The Art and Craft of Policy Advising: A Practical Guide

This book offers a practical guide for policy advisors and their managers, grounded in the author’s extensive experience as a senior policy practitioner in central and local government. Effective policy advising does not proceed in ’cycles’ or neatly ordered ’stages’ and ’steps’, but is first and foremost a relationship built on careful listening, knowing one’s place in the constitutional scheme of things, becoming useful and winning the confidence of decision makers. The author introduces readers to a public value approach to policy advising that uses collective thinking to address complex policy problems; evidence-informed policy analysis that factors in emotions and values; and the practice of ’gifting and gaining’ (rather than ’trade-offs’) in collaborative governing for the long term. Theory is balanced with practical illustration and processes, tools and techniques, helping readers master the art of communicating what decision-makers need to hear, as well as what they want to hear.

David Bromell is a Senior Associate of the Institute for Governance and Policy Studies and teaches political philosophy and public policy in the School of Government at Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand. Since July 2013, he has worked as Principal Advisor, Strategic Policy, at the Canterbury Regional Council (Environment Canterbury). Previously he worked in tertiary education, the community and voluntary sector, and for ten years in policy advice roles in central government, including as acting Chief Policy Advisor at the Ministry of Social Development, 2012-13.
He has been a visiting research fellow at Victoria University of Wellington and the University of Otago, and (in 2016) at the NRW School of Governance at the University of Duisburg-Essen, Germany.