The Registrar is on site in Wellington, New Zealand, covering key highlights and insights from CLEAR’s 8th International Congress on Professional and Occupational Regulation.
Not all regulatory problems can be solved with more inspections or stronger enforcement. At CLEAR’s International Congress, a workshop led by Adam Beaumont (Director, With Purpose Solutions) and Dr Grant Pink, (Managing Director, RECAP Consultants Pty Ltddam) showed regulators how a structured problem-solving method can shift entrenched issues and reduce harm where traditional tools have stalled.
Beaumont and Pink opened by explaining that regulatory problem solving is most effective for issues that sit “outside of business as usual,” especially when standard activities such as licensing, monitoring or enforcement have not reduced harm. They noted that the approach requires regulators to go directly to the harm, understand its underlying drivers and design targeted interventions suited to the specific issue rather than relying on broad, routine processes.
A core message throughout the session was the importance of defining the problem with real precision. Beaumont and Pink reminded participants that “clarity of the problem enables clarity of your thinking and subsequent interventions.” They shared examples demonstrating how regulators often start with challenges that are too broad to act on and how narrowing them into specific harm patterns can reveal new pathways for solutions.
Regulators then shifted into table discussions, identifying real problems from their regulatory contexts and testing whether these met the criteria for a problem-solving project. Attendees worked through whether the issue was harmful, recurring, important to the public and persisted despite normal regulatory efforts. The facilitators emphasized that meaningful problem statements usually require several rounds of refinement, noting that in longer workshops it often takes “three or four iterations before the problem is defined well enough to act on.”
The workshop also explored how many harms cross systems, sectors and jurisdictions. Regulators were encouraged to think about co-regulators and partners who could see or influence the problem. Beaumont and Pink asked attendees to consider “who else can see the problem” and “who else can help close the gap between the norm and the current reality,” pointing to the value of industry groups, not-for-profits and other organizations with behavioral influence.
Beaumont and Pink also highlighted why problem-solving efforts can sometimes stall. Common barriers include rushing to solutions, assuming the problem is already understood, lack of team commitment, and fear of failure. They noted that successful problem solving requires iteration, support, and a willingness to learn and adjust. As they put it, the approach is “not a once and done plug and play. It requires different ways of thinking, different ways of working and ongoing investment.”
This workshop provided regulators with a practical framework for rethinking persistent harms. Through collaborative exercises and guided reflection, participants explored how a targeted and well-defined problem-solving approach can lead to more meaningful, lasting reductions in harm.
Council on Licensure, Enforcement and Regulation (CLEAR) 8th International Congress on Professional and Occupational Regulation
Faciliators: Adam Beaumont
Director, With Purpose Solutions and Dr Grant Pink,
Managing Director, RECAP Consultants Pty Ltd
