This document discusses different types of policy entrepreneurs and a self-assessment tool to help identify which type you are. The four main types are story-tellers, networkers, engineers, and fixers. It describes the characteristics of each type and their importance in influencing policy change. The assessment helps understand your strengths and weaknesses to improve your policy impact. Scoring is provided to indicate if you over-use or under-use certain styles. The document encourages finding partners with complementary strengths and rebalancing your approaches for greater policy influence.

1. TOOLS FOR POLICY IMPACT
POLICY ENTREPRENEURSHIP
Maurice Bolo, PhD
Bolo@scinnovent.org / ochibolo@gmail.com

2. TYPES OF POLICY ENTREPRENEURS
Four broad styles exist:
•Story-tellers
•Networkers
•Engineers
•Fixers
Which one are you?

3. WHICH KIND OF POLICY ENTREPRENEUR ARE YOU?
Based on a self assessment questionnaire
developed by the ODI
Helps you to capitalize on your strengths;
develop your weaknesses and improve the
policy impact of your work
Take the assessment now

4. WHAT ARE THE RESULTS?
•A low score indicates that you make extensive use
of a particular style of entrepreneurship
•A high score indicates that you make little use of a
particular style
•Most people use all the four different styles at
different times
•It is not necessary to be adept at every style
•However, under –use/over-use may mean that you
need to re-balance your styles or find partners with
compensating strengths

5. WHAT ARE THE RESULTS?
For all the questions:
•Answers for (a) correspond to story-teller
•Answers for (b) correspond to networker
•Answers for (c) correspond to engineer
•Answers for (d) correspond to fixer
–A score of 37 means you use them equally
–For each type less than 30 is low; less than 23 is very
low
–For each, more than 44 is high; more than 52 is very
high
–Remember, the total of your scores should be 150

6. STORY-TELLERS
•Story-telling is important for changing policy
•Policy makers make sense of complex realities
through simplified stories/scenarios
•NB: sometimes narratives can be misleading and
counter-narratives always emerge...but this
doesn’t diminish the importance of narratives in
shaping policy
•Some powerful narratives in the past include:
structural adjustment; debt relief as the answer to
poverty reduction; aid-for-trade etc
•Successful policy entrepreneurs need to be good
story-tellers

7. NETWORKERS
•Policymaking takes place within communities of
people who know and interact with each other
•To influence policymakers, you need to join their
networks
•You are either inside the tent or outside
•If you are inside, your voice will be heard, if you are
outside, you will not be heard
•Researchers who are good networkers are more
likely to influence policy than those who are not

8. ENGINEERS
•There often can be a huge gap between what
policy makers think they are doing and what
actually happens on the ground
•Researchers need to work not just with
senior level policymakers but also with ‘street
level bureaucrats’
•Researchers need to become practically
involved in testing their ideas if they expect
policymakers to heed their recommendations

9. THE FIXERS
•This is about understanding the policy and
political process
•Knowing when to make your pitch and to
whom
•You need to know your source of power:
Physical power; resource power; position
power; expert power; personal power etc
......Then exploit it

10. www.scinnovent.org