#YourEducationYourVoice

Resources

Frequently updated with new items, these resources are organized by topic. To suggest a reading, video or exercise, please email us at hello@solvingpublicproblems.org.

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WATCH - INTERESTING VIDEOS
DO - WORKSHEETS

TAKE THE COURSEBUY THE BOOK

Defining a Public Problem

Public problem solvers know how to narrow down an issue to uncover a problem that is urgent, matters to real people and that they can tackle.

READ

  Data, Responsibly - Volume 1: Mirror, Mirror, Thomas Wedell-Wedellsborg. Harvard Business Review, January-February 2017.
  Data, Responsibly - Volume 1: Mirror, Mirror, Thomas Wedell-Wedellsborg. Harvard Business Review, January-February 2017.
  Defining Problems: The Most Important Business Skill You've Never Been Taught, Michael Cooper. Entrepreneur. September 26, 2014.
  Basic Field Guide to the Positive Deviance Approach, Tufts University, September 2010.
  Nine Steps to Effective Business Problem Solving, Martin Zwilling. Business Insider. July 19, 2011.
  Defining and Analyzing the Problem, Jenette Nagy. Chapter 17 in Analyzing Community Problems and Designing and Adapting Community Interventions. Community Tool Box.
  Big Innovations Question the Status Quo: How Do You Ask the Right Questions?, Warren Berger. Fast Company. March 17, 2011.
  Wicked Problems: Problems Worth Solving, Jon Kolko, Wicked Problems: Problems Worth Solving (Austin, TX: AC4D, 2012).
  
  What Is Agile?
  Agile in Government: A Playbook from the Deloitte Center for Government Insights.
  Move Fast and Fix Things: How to Be a Public Entrepreneur - RSA
  Agile Governance: Reimagining Policy-Making in the Fourth Industrial Revolution
  Some Thoughts on Reform Miracles, Frank Baumgartner. Paper Presented at the Reform Miracles International Seminar, May 27-28, 2005.

watch

  DIY Toolkit | Problem Definition
  DIY Toolkit | Problem Definition
  Chats with Public Problem Solvers: Jen Pahlka
  Chats with Public Problem Solvers: Reuben Abraham
  To solve hard challenges, we must look for the positive deviants, Monique Sternin, TEDxMidAtlantic
  Defining a Problem: Crash Course Kids #18.1, Crash Course Kids
  Selling Solutions vs. Solving Problems, Lant Pritchett, PDIA
  Alph Bingham: Problem Definition
  Principles of PDIA

do

  The Heilmeier Catechism, https://worksheets.solvingpublicproblems.org/?exercise=heilmeier-catechism
  Articulate the Problem
  Identify Root Causes: Five X Why
  LASSO Your Problem
  Define Your Hypothesis
  Reframe the Problem

Defining Problems with Data

Public problem solvers know how to use data to understand the breadth and nature of the problem.

READ

  Rights-Based and Tech-Driven: Open Data, Freedom of Information, and the Future of Government Transparency, Beth Simone Noveck. Yale Human Rights and Development Law Journal, vol. 19, no. 1. (2017).
  Data, Responsibly - Volume 1: Mirror, Mirror, Falaah Arif Khan and Julia Stoyanovich. Data, Responsibly Comics, Volume 1 (2020))
  Big Data and Social Science: A Practical Guide to Methods and Tools, Ian Foster, Rayid Ghani, Ron S. Jarmin, Frauke Kreuter, and Julia Lane (editors), Chapman and Hall/CRC Press, 2016.
  The Future of Data and Analytics, Shelley H. Metzenbaum. Chapter 16 in Government for the Future Reflection and Vision for Tomorrow's Leaders, edited by Mark A. Abramson, Daniel J. Chenok, and John M. Kamensky. Rowman and Littlefield
  Promoting Policies that Work: Six Steps for the Commission on Evidence-Based Policymaking, Quentin Palfrey. The Hill. November 1, 2016.
  Toward an Open Data Demand Assessment and Segmentation Methodology, Stefaan G. Verhulst and Andrew Young. The GovLab and AFD.
  The Global Impact of Open Data, Andrew Young and Stefaan G. Verhulst. O'Reilly Media, 2016.
  Open Data Handbook, "Open Data Handbook" (webpage), Open Knowledge Foundation, accessed February 26, 2021.
  Open Government Data: The Book, Josh Tauberer. Second edition. 2014.
  Public Policy Analytics, Public Policy Analytics is a new book by Ken Steif, Ph.D that teaches at the intersection of data science and public policy.
  A Starter Kit for Data-Smart Cities, The Ash Center, DATA-SMART CITY SOLUTIONS • MARCH 21, 2017

