Introduction
The Pacific Wellbeing Strategy is a comprehensive strategy for Pacific People in Aotearoa NZ. Aspects of Duignan’s Fast Visual Planning for Government approach were used to support the planning, implementation, alignment, improvement and evaluation of the strategy. Pacific Wellbeing Strategy website.
Outcomes booklet
An outcomes booklet was developed which extracted the results from an extensive consultation with Pacific communities. This consultation identified the outcomes sought by Pacific communities and the steps they believe are needed to achieve these outcomes. The outcomes booklet consists of a set of strategy/outcomes diagram pages.
The outcomes booklet was published as the Pacific Wellbeing Outcomes Framework, and as a technical ‘working version’ - the Pacific Wellbeing Outcomes Booklet. Both contain the same strategy/outcomes diagram pages areas where Pacific communities are seeking outcomes (e.g. health, housing, wealth, confident youth).
The outcomes booklet included first, the outcomes being sought by Pacific communities (top image). Second, ‘Government System Shifts’ (‘Focus Areas’) (bottom image), The Government System Shifts are steps the government needs to take to support achieving the outcomes that Pacific communities are seeking.
Using the outcomes booklet to set priorities
The outcomes booklet sets out the outcomes and the steps that are needed to achieve them that are being sought by Pacific communities. In the Duignan approach, strategy/outcomes diagrams are always drawn to tell the final ‘success story’ of what the world would look like if things ultimately work out the way that people would like them to. The diagrams show the steps which would have to be achieved on the pathway to getting to the final outcomes. An outcomes booklet like this, therefore, tells a multi-year, multi-decade and sometimes multi-generational story as in the case of this outcomes booklet.
Not every box in an outcomes booklet can be worked on in any one year or other planning period. The outcomes booklet, therefore, is used to identify priorities for the planning period that you are currently in. Whoever is setting the priorities looks at all of the boxes on each page in the booklet. They then simply mark the particular boxes that they currently regard as priorities with an A, B, C or BAU (Business As Usual) ranking. Such priorities are set on the basis of which boxes still need to be done and the amount of resources available within that particular planning period to progress the specific box.
The Pacific Wellbeing Outcomes Booklet is a public document, and any group can use it for setting priorities e.g. a Pacific community organisation, a Pacific Church group, a funding agency, an NGO, local government, central government or others.
The outcomes booklet can be used to determine priorities, as discussed above. However, the success of any initiative or strategy requires three things: 1) clearly identified priorities; 2) projects or activities being tightly focused on achieving exactly those priorities (line-of-sight alignment); and 3) well-implemented projects or activities. You can have a case where there are clear priorities (1 above) plus well-implemented projects or activities (3 above). However, if these two are not aligned (2 above) you will not be using your resources in the most efficient and effective way to achieve priority outcomes as soon as possible. Line-of-sight alignment is used within the Duignan approach to make sure that the resources being used are tightly focused on priority outcomes.
Line-of-sight alignment is achieved by using the boxes in the outcomes booklet as a set of ‘standardised step and outcome statements’. Any project or activity in any area needs a clear statement of the steps and outcomes it is trying to achieve. In multi-sector strategies such as the Pacific Wellbeing Strategy, which involve many different parties working at different levels, it is usually the case that the way in which project or activity step and outcomes statements are stated varies widely. This makes it very difficult, if not nearly impossible, to quickly make sure that there is alignment between projects/activities and priority outcomes. This is because in one project or activity, an outcome may be described in one set of words, but in the case of another project, it may be described using another set of words.
This problem can be solved in this case if multiple parties decide to use the outcomes booklet as the source of all of the wording for all steps and outcomes statements for any projects or activities. This is easily done using the numbered version of the outcomes booklet. The numbered version of the outcomes booklet includes a unique number for each box in the booklet. When specifying the steps and outcomes for a project or activity focused on achieving outcomes for Pacific people the boxes from the outcomes booklet that the project or activity is focused on can simply be listed. It is fine if the project or activity also has to include outcomes statements in some other format (e.g. using the outcomes a particular funder wants used), as long as it also lists the boxes from the outcomes booklet that it is focused on.
In the Duignan approach, once a significant number of projects or activities are using standardised step and outcome statements from the booklet, then you can start to see if there is alignment to priorities within the outcomes booklet and where any gaps and overlaps lie. This is line-of-sight alignment and most robust way of making sure that all resources are being used wisely to achieve priorities.
Because the outcomes booklet is a public document, presumably any community group or other organisation can use the outcomes booklet to identify the steps and outcomes for Pacific people that its work is focusing on. If people do this, that potentially opens the way for comprehensively assessing line-of-sight alignment between the projects and activities that are being undertaken by multiple parties and the outcomes being sought by Pacific communities.