Recently, I have been meditating on the general concepts of Time, Skills, Resources, and People and how they interplay to produce desired outcomes. Initially, these thoughts were rooted in private considerations—how best to manipulate these factors for beneficial results. But, as is often the case, my reflections wandered to a familiar domain: public policy.

Having invested the last 15 years of my life working in, studying, learning within, and partnering in the area of government affairs and public policy, I can’t help but view concepts through this lens. It’s second nature for me to contextualize almost anything within the framework of public policy, whether or not they are explicitly connected. Interestingly, these four factors—Time, Skills, Resources, and People—are implied in almost every aspect of policy, yet they are rarely purposefully factored in during the pursuit of policy goals.

At a fundamental level, I believe exploring these four factors individually and applying them to public policy will be incredibly useful for anyone in this field—whether you work directly in public policy, study it academically, or intersect with it in a cross-functional capacity.

Also, since recent research suggests that the adult attention span now averages 8.25 seconds, I’ll present this exploration as a four-part series. My hope is that this structure will not only respect your time but also encourage deeper thought and engagement with each concept.