watch

  Chats with Public Problem Solvers: Jeremy Howard
  NJ Innovation Skills Accelerator: Data Analytical Thinking Part 1
  NJ Innovation Skills Accelerator: Applying Data Analytical Thinking
  NJ Innovation Skills Accelerator: Introduction to Open Data
  Data Analytical Thinking at the NJ Dept. of Human Services with Carole Johnson
  The Benefits of Using Open Data with Zachary Feder

do

  Identifying the Data
  Open Data Availability
  Validating Your Data
  Assess Your Readiness to Use Data
  Consider the Risks
  Working with Your Data

What are Public Problems

What are public problems and why they can never really be “solved”?

READ

  Learning to Solve Problems: A Handbook for Designing Problem-Solving Learning Environments, David Jonassen, "Design Problem Solving," in Learning to Solve Problems: A Handbook for Designing Problem-Solving Learning Environments, Taylor and Francis Group, 2010.
  Together, You Can Redeem the Soul of Our Nation, John Lewis, "Together, You Can Redeem the Soul of Our Nation," New York Times, July 30, 2020.
  Dilemmas in a General Theory of Planning, Horst Rittel and Melvin Webber, "Dilemmas in a General Theory of Planning," Policy Sciences, 1973.
  Building State Capability: Evidence, Analysis, Action, Matt Andrews et al. Building State Capability: Evidence, Analysis, Action, Oxford University Press, 2017 (freely available online)
  The New Practice of Public Problem Solving, Tara McGuinness & Anne-Marie Slaughter, Stanford Social Innovation Review, Spring 2019

watch

  Chats with Public Problem Solvers: Maurice Mitchell
  Chats with Public Problem Solvers: Connie Yowell

do

  The GovLab Public Problem-Solving Canvas, http://canvas.govlabacademy.org

Defining Problems with Human-Centered Design

Public problem solvers shun the closed-door practices of the past and define problems in partnership with those whom they are trying to help.

READ

  Design thinking origin story plus some of the people who made it all happen, Jo Szczepanska, "Design Thinking Origin Story Plus Some of the People Who Made It All Happen," Medium, January 3, 2017.
  Designing for Public Services, "Designing for Public Services," Nesta and IDEO, January 2017.
  Bit By Bit: Social Research in the Digital Age, Matthew Salganik, "Bit By Bit: Social Research in the Digital Age," Princeton University Press, 2017.
  Essay: Advanced Design for the Public Sector., Kristofer Kelly-Frere. Jonathan Veale. Jonathan Veale on Medium. January 17, 2018.
  Design Thinking: Dear Don..., Bill Moggridge. Core77. August 2, 2010.
  Design Thinking Origin Story plus Some of the People Who Made It All Happen., Jo Szczepanska, "Design Thinking Origin Story Plus Some of the People Who Made It All Happen," Medium (blog), January 3, 2017.
  Rethinking Design Thinking, Don Norman, "Rethinking Design Thinking," Core77, March 19, 2013.
  18F Human-Centered Design Methods, "A Collection of Tools to Bring Human-Centered Design into Your Project," 18F Methods (website), accessed February 26, 2021.
  Bruce Hanington and Bella Martin’s Universal Methods of Design, Bruce Hanington and Bella Martin, Universal Methods of Design (Beverly, MA: Rockport Publishers, 2012).

