Five Good Ideas to influence public policy

Five Good Ideas Podcast

In this session, originally recorded on January 26, 2022, we asked Matthew Mendelsohn, a public policy entrepreneur, researcher, strategic advisor and public sector executive, to share his five good ideas on the best ways to influence the decisions governments make.

Matthew provides an overview of lessons he has learned during his time in government, advocacy, consulting and policy think tanks.

Read the full transcript at https://maytree.com/five-good-ideas/five-good-ideas-to-influence-public-policy/.

Five Good Ideas

1. Political science matters – interests, institutions, ideas, identity, and incentives all constrain outcomes

2. Understand the political process, the bureaucratic process, and the issue

3. Relationships and trust are capital

4. Stories matter to help frame problems and solutions

5. The announcement is the end of the beginning – details and implementation matter

Resources

• David Evans and Markus Goldstein: 8 lessons on how to influence policy with evidence – from Oxfam’s experience.
• Overseas Development Institute: 10 things to know about how to influence policy with research.
• Antje Dun: How to frame issues for social change impact.
• Pedro Barata: Five Good Ideas for getting your issues on the public policy dance floor
• Sherri Torjman: Five Good Ideas about policy

About Matthew Mendelsohn

Matthew Mendelsohn is a public policy entrepreneur, researcher, strategic advisor, and public sector executive. He has been using public policy to deliver economic and social impact for 25 years. He is currently a Visiting Professor and co-founder of First Policy Response at Ryerson University in Toronto and a Senior Advisor to Boston Consulting Group’s Global Public Sector Practice.

From 2016-2020 he served as Deputy Secretary to the Cabinet in the Privy Council Office, where he led the Prime Minister’s Results & Delivery Unit and the Impact & Innovation Unit. During his time in Ottawa, he also co-led the Government of Canada data strategy, oversaw advice on digital and platform governance, and designed Impact Canada, which developed Challenges and outcomes-based funding initiatives for the government.

Prior to his role in the Privy Council Office, Matthew was the founding Director of the Mowat Centre, a public policy think tank in the School of Public Policy & Governance at the University of Toronto. During that time, he published and spoke about government transformation, democratic institutions, social and economic policy, and federalism.

Matthew is a former Deputy Minister and Associate Secretary to the Cabinet with the Ontario government and a former Senior Advisor in the federal government’s Privy Council Office where he led the polling unit. He was a chief architect of the 2015 Liberal election platform and a member of Prime Minister Trudeau’s transition team. Matthew received his B.A. from McGill University and Ph.D. from the l’Université de Montréal and held a post-doctoral fellowship at the University of British Columbia. He was a tenured faculty member in the Department of Political Studies at Queen’s University for 10 years and has been an active board member for many non-profit and charitable organizations that support community well-being, civic engagement, and economic and social inclusion.