Guest Blog by Anar Azimov, LEG ’22
I have come across to the Leading Economic Growth quite by chance. We were discussing with my colleague’s various capacity building options and resources, and one of our colleagues referred to this particular course at the Harvard Kennedy School. Of course, it goes without saying that quality and professionalism of Harvard Schools is a brand. I have read about the course consulted with wide range of colleagues and made decision to take it. After the 10 weeks of course, I can confidently say that it was right decision. First of all, the curriculum, materials provided, lecturers and live Q&A sessions was very well articulated and suited for learning the content of the course.
The major takeway from the course is identification of growth challenge in my country and my job, as well as the process of development of Problem Driven Iterative Adaptation concept, fish bone exercise, economic complexity and Atlas of economic complexity, moreover the network of professional colleagues from all over the world. I have gained the insight of my current challenge which is related to the development of agricultural extension service.
At the beginning of the course I had more broad challenge which I decided to narrow down to the problem which can be solved and contribute to the more higher-level problems. Actually, I’ve identified agricultural extension as an entry point, where I could immediately start working to solve the growth problem. Instead of thinking of a policy for every cause, I narrowed my thinking down to the sub-cause which is the most promising. This entry point I can start, based on my work/capabilities and on current authority.
I will definitely employ the knowledge which I gained in the course in my work and will try to share this experience with my management colleagues and subordinates. Actually, I have already started to apply the fish bone diagram with my colleagues and they all found it quite instrumental. In fact, I will continuously refer to the material in the Canvas and ensure iteration with adaptation.
Finally, I will miss the jargon and funny comparison of serious development items with monkeys, trees and letters, which was used by our respected professors. This is good memories and in fact interesting tools to remember and simplify the complex issues.
This is a blog series written by the alumni of the Leading Economic Growth Executive Education Program at the Harvard Kennedy School. 71 Participants successfully completed this 10-week online course in May 2022. These are their learning journey stories.