Students [and most others as well] tend to fall into one of two broad categories of thinkers and writers: linear and nonlinear. Linear thinkers tend to solve problems by moving sequentially through a series of logical steps. Nonlinear thinkers tend to view problems configuratively, moving back and forth over steps as various pieces of the puzzle become apparent and begin to fall into place. We should stress that, for our purposes, neither is better or worse – each has its strengths and weaknesses.
Your particular weakness [or strength] may not have been revealed in other courses that were more structured and dealt with greater substantive certainty. This point is crucial. Your formal schooling has made you familiar with course assignments, especially problem sets in mathematics, statistics, and economics, where right and wrong answers can be specified. Policy analysis is never so certain. This does not mean that there are not good or bad analyses, but that your answer, the recommendation you make to a client, rarely by itself determines the quality of your analysis. Good analysis asks the right questions and creatively, but logically, answers them. The approach that you choose should allow you to eliminate, minimize, or at least mitigate your particular weaknesses in thinking and writing.
How can you diagnose your weaknesses? We have found that students who are linear thinkers and writers tend to suffer from “analysis paralysis” Linear thinkers, not surprisingly, like to start at the beginning of an analytical problem and then work step by step through to the end, following what is sometimes called a rationalist approach. If they cannot complete these steps sequentially, however, they tend to become paralyzed. In contrast, many others do not like to approach analysis sequentially. They have many ideas that they wish to get down on paper; yet they often have difficulty communicating these ideas in a well-organized, sequential mode, which, put bluntly, often results in written products that look like a regurgitated dog’s dinner.
The first meta-analysis rule is that linear thinkers should adopt nonlinear thinking strategies, while nonlinear thinkers should adopt linear writing strategies. The format of this book should assist linear thinkers in adopting a nonlinear thinking approach because it compartmentalizes the analytical process. For example, you do not need to understand the problem fully to sketch out some generic policy alternatives. The previous chapters of the book, together with the next section, should also assist nonlinear thinkers in organizing analyses so that they can be communicated more clearly. Nonlinear thinkers can, and should, continue to think nonlinearly, but they must write linearly and comprehensively. Linear thinkers, on the other hand, will find that they will be more productive and less vulnerable to analysis paralysis if they also adopt nonlinear work strategies. Therefore, the second meta-analysis rule is that analysts should simultaneously utilize linear and nonlinear modes when conducting policy analyses.
Subsequent sections of this chapter lay out the eight steps in the rationalist, or linear, mode. We label it the rationalist, rather than the rational, mode because only following this mode is unlikely to be optimally rational, Nonlinear, creative thinking can be very rational! Later, we return to how nonlinear strategies can be translated into practical techniques for conducting analysis. Before proceeding through these analytical steps, we wish to reiterate the importance of the client orientation in framing the analytical steps we subsequently discuss.
Students [and most others as well] tend to fall into one of two broad categories of thinkers and writers: linear and nonlinear. Linear thinkers tend to solve problems by moving sequentially through a series of logical steps. Nonlinear thinkers tend to view problems configuratively, moving back and forth over steps as various pieces of the puzzle become apparent and begin to fall into place. We should stress that, for our purposes, neither is better or worse – each has its strengths and weaknesses. Your particular weakness [or strength] may not have been revealed in other courses that were more structured and dealt with greater substantive certainty. This point is crucial. Your formal schooling has made you familiar with course assignments, especially problem sets in mathematics, statistics, and economics, where right and wrong answers can be specified. Policy analysis is never so certain. This does not mean that there are not good or bad analyses, but that your answer, the recommendation you make to a client, rarely by itself determines the quality of your analysis. Good analysis asks the right questions and creatively, but logically, answers them. The approach that you choose should allow you to eliminate, minimize, or at least mitigate your particular weaknesses in thinking and writing. How can you diagnose your weaknesses? We have found that students who are linear thinkers and writers tend to suffer from “analysis paralysis” Linear thinkers, not surprisingly, like to start at the beginning of an analytical problem and then work step by step through to the end, following what is sometimes called a rationalist approach. If they cannot complete these steps sequentially, however, they tend to become paralyzed. In contrast, many others do not like to approach analysis sequentially. They have many ideas that they wish to get down on paper; yet they often have difficulty communicating these ideas in a well-organized, sequential mode, which, put bluntly, often results in written products that look like a regurgitated dog’s dinner. The first meta-analysis rule is that linear thinkers should adopt nonlinear thinking strategies, while nonlinear thinkers should adopt linear writing strategies. The format of this book should assist linear thinkers in adopting a nonlinear thinking approach because it compartmentalizes the analytical process. For example, you do not need to understand the problem fully to sketch out some generic policy alternatives. The previous chapters of the book, together with the next section, should also assist nonlinear thinkers in organizing analyses so that they can be communicated more clearly. Nonlinear thinkers can, and should, continue to think nonlinearly, but they must write linearly and comprehensively. Linear thinkers, on the other hand, will find that they will be more productive and less vulnerable to analysis paralysis if they also adopt nonlinear work strategies. Therefore, the second meta-analysis rule is that analysts should simultaneously utilize linear and nonlinear modes when conducting policy analyses. Subsequent sections of this chapter lay out the eight steps in the rationalist, or linear, mode. We label it the rationalist, rather than the rational, mode because only following this mode is unlikely to be optimally rational, Nonlinear, creative thinking can be very rational! Later, we return to how nonlinear strategies can be translated into practical techniques for conducting analysis. Before proceeding through these analytical steps, we wish to reiterate the importance of the client orientation in framing the analytical steps we subsequently discuss.
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