part 7 of the Practice of PDIA: Podcast series. Tune in to listen to Part 8 where we will discuss the triple A change space analysis. To learn more about the problem deconstruction process in PDIA, download our toolkit at bsc.cid.harvard.edu.