How Do Think Tanks Work Stuff You Should Know

What Should Think Tanks Do? Read This Volume to Find Out

Jan eight, 2014

A prior version of this post appeared in the On Think Tanks weblog.

Andrew Selee, vice president for programs at the Wilson Center, a recollect tank in Washington DC, has written a slim book that will be useful to everyone who is part of a think tank leadership team. The book, What Should Think Tanks Do? A Strategic Guide to Policy Impact, focuses on Washington tanks and will therefore be of particular interest to those of us inside the beltway. Nonetheless, the issues Andrew discusses will resonate with think tank leaders—and funders—everywhere.

I and a few others at the Center for Global Development were among the dozens of think tankers Andrew interviewed for the book, and he references my joint essay with Ruth Levine on CGD's 12-stride programme for policy change. He is generous in his comments, non only most the CGD only about the 6 or so other think tanks he profiles. Information technology's a congenial approach makes the volume a pleasure to read. I found myself eagerly highlighting ideas and lessons from other DC tanks that could ameliorate how we exercise things hither at CGD. I wish this volume existed when I joined CGD dorsum in 2004.

As his sub-title suggests, Andrew is a big believer in strategy, and he outlines a five-step process (Mission Review and Goal Setting; Programme Planning; Audition Segmentation and Communication Strategy; Resources Development to Implement and Sustain the Program; and, finally, Evaluation of Outputs and Outcomes). And then it seems surprising that he includes CGD prominently among the examples to exist emulated. We are emphatically non much for strategy, as Todd Moss and I explain in a forthcoming CGD essay on the 12 lessons nosotros take gleaned from the Center's get-go 12 years. Our Lesson Seven is "Don't programme, experiment":

"We are often asked for our  strategic plan and elicit quizzical looks when nosotros say we don't have one. In fact, nosotros deliberately don't "programme" upstream, beyond encouraging senior staff members to articulate their major areas of work and expected outputs so we tin can match them with funding. Using inquiry to affect policy decisions and development outcomes is rarely linear, and opportunities for impact are almost ever hard to predict. Our strategy, and so to speak, is to exist fix to react to the sudden appearance of a policy window by having a skilful stock of well-researched ideas and providing our fellows with space to reply.

How to brand sense of this seeming contradiction? Role of the reply lies in terminology. Lesson Two in my joint essay with Todd is: "Articulate an inspiring mission and aim for results."  We feel strongly that our mission—improving the policies of the rich and powerful that influence evolution outcomes and limit or raise the opportunities of poor people in developing countries—has been an of import ingredient in CGD'southward success.  It's the foundation for all we practise, and it corresponds neatly to Andrew'southward first step.

Another part of the answer concerns the difference between writing a coherent description of a process and how that procedure is actually lived and experienced. While we deny having a strategy, and our president, Nancy Birdsall is quoted to this effect in Andrew's book, in practice we regularly effort each of the deportment described in Andrew's five-part strategy. We just don't exercise them in anything that would look similar a sequence: all the steps are going on all the time.

And it turns out that's been Andrew's experience, also (p. 93, emphasis added):

Most of the time the 5 steps nosotros take laid out in this book seem to happen simultaneously with limited sequencing or fourth dimension to devote to each. Trust me, I empathize. I started this book originally as a style to keep up with the strategic planning steps I had committed to with our board.I was really just trying to create order out of the chaos of my days… Maybe the most important lesson from truly strategic institutions and programs is not that they exercise things in a nifty, perfect order only rather than they have built feedback loops into their piece of work that allow them to do the 5 steps of a strategic process on an ongoing footing with lilliputian extra effort.

To which I say, Amen. Except that there are some particularly chaotic days when the actress effort doesn't seem so lilliputian.

Disclaimer

CGD blog posts reflect the views of the authors, drawing on prior research and experience in their areas of expertise. CGD is a nonpartisan, independent organization and does not take institutional positions.

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Source: https://www.cgdev.org/blog/what-should-think-tanks-do-read-book-find-out