Understanding "policy windows"
A policy window is an opportunity to gain momentum behind your vision because it is the right plan at the right time – it is a policy whose moment has come.
Getting political alignment behind your policy vision may sometimes feel like it is down to luck, but success is less about chance and more about putting the effort into engaging with stakeholders. If you recognise what is important to key influencers at a particular moment in time, you can create a window of opportunity for your vision.
- Elections
Elections are a great chance to promote your policy vision as part of an individual’s, group’s or movement’s platform. Having innovative and exciting policies to win votes is part of election campaigning, and it creates the opportunity for your policy vision to be part of someone’s manifesto. Of course, there are risks with aligning your vision with a particular side and you need to ensure that commitment to your vision is maintained beyond the election cycle.
- Crises
When a crisis hits, everyone is looking for a solution, so if your vision can provide a resolution to the challenge you may find a lot of interest in your policy vision can emerge very quickly. Being well-placed with strong relationships and visibility before a crisis hits means that you may well be the person that everyone turns to due to the credibility that you have already developed. The risk is that stakes may be very high and pressure to perform intense – potentially unreasonably so, and people may try and fit your particular vision to the wider problem (even if this is much bigger or more complicated) because they are eager for an immediate solution.
- Communities of practice
The community of practice that surrounds your policy vision is a powerful platform that you can use to guide high level understanding of policy potential. Supporting those who see the impact of your policy vision on the ground is a good way to build momentum behind your vision, and show that your policy has risen from the needs of the community. For this to be successful, policymakers need to see the community as powerful and influential, and there is a risk that your policy may be lost in a sea of competing perspectives.
- Career position of key stakeholders
Individuals in positions of authority can be powerful allies, and at different points of their careers they may be looking for ways to stand out from the crowd – your policy could be the difference that they are looking for. Whether an individual is looking to make an impact at an early stage of their career, consolidate their position in mid-career or leave a legacy towards the end of their career, they could provide you with the opportunity to make your policy vision visible and credible. There is a risk that a vision may be seen as aligned to one individual who may fall out of favour, and the policy may fall along with them.
Being aware of policy windows is a way to be fully engaged with the context and circumstances in which you are working. It takes effort to be in the right place at the right time, but in terms of policy impact it can produce profound results.
After you’ve read this article, think about the following question and share your thoughts in the comments section:
- When do you think the greatest chance of being able to have influence might be? Why?
No comments:
Post a Comment