watch

  Chats with Public Problem Solvers: Elizabeth Gerber
  Chats with Public Problem Solvers: Chris Sarra
  NJ Skills Accelerator: Human Centered Design
  What is Human Centered Design? by Design Kit
  Mike Bracken: Using Agile in the Public Sector
  Alex Benay: How to Become an Agile Leader
  What Is Agile?
  Governing Agile Delivery
   The Agile Manifesto - 4 Agile Values Explained
  NJ Skills Accelerator: Stephanie Wade: What is Human-Centered Design?
  Human-Centered Design TED Talk with David Kelly

do

  Developing Your Plan
  Responsible Interviewing
  Make a Service Blueprint Collaboratively
  Identify Stakeholders and Participants
  Create a Wiki Survey Using All Our Ideas

Innovative Problem Solving Pathways

An overview of the pathway from idea to implementation, anticipating the steps needed to make a pathway from idea to implementation, allows you to work backwards and anticipate future milestones and deliverables.

READ

  The Path to "Agile" Policymaking, Arjun Bisen. Government Innovators Network. ASH Center for Democratic Governance and Innovation, Harvard Kennedy School. October 5, 2018.
  What is Agile?, Steve Denning. Forbes. August 13, 2016.
  Agile in Government: A Playbook from the Deloitte Center for Government Insights, Deloitte Center for Government Insights, accessed February 26, 2021.
  Move fast and fix things: How to be a public entrepreneur, Rowan Conway, Luke Timmons, Ian Burbidge. RSA Lab. July 24, 2018.
  Agile Governance: Reimagining Policy-making in the Fourth Industrial Revolution, World Economic Forum. April 24, 2018.
  Lean Impact: How to Innovate for Radically Greater Social Good, Ann Mei Chang, Lean Impact: How to Innovate for Radically Greater Social Good, (Hoboken, NJ: Wiley, 2018).
  A Practical Guide for Policy Analysis: The Eightfold Path to More Effective Problem Solving, Eugene Bardach, CQ Press College; Editions 1-6

watch

  Chats with Public Problem Solvers: Carl Gombrich
  Chats with Public Problem Solvers: Achim Steiner
  Skills Accelerator: Innovation Mindset: From Idea to Implementation
  NJ Skills Accelerator: Using Agile in the Public Sector with Mike Bracken
  NJ Skills Accelerator: How to become an Agile Leader with Alex Benay
  What is Agile?, Mark Shead
  Governing Agile Delivery, Dan North, GOTO 2018
  The Agile Manifesto, CollabNet

do

  The GovLab Public Problem-Solving Canvas, http://canvas.govlabacademy.org
  Tom Chatfield: How to think clearly, By learning to question and clarify your thoughts, you’ll improve your self-knowledge and become a better communicator

Fast Field Scanning

Public problem solvers want to be effective not first. They take advantage of new technology to scan for the best available ideas and people who know what has worked elsewhere.

READ

  Re-imagining "Action Research" as a Tool for Social Innovation and Public Entrepreneurship, Stefaan G. Verhulst. The GovLab. February 2020.
  A Practical Guide for Policy Analysis: The Eightfold Path to More Effective Problem Solving,, Eugene S. Bardach. CQ Press College, 2011.
  Ten ways to optimize evidence-based policy, Peter Bragge, "Ten Ways to Optimize Evidence-Based Policy," Journal of Comparative Effectiveness Research 8, no. 15 (November 2019).
  Knowledge translation of research findings, Jeremy Grimshaw et al., "Knowledge Translation of Research Findings," Implementation Science 7, no. 50 (2012).
  Evidence summaries: the evolution of a rapid review approach, Sara Khangura et al., "Evidence Summaries: The Evolution of a Rapid Review Approach," Systematic Reviews 1, no. 10 (2012).
  Briefing on COVID-19 and Low-Income Communities, Freedman Consulting Newsletter on Solutions for Low-Income Residents

watch

  Chats with Public Problem Solvers: Audrey Tang
  NJ Skills Accelerator: Rapid Evidence Review
  NJ Skills Accelerator: Using Rapid Evidence Review for Public Problem Solving with Peter Bragge

