A Practical Guide for Policy Analysis: The Eightfold Path to More Effective Problem Solving by Eugene Bardach & Eric M. Patashnik

Author:Eugene Bardach & Eric M. Patashnik [Bardach, Eugene]
Language: eng
Format: azw3
Publisher: SAGE Publications
Published: 2015-09-08T04:00:00+00:00

People leading to people.

Often, one informant leads spontaneously to another by remarking during the course of an interview or a conversation, “Have you seen X yet? She’s very knowledgeable about...” This information can be stimulated by your asking questions such as, “Who else would be a good person to talk to about... ?” or the more specific “Who would be a good person to see in Agency Y?” For reasons of tact, you might frame the question more tentatively: “Do you think it would be advisable to talk to X—or do you think that would not be advisable?” Sometimes it is a good idea to ask the informant explicitly if his name can be used in seeking an appointment with the person he has suggested. This gives him an opportunity to protect himself if he does not want his name to be used and an opportunity to encourage name-dropping if he believes it will serve his interests. (That is, A may wish B to know that A has spoken of him as “a knowledgeable person,” or words to that effect.) Make sure that the informant provides sufficient contact information for you to locate anyone he recommends seeing.

Knowing whom to stay away from is often an important by-product of inquiries such as these. If the informant is trusting and wishes to be helpful, he may volunteer a cautionary aside such as, “If you do go to see X, you’ll probably find her reserved if not unsympathetic.” Unless X is a very important step in the developmental sequence at that moment, this may very well be a clue not to approach her until better groundwork has been laid for such a meeting. Another important by-product of such inquiries is a file of information on who is friendly, or antagonistic, to whom. Such information will be useful in constructing a map of political and administrative feasibility for any new program that you may eventually propose.

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