The Policy Entrepreneur Masterclass

Most policy professionals know how to analyse problems, but far fewer know how to make change actually happen.

This intensive one-day course on policy entrepreneurship is designed to close that gap. It equips civil servants, policy advisors, and change-makers with the practical tools to navigate complexity, influence decision-makers, and turn ideas into implemented policies.

Through interactive simulations, real-world cases, and hands-on exercises, you will learn how to identify policy windows, frame problems strategically, build coalitions, and use persuasion effectively. The course also explores how innovation and AI can support policy design and implementation in today’s fast-changing environments.

Rather than focusing on theory alone, this course provides actionable frameworks you can apply immediately in your own context. If you want to move from writing policies to shaping outcomes, this course will help you become a more effective and confident policy entrepreneur.

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What You Will Learn

By the end of the course, participants will be able to:

• Understand the role and strategies of policy entrepreneurs in different political and administrative systems

• Identify windows of opportunity and leverage policy contexts

• Design persuasive policy narratives using rhetoric and evidence

• Navigate stakeholders, coalitions, and resistance

• Apply innovation tools, including AI, to policy design and implementation

• Develop an actionable policy entrepreneurship strategy for their own context

1. Foundations of Policy Entrepreneurship

Here we build conceptual grounding and relevance:
• What is policy entrepreneurship?
• Kingdon’s Multiple Streams Framework
• Policy windows and timing
• Characteristics of policy entrepreneurs
• Individual vs collective actors
• Policy entrepreneurship across different governance systems

2. Opportunity Recognition and Policy Framing

Here we develop analytical and framing skills:
• Problem framing vs problem discovery
• Competing narratives and policy paradigms
• Agenda-setting strategies
• Identifying and exploiting policy windows

3. Persuasion, Rhetoric, and Communication

Here we strengthen influence through communication:
• Rhetorical strategies in policymaking:
Logos, ethos, pathos
• Evidence vs persuasion: when data is not enough
• Storytelling in policy
• Communicating under uncertainty

4. Stakeholder Management and Coalition Building

Here we navigate politics and build alliances:
• Stakeholder mapping (power, interest, position)
• Coalition building strategies
• Managing resistance and opposition
• Political astuteness and bureaucratic navigation

5. Innovation, Change Management, and AI in Policy

Here we equip participants with innovation tools:
• Policy innovation vs policy transfer
• Change management in public organisations
• The role of AI in policy analysis, stakeholder engagement, and scenario simulation
• Risks and limitations of AI in policy

6. Integrated Simulation: Acting as a Policy Entrepreneur

Here we apply all concepts in a realistic scenario. Participants work in small groups on a policy challenge scenario.