(2023-06-14) Davies Why And When What Works Wont Part2

Dan Davies: why and when what works won't (part 2). This might be one of the factors behind the often disappointing performance of “evidence based” initiatives. Starting out with a mission statement to “do what works” often means failing to follow the Sparrow sequence of actions (identify a problem – gather evidence to understand it – solve the problem – tell everyone what you did). (2023-05-10 DaviesWhyWhenWhatWorksWontPart1)

It’s a great idea, in principle to try and take successes and do more of the same sort of thing, but the implication of Sparrow’s work is that this isn’t a good idea in problem-oriented contexts. It’s more suited to regular, “operational” activities

But problems are almost always problems because they are things which are not being handled well by the current control environment

Sparrow’s work on problem-oriented regulation is meant to tackle what he sees as the big conundrum; that the amount of regulation in society keeps expanding, but the increase in the perceived burden doesn’t seem to deliver any decrease in the perceived useful results.

my favourite part of “The Regulatory Craft” is the bit where he explains why his solutions don’t work either.

The basic issue is that it is very difficult to be the kind of organisation that can regularly and systematically take a problem-oriented approach.

the rest of the sequence will probably require an organisational form which doesn’t respect your own current systems and ways of working.

Consequently, it’s a model which requires constant regular reorganisations

A problem-oriented regulator is going to look like it has a lot of waste and inefficiency in it.