THINKING FOR POLICY AND STRATEGY MAKING: THE EMERGENCE OF KNOWLEDGE WORKERS

BYTANKO AHMED fwc

Senior FellowNIPSS, Kuru

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INTRODUCTION

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Background

Human beings are endowed by nature;

They master the art of thinking in advance of all creatures; and

They are able to employ and manage a complex of faculties and processes for thinking and action.

This is known as ‘humaniqueness’ or ‘uniqueness of human beings’.

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Theory Of Humaniqueness The ability to combine and re-combine different types of

knowledge and information in order to gain new understanding;

The ability to apply the solution for one problem to a new and different situation;

The ability to create and easily understand symbolic representation; and

The ability to detach modes of thoughts from raw sensory and perceptual input.

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Thinking Process

The ‘thinking process’ is conducted on platforms of various organs of the body and sensory functions, through processes like reasoning, judgement and

consciousness, in a complex of faculties.

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Activities of Policy and Strategy Making

The activities of policy and strategy making are primarily driven; secondarily sustained; and continuously advanced, by ‘thinking’.

The basic activity of ‘thinking’, the use of the mind in processing ideas, consists of an ‘idea’ - an impression or knowledge of something; and the mind - the seat of thought.

This process, in turn, translates into the art of laying-out or ‘planning’; and realization or ‘implementation’ which are the foundation meanings of ‘policy’ and ‘strategy’ making, respectively.

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Aims And Objectives

• To breakdown the complex architecture of ‘thinking’;

• To identify a practical and suitable method of doing it;

• To propose the crop of professionals to conduct it.

• In addition, a practical exercise will be conducted by the whole house to put to use the ability to manage the complex faculties and processes involved in ‘thinking for policy and strategy making’

• A Questionnaire on the Lecture and Exercise.

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CONCEPTUAL DISCOURSE• Idea

• Thinking• The Human Mind

• Policy and Strategy Making• Knowledge Worker

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Idea

• A concept or mental impression considered by philosophers as a fundamental being in itself.

• Philosophers Rene Descartes and John Locke defined idea as the immediate object of thought employed in the mind in thinking process.

• The capacity to create and understand the meaning of ideas is considered as essential feature of the uniqueness of human beings.

• An idea is anything placed in the mind in ‘thinking for policy and strategy making’.

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Thinking• Thinking or thought process is any mental or intellectual activity involving

one’s subjective consciousness with resulting ideas or arrangement of ideas.

• Thinking allows us to make sense of the world in different ways and to represent or interpret it in ways that are significant to us, or which accord with our needs, attachments, objectives, plans, commitments, ends and desires.

• Psychologists have concentrated on thinking as an intellectual exertion aimed at finding an answer to a question or the solution of a practical problem (Webster's, 1999).

• This presentation adopts thinking as the use of ideas in the mind in the management of the complex faculties and processes in the theory of ‘humaniqueness’.

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The Human Mind• Complex of cognitive faculties that enables consciousness, thinking, reasoning, perception and

judgement.

• A characteristic most often assigned to human beings, but which also may apply to other life forms, (Dictionary.com and Google).

• The seat of thought, memory and their processes.

• The centre of consciousness that generates feelings, ideas, perception and storage for knowledge and memories; also referred to as capacity to think, understand and reason, (MS Encarta, 2009).

• The mind is the element or complex of elements in an individual that feels, perceives, thinks, wills and especially reasons.

• In thinking, the mind is the centre in which thought infrastructure is built, maintained and coordinated (in concert with the physiology of the Heart, the Brain and sensory organs) for feelings, emotions and consciousness present the complex nature of thinking and action.

• Technology, especially ICT, has enhanced and expanded the horizon in speed, quantity and quality of thinking along with the capacity of the mind.

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Policy Making• Policy, or a plan, refers to a definite course of or method of action selected from many alternatives and in the light

of given conditions to guide and determine present and future decisions and actions.

• It is a high level overall plan embracing the general goals and acceptable procedures especially of government body. • The use of the term ‘policy’ in this context generally refers to ‘public policy’.

• Public policy is formulated by the authorities and other stakeholders in a political system (Quadri, 2004); by governmental bodies and officials (Anderson, 2004); or as a result of governmental responses to public problems (Woll, 2004).

• Hogwood and Gunn (2004) proposed a wider view of public policies as series of patterns of related decisions to which many circumstances and personal, group and organizational influences have contributed, that is, everything that we do to get things done.

