Policy Development: From Inspiration to Law

Policy lends itself to an important concept called “Scale.” What starts as an idea in a person’s mind can become a law affecting millions of people. In that progression, or scale, from idea to law there are important steps and considerations, an algorithmic analysis where each question is met with a “go / no go” answer, and a “no go” answer anywhere in the decision tree can derail everything.

However, when the stars align, and the policy idea scales nicely into a law, it can seem like magic for those involved in the development of the policy.

The first step on the road of policy development is inspiration, and since inspiration is an individual phenomenon, the first step starts with one person having one thought For instance, what if that person asks themselves the question, "How can we help prevent youth brain injury?" The person will consider what laws already exist related to that question, and they'll also have to figure out what laws don't exist. Laws that already exist can be found through legal research, but non-existent laws, that's an entirely different analysis. What's not there? What's missing? These are the hard questions.

As a lawyer, I have been trained to figure out what is not there in legal documents. While a good lawyer can analyze the words on a page, a better lawyer can figure out why other words were left off that page, analyzing what’s not there as much as the written words that are.

So, it also is with policy and the originators of that policy. Instead of a contract, the policy originator sees areas where society’s rules need to be improved, or at least it would be an improvement in their eyes. And there’s one of the problems, one of the "go / no go" moments.

What is it about an individual's policy idea that makes it more, or less, likely to scale up to the local, state, or federal level? We’ve all had policy ideas that would never fly on a large-scale, societal level especially since they don’t even fly around a Thanksgiving dinner table. There are millions of different perspectives, so any idea that will successfully scale from idea to law had better speak to some sort of universal truth.

How about this for a universal truth: We need to do all we can for our children who have sustained brain injuries.

What about this one: We should work to prevent children from sustaining brain injuries.

Both universal truths are rooted in our DNA, informed by thousands of years of civilization, and critical for our future. They are truths deserving of society-wide attention, understanding, and policy.

In the case of prevention, such as with mandatory post-concussion return to play protocols for young athletes, we are endorsing the truth that the adults at the game or practice should look out for the kids. What else would we expect? And if it’s a scalable idea that return to play concussion protocols are good for some kids, then, logically, return to play concussion protocols are good for all kids.

On the other hand, there is no way we will prevent every brain injury among our kids. They will happen, and when they do, the kid will need all the help we can provide. This is where the great ideas that can scale will make huge, positive differences in the lives of those kids, launching them on a trajectory toward recovery, teaching them the strategies they can use to succeed, and fostering their potential by providing them hope for the future.

They need our help, so it’s our responsibility to scale our great policy ideas and help show them their way forward.