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This article is written by Ella Dorfman, Senior Service Designer at the Home Office, UK.

  • The problem: As an operational or digital professional, it can be hard to collaborate with policy colleagues.
  • Why it matters: This gets in the way of effectively translating policy intent and delivering impactful services.
  • The solution: Being person-centred and making the right calls on when to be flexible and when to be firm can strengthen working relationships and improve results.

If you're responsible for operationalising government policy, it's not always easy working across silos to deliver successfully. Different ways of working and uneven resourcing across directorates often lead to challenges.

Barriers to working with policy from an operational perspective

Barrier 1: Different business languages and working styles

The same words or acronyms can mean different things in different areas of the business, causing confusion. In addition, policy colleagues may be less confident using methods and approaches that you are very comfortable with, making communication with them more painstaking and time-consuming.

Barrier 2: Competing priorities and conflicting interests

Policy teams must prioritise delivering on ministerial objectives, and while they know that service quality is important, they may have less awareness of the specific legal requirements that need to be met. Their lack of bandwidth to engage in some of these details can make your job as a service delivery professional a lot more challenging.

Barrier 3: Uneven resourcing and working tempos

Policy teams tend to be under-resourced, they are often required to deliver in high-pressure environments, working to tight deadlines and with a high level of uncertainty. This means it can be hard to get time in diaries, or get their focused attention on a matter. It can feel like they take ages to decide anything themselves, but still set unfair and unrealistic deadlines for implementation.

Barrier 4: Lack of understanding of each other's remits

The policy profession is very broad, and the reality is that it takes many forms. On all sides there can be lack of understanding of job roles across organisational boundaries. This means it can be hard to ascertain who should be involved and when.

Barrier 5: Infighting and power struggles

Policy colleagues might not understand their own processes well enough to explain them to you, and they may not know who from their area needs to be involved in the work. You may get told one thing by one person, and something else by another, leaving you stuck in the middle. It’s not always clear who can sign off a decision and a policymaker could assume they have the final say, even if they don’t.

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There will always be some inconsistency and knowledge gaps across large government departments, but it is possible to work effectively within imperfect systems. This requires high emotional intelligence and the ability to set clear boundaries.

10-point checklist for working effectively with policy

Find the right people

  1. Invest time in identifying the right people and in building strong relationships.
  2. Speak to people in-person as opposed to relying on never-ending email chains.

**Work in the open **

  1. Create regular opportunities to inform people on progress and gain input on key decisions.
  2. Identify champions who can advocate for the work and encourage pair working across organisational silos.

**Lead by example **

  1. Be the kind of colleague you want to see and treat people how you’d like to be treated.
  2. Deliver quick wins to release value early and demonstrate impact.
  3. Be willing to explore workarounds and make concessions if it's in the interest of wider organisational objectives.

**Set clear boundaries **

  1. Set expectations upfront, repeat key messages and back these up with published guidance and agreed standards.
  2. Make technical restrictions as clear as possible and spell out any risks.
  3. Don’t automatically accept a “no” from a policy team, if you know that a yes is needed.

For more information on working effectively with policy, check out the GOV.UK guidance on understanding and meeting policy intent. Thank you to Jenna Murison and the Home Office UCD community for their valuable contributions to this article.

Done reading? Make sure to share your own thoughts on working across government silos by leaving a comment below ⬇️

(Image credit: Unsplash)