do

  Search the Clearinghouses
  Use a Generic Solution
  Scavenge for Solutions in Social Innovation Communities
  Learning from Documents—What Is Out There?
  Learning from People—Who Is Out There?
  Run an Evidence Bootcamp
  Evaluate Evidence
  STARR Decision Tool, STARR Decision Tool. The University of Sheffield STARR Decision Tool is designed to help with planning a rapid evidence review of RCTs
  AMSTAR Checklist, AMSTAR stands for “A MeaSurement Tool to Assess Systematic Reviews.” It is another planning tool to aid with RCT-driven research review planning

Expanding Your Solution Toolkit

Public problem solvers have both new and traditional tools at their disposal to help them affect social change.

READ

  How Emerging Technologies Are Impacting Industries, Dylan Bird, "How Emerging Technologies Are Impacting Industries," The Startup, Medium, November 12, 2017.
  Tom Kalil: Leading Technology & Innovation at the White House, Hill, Linda A., and Allison J. Wigen, Harvard Business School Case 417-021, August 2016. (Revised March 2019.)
  How to Have a Big Impact in Government and Huge Organisations, Based on 16 Years’ Experience in the White House,, Robert Wiblin and Keiran Harris, 80,000 podcast, April 23, 2019
  Toolkit Navigator: A compendium of toolkits for public sector innovation and transformation, "Toolkit Navigator" (webpage), OECD, Observatory of Public Sector Innovation, accessed February 26, 2021.
  The Tools of Government: A Guide to the New Governance, Lester M. Salamon, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2002
  Policy 2.0 in the Pandemic World: What Worked, What Didn’t and Why, David Osimo/Lisbon Council (March 2021)
  Towards better social sector decision making and practice A social wellbeing approach, The Southern Initiative, Auckland Council

watch

  Chats with Public Problem Solvers: Casey Box
  Chats with Public Problem Solvers: Richard Buery
  NJ Skills Accelerator: Expanding Your Toolkit for Change
  NJ Skills Accelerator: Introduction to New Technologies
  Insight: Ideas for Changes - Open Innovation - Henry Chesbrough

do

Developing Solutions with Collective Intelligence

Public problem solvers adopt more participatory and democratic ways of working that build on the collective intelligence of communities to find workable solutions together.

READ

  The Promise of Incentive Prizes, Jeff Ubois and Tom Kalil, "The Promise of Incentive Prizes," Stanford Social Innovation Review, Winter 2019.
  The Potential of Social Media Intelligence to Improve People's Lives, Stefaan Verhulst and Andrew Young. The GovLab.
  Challenge Prizes: A Practice Guide, "Challenge Prizes: A Practice Guide" (webpage), Nesta, accessed February 26, 2021.
  And the Winner Is...': Philanthropists and Governments Make Prizes Count, McKinsey and Company. July 1, 2009.
  Open Innovation: Practices to Engage Citizens and Effectively Implement Federal Initiatives, United States Government Accountability Office. October 2016.
  Governing through Prizes and Challenges, Stefaan G. Verhulst and Andrew Young. Stefaan G. Verhulst on Medium. January 27, 2015.
  What We're Reading and Listening to on CollectIve Intelligence, Nesta Centre for Collective Intelligence Blog Series
  The power of virtual communities, Beth Simone Noveck, James Button, Lex Paulson, Dane Gambrell, Paolo Spada, Lakshmirayan Subramanaian
  Using collective intelligence to solve problems, Matt Ryan, Dane Gambrell, Beth Simone Noveck, October 2020

watch

  Chats with Public Problem Solvers: Sonal Shah
  Chats with Public Problem Solvers: Rudi Borrmann
  NJ Skills Accelerator: Introduction to Collective Intelligence
  Diversity, Collective Intelligence and Big Data with Sandy Pentland
  What is Open Innovation?
  Open Innovation with Henry Chesbrough
  The Era of Open Innovation with Charles Leadbeater
  Using Data Collaboratives for Problem Solving with Stefaan Verhulst

do

  Assemble Your Collective Intelligence Process
  Identify Stakeholders and Participants
  Develop a Timeline for Outreach
  Determine Incentives
  Defining the Tasks
  Decide on Assessment Criteria
  Why Engage?

