Adaptive Leadership in Development

Online Course Highlights

The University of Queensland via Edx
Learn for FREE, Up-gradable
100 hours of effort required
Skill Level: Mixed
Language: English

All graded assessment will be graded and have insightful feedback for learners to further refine their new knowledge and skills. This course is part of the Leadership in Global Development MicroMasters program. In order to get the most out of this course, we recommend that you have experience working in the development sector or a strong interest in this area.

We also recommend that you complete the other three courses that make up the Leadership in Global Development MicroMasters program: Leaders in Global Development, The Science and Practice of Sustainable Development and Critical Development Perspectives. Get access to more leadership courses with certificates from top universities.

What you’ll learn

To appreciate the fundamental mismatch between policy and practice in development
To understand the importance of having context, and in finding local solutions to local problems
Skills in adaptive development practice, in the cycles of experimentation, learning, iteration and adaptation
To discern strategies to overcome political challenges and broker new collaborations
To comprehend how to measure progress and manage performance when working adaptively
To diffuse results from practice, by taking them to scale and influencing policy

Syllabus

Module 1: How Solutions Become Problems
In this module we begin to unpack the complex nature of development problems. We will begin to see why solutions that do not take complexity into account often fail and sometimes cause harm.

Module 2: The Disconnect
Why do development interventions often fail? In Module 2 we will explore the disconnect that often exists between policy and practice, and analyse how common tools, such as logical frameworks, can add to this disconnect.

Module 3: Complexity in Development
In this module we will learn about key complexity concepts and understand how they can be used to better ‘see’ and account for complex institutional reality.

Module 4: Problem Driven Iterative Adaptation
Module 4 introduces Problem Driven Iterative Adaptation (PDIA), a framework for tackling complex problems developed by Harvard Kennedy School researchers Matt Andrews, Lant Pritchett and Michael Woolcock.

Module 5: More PDIA
PDIA is further expanded on in Module 5.

Module 6: Theory of Change and Development Evaluation
Module 6 examines some practical evaluation frameworks that can be used for monitoring and evaluating development interventions. These frameworks attempt to take complexity and systems thinking into account.

Module 7: Wicked Problems and Institutional Collaboration
In this module we look at how institutional collaboration can be used as a way of tackling wicked problems.

Module 8: Thinking and Working Politically
In Module 8 we will develop an understanding of how politics is fundamental to any societal change process.

Module 9: Leading Adaptively
In this module we will learn about the skills and knowledge you will need to be an adaptive leader and development entrepreneur.

The ‘From the Leaders’ sections in this course
We have collected some amazing interviews with practitioners worldwide who are leaders in the field of adaptive practice. Some of these are quite long, but we believe that the knowledge imparted by the leaders will be extremely valuable to your learning in this field. You will not be assessed on this content, but we encourage you to watch these and gain some really great insights into adaptive practice in the real world.