• Policymaking process, also known as, policy formulation refers to the activities in which individuals; groups and/or actors interact based on different views and convictions, in order to arrive at a policy plan (Lexicon, 2001).

• Dye (1998) defined policymaking as ‘the development of policy alternatives for dealing with problems on the public agenda’.

• In this wise, policymaking or policy formulation occur in government bureaucracies; interest group offices; legislative committee rooms; meetings of special commissions; and policy planning organizations, or institutions like NIPSS, including those who benefit from its training.

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Strategy Making• Strategy, an overall plan for achievement of set objectives, can be formulated only after the objectives to be accomplished have been

determined.

• In relation to policy, strategy is the science and art of employing the entire resources of a nation, group, agency, institution, etc., for maximum support to adopted policies.

• Strategy making process is the activity of defining a strategy and ensuring that it becomes a reality rather than just an abstract wish.

• It involves not only coming up with a strategy but also planning on how to execute it and adjust to unexpected events (Jarret and Huy, 2012).

• The Strategy Making process involves the following:

Selection of mission statement, goals, objectives;

Analysis of external environment for opportunities and threats;

Analysis of internal environment for strengths and weaknesses;

Select line of action based on a, b & c above;

Implement decisions; and

Evaluate success of the strategy.

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Policy and Strategy Unison• Policy provides a guide to thinking and action in making

decisions;

• Strategy deals with the allocation and deployment of available resources for the achievement of desired goals in the face of environmental pressures.

• The combined power and thrust of policy and strategy that NIPSS was established to provide a platform for their unison for learning, sharing experience and generation of ideas for national development.

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Knowledge Worker• At the source of the entire process of social change there is a new kind of worker, the self-

programmable worker, and a new type of personality, the values-rooted, flexible personality able to adapt to changing cultural models along the life cycle because of her/his ability to bend without breaking, to remain inner-directed while evolving with the surrounding society. (Castells and Cardoso, 2005)

• The term ‘knowledge worker’ was first coined by Peter Drucker in 1959, anticipatory to the impending knowledge driven society of today (Gelink, 2009).

• It refers to one who works primarily with information or one who develops and uses knowledge in the workplace.

• The concept can be quite broad in its meaning, and is not always definitive in who it refers to (Mosco and McKercher, 2007); therefore this paper proposes ‘policy and strategy makers’ as knowledge workers.

• These also include anyone with a deep background in education and experience and considered as those who ‘think for a living’, like doctors, lawyers, teachers, bankers, architects, engineers, the military and hordes of other professionals (Cooper, 2006) making the lot of participants attending this course.

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THINKING FOR

POLICY AND STRATEGY MAKING

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Thinking for Policy and strategy Making

• The centrality of the mind in ‘thinking’ signifies that certain degree of skills and competency in building, strengthening, maintenance and even manipulation of the mind are required in policy and strategy making.

• Much of the responsibilities for policy and strategic making rest on the shoulders of professionals trained in the art and paid for the job.

• The thinking method most suitable for those engaged in policy and strategy making must therefore be of ‘critical nature’ or ‘critical thinking’.

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Critical ThinkingAt the base of ‘critical thinking’ method is ‘creative thinking’ The use of the resources of the mind to come up with ideas that have not been thought of before.

To engage in creative thinking, one has to be bold and competent enough to ‘think outside the box’.

An assemblage of all the versions of thought or thinking can fit into the hanger of critical thinking as informal and formal logic, validity and invalidity, truth or falsehood in thinking for and about society or social, political and economic policies.

Critical (or crucial) thinking clarifies goals, examines assumptions, discerns hidden values, evaluates evidence, accomplishes actions, and assesses conclusions. It occurs in judgement, decision, or solution a problem; that is, in figuring out what to believe or what to do, in a reasonable and reflective way.

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Critical Thinking Skills• Skills associated with critical thinking include observation, interpretation,

analysis, inference, evaluation and explanation.

• These further give attention to evidence through observation; context; relevant criteria for making the balanced judgment; applicable methods or techniques for forming the judgment; and applicable theoretical constructs for understanding the problem and the question at hand.

• Critical thinking employs not only logic but also broad intellectual criteria such as clarity, credibility, accuracy, precision, relevance, depth, breadth, significance, and fairness.

• Thus, critical thinking is ‘thinking of thinking’, the kind of ‘thinking’ most suitable for ‘policy and strategy making’.

