Kingdon’s multiple streams approach

Posted on 6 February 2015 by Helen Wilding

I’ve made myself a list of all the theories, concepts and key players that seem to appear in literature about the policy process. The idea is that I use this braindump as a springboard to structure my reading a little more. Kingdon and his multiple streams approach was the first one on the list. You see it in lots of places.

So I’ve read relevant sections of Hill’s book (2013) and Cairney’s book (2012) and a few other bits and pieces. As Paul Cairney has written a great blog summarising all the key elements and concepts in Kingdon’s work I am not going to repeat all that here.

Instead I want to reflect on a few things.

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Theory, research and practice (and the use of theory in research practice)

Posted on 18 January 2015 by Helen Wilding

Given the name of this blog and my use of the Leonardo Da Vinci quote in the side panel, it just came as a bit of a surprise to me that I haven’t really posted before on the inter-relationship of theory, research and practice (the main exception being one on Knowledge into action). Or maybe it is because the whole blog is implicitly about that very topic, that I’ve never thought to address it explicitly.

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On ignorance, confusion and confidence

Posted on 13 September 2013 by Helen Wilding

I’ve just been reading a book that draws on the work of Wittgenstein to state:

“He [Wittgenstein] maintained that there are two main kinds of problem: problems of ignorance (there are things existing that we do not know enough about and therefore we require more information), and problems of confusion (we have the information but we do not understand what it amounts to).”

Hart (1998, page 141)

This got me thinking…

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My role as a researcher

Posted on 7 June 2013 by Helen Wilding

I’m now officially four days into the induction programme for my Professional Doctorate in Public Health at the University of Lancaster. We’ve got some on-line induction activities to do – then in a couple of weeks is the summer residential academy. I’m looking forward to meeting my fellow students for ‘real’ beyond the on-line networking we’ve started.

But today yet again, I found myself inquiring into the relationship between ‘doing my job’, ‘doing research’, ‘producing knowledge’ and what these things mean with respect to the relationship with my colleagues and others who will become ‘participants’ in my research.

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If ‘research’ is the answer, what is the question?

Posted on 28 April 2013 by Helen Wilding

A while back, I wrote a blog with a similar title to this – but with ‘systems thinking’ rather than ‘research’ the focus of the answer. That blog was inspired by Ison (2010, 187)’s discussion about – if ‘managing’ is the answer what is the question.

This frame of inquiry came to mind today as I started thinking about the purpose of ‘research’ – what is the system to which doing research is the answer?

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Returning to the ‘design turn’

Posted on 12 March 2013 by Helen Wilding

A conversation on my LinkedIn STiP alumni group has sparked me to think once again about the concept of a ‘design turn in my systems practice’.

It’s been a while so let’s recap.

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The use and abuse of measurement

Posted on 3 February 2013 by Helen Wilding

There seems to be a bit of a thing going on this week about terms like measurement, targets, payment by results, outcomes. It has been going on a while in conversations I have had (both face to face and on-line) and a number of systems bloggers are writing about it but it all seems to be getting a bit busier this weekend…it seems to be coming to a head.

So to start with I’ll mention all the activity that has prompted me to turn to the keyboard to add to the conversation – or if not adding to it then at least summarising where my own thinking is going to. Continue reading →

Change again…

Posted on 23 September 2012 by Helen Wilding

I have been thinking a lot about change recently. I have got this muddled mess in my head about it. But as I sat down to write this blog, I realised I have been here before…

30/10/10 – one of my first ever blogs – The nature of change

12/11/10 – not long after Changing practice

27/12/10 – Worldviews and theories of change

14/3/11 – Managing systemic change

I think my latest quest perhaps has more to do with ‘managing’ change, rather than change per se. I think it was in B822 Creativity, innovation and change that the following approaches to change were laid out: Continue reading →

On helping – review and moving on

Posted on 19 August 2012 by Helen Wilding

Can’t believe nearly a month has gone by since my last blog… but hey it is supposedly ‘summer’ and there has been the distraction of the olympics. But I thought I’d better return to my inquiry into helping..

There are a number of other chapters in Schein’s book after the one on humble inquiry, but they are more about applications of the ideas covered in all the blogs to date, rather than new information. Continue reading →

On helping – the art of humble inquiry

Posted on 22 July 2012 by Helen Wilding

Having made the case that it is most appropriate to start out as a helper in the role of process consultant (the what and the why), Schein goes into humble inquiry – as the ‘how’ of being a process consultant.

Humble inquiry helps to do three key things – firstly, equalise the relationship by making what the client knows become all important; secondly, shows that as the helper you are attentive and interested in the client’s situation; and finally, it helps get more information and remove some of the ambiguity and unknowns from the situation so that as the helper you have more of an idea of what to do next. Continue reading →

Just Practicing

sharing my journey through landscapes of practice

Tag Archives: practice

Kingdon’s multiple streams approach

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Theory, research and practice (and the use of theory in research practice)

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On ignorance, confusion and confidence

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My role as a researcher

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If ‘research’ is the answer, what is the question?

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Returning to the ‘design turn’

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The use and abuse of measurement

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Change again…

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On helping – review and moving on

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On helping – the art of humble inquiry

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