Writing the Letter

To cross the chasm from idea to implementation, public problem solvers learn how to persuade others by writing an effective letter.

READ

  Writing Effective Letters, "Writing Effective Letters" (webpage), PlainLanguage.gov, accessed February 26, 2021.
  How to Write an Effective Letter to Your Policy Maker, "How to Write an Effective Letter to Your Policymaker," Union of Concerned Scientists, January 1, 2007.
  How to Write Persuasive Letters, "How to Write Persuasive Letters," Wiki How, updated September 12, 2020.

watch

  Chats with Public Problem Solvers: Lt. Gov. Sheila Oliver
  Chats with Public Problem Solvers: Xavier Briggs
  NJ Skills Accelerator: Sheila Oliver: Chats with Public Problem Solvers

do

  Writing the Killer Letter

Powerful Partnerships

Public problem solvers know how to build teams and partnerships to become more effective and impactful at getting things done.

READ

  The Intersector Toolkit, "The Intersector Toolkit" (webpage), The Intersector Project, accessed February 26, 2021.
  THE SDG PARTNERSHIP GUIDEBOOK, Darian Stibbe and Dave Prescott, The Partnering Initiative and UNDESA, 2020.
  The Essential Skills of Cross Sector Leadership, David B. Smith and Jeanine Becker, Stanford Social Innovation Review, Winter 2018.
  How Do We Choose the Most Promising Theory of Change? Building on the Context-Intervention 2x2, Oxfam Blogs: From Poverty to Power. December 9, 2016.
  Logic Model Development Guide, "Logic Model Development Guide," W. K. Kellogg Foundation, January 1, 2004.
  In Defense of Logic Models, Ian David Moss, Huffington Post, July 5, 2012, updated December 6, 2017.

watch

  Chats with Public Problem Solvers: Sarah Pearson
  Chats with Public Problem Solvers: Tom Kalil
  NJ Skills Accelerator: Creating Powerful Partnerships
  NJ Skills Accelerator: Developing a Theory of Change

do

  Design a Partnership
  Partnership Checklist
  Construct a Logic Model
  Articulate Your Theory of Change
  Create a Governance Structure

Experiments for Change

Public problem solvers use experimental and collaborative techniques to evaluate what has worked and what has not and either pivot or stay on course as a result.

READ

  Testing, Testing, Atul Gawande, "Testing, Testing," New Yorker, December 7, 2009.

watch

  Chats with Public Problem Solvers: Ali Clare
  NJ Skills Accelerator: Pilots and Evaluation

do

  Design an RCT
  The SUM Framework for Scaling Up

Writing the Killer Memo

In the land of busy people, the one-pager is the currency of the realm. Public problem solvers must know how to write a persuasive memo.

READ

  Policy Memos, "Policy Memos," Harvard Kennedy School, Fall 2012.
  Writing Studio, Policy Memo, Thompson Writing Program, "Writing Studio: Policy Memo," Duke University, accessed February 26, 2021.
  How to Format a Business Memo, Sue Fox, "How to Format a Business Memorandum," Dummies (website), accessed February 26, 2021.
  The Policy Memo, A How-To Guide, "The Policy Memo, A How-To Guide" (presentation), Princeton University, accessed February 26, 2021.
  Eight Tips for Communicating Ideas to Busy Policymakers, Lisa Witter and Odette Chalaby, "Eight Tips for Communicating Ideas to Busy Policymakers," Stanford Social Innovation Review, December 3, 2018.

watch

  Chats with Public Problem Solvers: Cyrus Habib

do

  Writing the Killer Memo, Kumar Garg, Schmidt Futures
  Dan Pink, Practicing Your Pitches, Excerpted from To Sell is Human: The Surprising Truth About Moving Others. © 2013 Daniel H. Pink