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The Critical Thinker• Recognize problems, to find workable means for meeting those problems;

• Understand the importance of prioritization and order of precedence in problem solving;

• Gather and marshal pertinent (relevant) information;

• Recognize unstated assumptions and values;

• Comprehend and use language with accuracy, clarity, and discernment;

• Interpret data, to appraise evidence and evaluate arguments;

• Recognize the existence (or non-existence) of logical relationships between propositions;

• Draw warranted conclusions and generalizations;

• Put to test the conclusions and generalizations at which one arrives;

• Reconstruct one's patterns of beliefs on the basis of wider experience; and

• Render accurate judgments about specific things and qualities in everyday life. (Glaser, 1941).

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Critical Thinking ProcedureA well-cultivated critical thinker, irrespective of the sphere of thought, must therefore resort to the following procedure:

a) Raises important questions and problems, formulating them clearly and precisely;

b) Gathers and assesses relevant information, using abstract ideas to interpret it effectively;

c) Comes to well-reasoned conclusions and solutions, testing them against relevant criteria and standards;

d) Thinks open-mindedly within alternative systems of thought, recognizing and assessing, as need be, their assumptions, implications, and practical consequences; and

e) Communicates effectively with others in figuring out solutions to complex problems, without being unduly influenced by others' thinking on the topic.

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Critical Thinking Conditions• The possession of intellectual skills alone, without the intellectual traits of

mind, will result in weak sense critical thinking.

• Fair-mindedness or strong sense critical thinking requires intellectual humility, empathy, integrity, perseverance, courage, autonomy, confidence in reason, and other intellectual traits.

• Thus, critical thinking without these essential intellectual traits often results in clever, but manipulative and often unethical or subjective thought.

• It is considered important in the academic fields because it enables one to analyze, evaluate, explain, and restructure their thinking, thereby decreasing the risk of adopting, acting on, or thinking with, a false belief.

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EMERGENCE OF THE KNOWLEDGE WORKER

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Human Socio-Economic Development Stages

The emergence of the knowledge worker can be seen in the ‘waves’ of human socio-economic development:

• 1st Wave - Agricultural Age - wealth defined as ownership of land; • 2nd Wave - Industrial Age - wealth was based on ownership of

Capital, i.e. factories; and • 3rd Wave - Knowledge Age - wealth is based on the ownership of

knowledge and the ability to use that knowledge to create or improve goods and services.

The 3rd Wave, where we are today, witnesses the emergence of the Knowledge Worker. - (Savage (1995)

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Role of the Knowledge WorkerIn technical sense, the role of the Knowledge Worker consists of:

• analyzing data to establish relationships;• assessing input in order to evaluate complex or conflicting

priorities;• identifying and understanding trends;• making connections;• understanding cause and effect;• ability to brainstorm, thinking broadly or divergent thinking;• ability to drill down, creating more focus or convergent thinking;• producing a new capability; and• creating or modifying a strategy

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CONCLUSION

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Summary• The factors responsible for the uniqueness of human

beings, or ‘humaniqueness’, grant them the ability to utilize a complex of faculties and processes, for thinking.

• The activities of thinking are primarily driven, secondarily sustained and continuously advanced by thinking.

• This translates into the art of ‘planning’ and ‘realization’ which are the foundation meanings of policy and strategy making.

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Conclusion• This presentation adopts thinking as the use of ideas in the mind,

in the management of the complex faculties and processes as spelt in the theory of humaniqueness.

• On this premise, the presentation has established and explained such complexities; identified a suitable method in the application of critical thinking; and the crop of professional, or knowledge workers, capable of conducting effective policy and strategy making.

• Responsibilities for the challenges in policy and strategic making therefore rest on the shoulders of professionals trained in the art.

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RecommendationsRecommendation 1:Participants exposed to this programme should strive to strengthen individual and group resolve to be at their best in policy and strategy making at all times, places and situations.Implementation Strategy:Participants of NIPSS PLSC past, present and future to form an active network, at least, at sub-group or course set levels to be able to organize, coordinate and provide the much needed services from their privileged linkages.

Recommendation 2:The National Institute should develop a way to monitor the use of knowledge acquired from its programmes by the beneficiaries.Implementation StrategyThe Institute to commission a performance monitoring and assessment regime in form of research projects to be published periodically, for use by all and sundry.

Recommendation 3:The Government and larger society to be synthesized by relevant agencies to take steps in recognizing and making demand on all professionals, particularly those in the category of ‘knowledge workers’.Implementation StrategyA ‘strategic pool’ or ‘data bank’ of resource persons to be built by various agencies and sectors, coordinated by Government and utilize by larger society for proffering of practical solutions to the myriad of challenges facing the nation.

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THANK YOU!

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