Canadian Government Executive - Volume 24 - Issue 07

38 / Canadian Government Executive // February/March 2019 MIDDLE MANAGEMENT F our centuries ago, William Shakespeare would have ap- proved. He appreciated the co- medic twists in real-life events. His masterful folio of plays constantly explored the role of worldly circumstance and probed the mysteries of human behaviour. For example, Ham- let’s immortal words observed: “There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophy.” There are dozens of popular techniques for analyzing situations, problems, deci- sions, and their implications and impact in public policy and administration. They are often used in combination to com- plete the analysis required. They remind us of the need to analyze and not just to describe things. Analytical frameworks separate the masters of change manage- ment from pedestrian practitioners. Theory of Change Theory of Change is a results-based ap- proach to strategic management com- monly used to design and mount in- ternational development projects. It is comprised of interconnected building blocks: goal, purpose, outcomes, outputs, activities, inputs. The vertical logic shows project intent and causal relationships. The horizontal logic reveals project mea- surement, sources, and verification. Theory of Change illustrates compre- hensively how and why desired change is expected to happen in a particular context. It is focused on mapping the ‘missing middle’ between what a change initiative does (its activities or interven- tions) and how these lead to achieving desired goals. It first identifies the de- sired long-term goals and then works backwards to identify the conditions (outcomes) that must be in place and how they relate to one another causally for the goals to occur. Logical frameworks map the activities or interventions that lead to the outcomes identified as preconditions for achieving long-term goals. Logistical frameworks allow the precise linkages between activ- ities and achievement of long-term goals to be more fully understood. Better plan- Mastering change By John Wilkins That is one magic loogie! — SEINFELD (1992): SEASON 3, EPISODE 17, THE BOYFRIEND: PART 1 The “Magic Loogie” scene is vintage Seinfeld. It is a pastiche of Oliver Stone’s 1991 classic film JFK. It parodies the CIA’s flimsy magic- bullet theory, trumped up to explain away the 1963 assassination of President Kennedy. Jerry’s magic-loogie theory is a master class in scientific analysis.