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Whether Congress, the Administration, or a Department/Agency must make the change, we help clients develop engagement strategies to enact the optimal change that will best further their mission. We help agencies prepare for the change they want by assessing their organizational maturity, uncovering potential hurdles to adopting the change, and developing measurable and actionable metrics that enable clients to overcome execution challenges quickly and decisively.
Environmental Scanning and Analysis
Understanding the legal and regulatory environment is an essential first step to affecting change. We bring together seasoned analysts with experience in Congress, the Administration, and Executive Branch offices to create a comprehensive view of the policymaking landscape.
Technical Assistance
We turn ideas into actions. Our team works with agencies to understand their most pressing challenges and to determine if an existing policy is lacking or unnecessarily burdensome.
Assessing Organizational Maturity / Preparing for Change
Adopting policies is possible by combining comprehensive knowledge of LRPs with successful change management practices. We help agencies not only comply with new approaches but also analyze implementation challenges that may be alleviated by further policy development.
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Even optimal policy choices require extensive planning and engagement to become a reality. We prepare clients to advocate with a clear message to a defined audience at the appropriate time to influence decisions.
Create the Message
Successful messaging is critical but not complex. The right message is concise and compelling. It is targeted at the audience. We use tools such as message maps and design thinking to blend human-centered problem-solving methods into creating messages that personalize the concerns behind policy changes and stir people to action.
Engage the Stakeholders
Policymaking is personal. We systematically engage stakeholders to honor the chain of command and ensure policy wins in the smallest office reflect positively on the entire organization. Our message mapping process allows clients to communicate with each stakeholder using the most appropriate message.
Influence the Agenda
Timing is everything. Prepared with the best message and the knowledge with whom to share that message, we pave the way for clients to share that message at the appropriate time and use the best channel to ensure that the message pierces through the noise and transforms stakeholders into allies. Key to our agenda setting is clear and direct calls to action, giving our new allies precisely what they need to do their part.
Always be prepared. When policy changes are necessary, our clients are equipped with a plan to implement change.
Process Documentation
We use a standardized approach to document current state processes to prepare for the future state. We document supporting processes, management processes, supporting processes, and workflows to implement process improvement alongside changes to the policy.
We use standard tools such as Microsoft Visio and Business Process Model and Notation (BPMN) methodologies to ensure maximum understanding and adoption of updates to processes and workflows.
Feedback Mechanisms
Feedback mechanisms should be established between policymakers and front-line practitioners to ensure the policy is implemented.
Feedback mechanisms can include regular, standardized reporting arrangements and reviews at critical points in the policy life cycle. We ensure our clients communicate with internal and external stakeholders, so they know precisely how to provide feedback using appropriate channels.
Focus on Quality
We select, analyze, and document processes that have proven to improve business results so that others in similar environments or with similar needs can benefit from proven successes.
By seeking out and documenting best practices, we help our clients improve the performance of various activities. A strong focus on enhancing quality can help an organization leverage people, processes, and technologies, improving outcomes and the day-to-day experience of employees and stakeholders.
Change Management
We implement a rigorous communications strategy to help adopt change at all organizational levels. We help our clients focus internal communications with a clear set of goals and a roadmap for best sharing your messages with your target audiences, ensuring that your messages are memorable and move people to action.
We also work with our clients to build enterprise change capacity. We use the ADKAR Model (Awareness, Desire, Knowledge, Ability, Reinforcement) to train leaders and build internal capacity to embrace current and future change.
We use a comprehensive, repeatable six-step method to identify policies suitable for agencies to pursue. Specifically, we:
Define and Detail the Problem
Problem definition is achieved in partnership with our clients. We implement tools such as issue framing to create a compelling narrative around the issue's nature, cause, size, and urgency.
Identify Alternative Policies
We use our knowledge of laws, regulations, and policies to identify many possible solutions.
Assess Alternative Policies
We assess potential solutions using tools such as an ease/benefit matrix to generate a sense of progress and urgency.
Establish Evaluation Criteria
We specify the criteria to evaluate the attainment of these objectives as well as the satisfaction of other vital considerations (e.g., equity, cost, equity, feasibility)
Effectiveness, efficiency, fairness, and administrative efficiency' are commonly-used criteria.
Project Outcomes
Estimate the impact(s) of policy choices (e.g., costs, administrative burden, etc.) compared to current policy and relation to factors such as societal savings or benefits to certain populations.
Recommend Optimal Solutions
We make a preliminary recommendation to inform an iterative process, drawing feedback from clients and stakeholder groups and responding as necessary.
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We develop policy alternatives that are achievable, measurable, and feasible while also being able to be compliant with applicable law, regulation, and policy while meeting the needs of the public.
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