IPAC National Leadership Conference – Part 1

Sorry about the delay in posting but I have been recuperating from the leadership conference last Thursday and Friday that was then followed by the IPAC Board of Directors meeting on Saturday and Sunday. I’ve been trying to catch up on a number of things this week.

Anyway, we held a very successful leadership conference on December 6th & 7th here in Toronto. The agenda was packed with incredible speakers who have had experience leading organizations in the public and private sector. If I wrote about what every speaker said, I would be writing a book on leadership!! That’s not a bad idea, but I think I will save that ambitious endeavour to another time and mind-space. Instead, I will focus on just a few of the speakers and what they said in this post and I will add other posts in the future about some of the other speakers.

For those who missed the conference, you missed a fantastic event – that’s not just me saying that. I had one of the participants say to me that “this is the best conference I’ve been to in 15 years”. He said I could quote him, so thank you Steve Burnett from the Ontario Ministry of Transportation for that quote!

The conference started off with a talk by Jean-René Halde, the head of the Business Development Bank of Canada. Mr. Halde has experience in both the public and private sector. He spoke on the three levels of leadership – Societal, Institutional and Personal. Most of his discourse was focused on institutional leadership. In these rapidly changing times, where globalization is impacting everything we do and where skills are commodities, Mr. Halde laid out 12 tools that he has used in his leadership of organizations. This includes the ability to listen to employees and the market; having a clear mandate for the organization; a value system; a code of conduct and ethical behaviour; hiring practices and a competency model that codifies behaviour; training; succession planning and career planning and a corporate scorecard. On the personal leadership front, Mr. Halde said it was time to discard the notion of the “heroic” leader and focus on the ability to solve problems, to listen, to combine strategic, financial and policy analysis and to communicate both verbally and non-verbally. He spoke about the need to build leadership capacity and to enhance the ability to collaborate. To enhance collaboration, Mr. Halde laid out 5 points: 1) know yourself and remain yourself – be transparent; 2) make sure your employees understand their task; 3) foster collaboration by allowing disagreement and discussion; 4) Organizational goals are what really matters; and 5) Use the right sequence of questions – What, Why, How and Who.

The closing speaker that day was Margaret Bloodworth, who is the National Security Advisor to the Prime Minister and Associate Secretary of Cabinet. Mrs Bloodworth spoke about her experiences leading the Department of Transport on 9/11 and the role of Canada in evacuating Canadian citizens from Lebanon in the summer of 2006. What incredible leadership! As a fall-out of 9/11, the skies were closed in both Canada and the US. This meant that 33,000 passengers en route to the US were diverted to Canadian airports. Communities all across Canada showed what they were made of during these events, including Stephenville, Newfoundland that screened 1700 passengers versus their normal load of 37 passengers per day! Mrs Bloodworth laid out some of the leadership lessons that she has retained from these events: 1) Leadership can be found and demonstrated at all levels not just at the senior levels; 2) Planning matters – the act of planning creates structures and processes that quickly come together at the time of a crisis; 3) Build relationships before a crisis – this creates understanding and trust - a crisis is not the time to get to know your colleagues; 4) No one can do it alone – listen to others and work with them; 5) Leadership is knowing when to decide – you can’t wait to gather all the information before making decisions. What a powerful speech!

There are a few more speakers that I want to highlight – in my next post – people such as, Roméo Dallaire, John Furlong (CEO of the Vancouver Olympics), Shelly Jamieson (the newly named Ontario Secretary of Cabinet) and Neil Hetherington (CEO of Habitat for Humanity – Toronto). Stay tuned.....hope the suspense is not too much for you!

Public Policy vs. Public Administration

From time to time I get into a debate with people about the respective roles of public policy and public administration. There is a view that the two fields are separate ones and that the more “glamorous” one is public policy. This view holds that you can separate the study of one from the other. This is the silo-based view that results in statements such as “the policy was great but they couldn’t implement it” or “the implementation was well done but the policy did not make sense”. These are the battles one hears between “policy shops” and “operational shops”.

There is another view, which I hold, that the two are inextricably linked and that the public good is best achieved when both are equally considered in achieving government goals and objectives. This means that as we teach the next generation of public servants we should be teaching policy development, risk management, social policy, human resource management, etc.

As I was thinking about this, I remembered one of the classic episodes from “Yes, Minister” about Government Policy. In this clip, Sir Humphrey is called in front of a Parliamentary Committee to answer questions on a government policy. His view is that the Minister answers questions about policy, while the civil service answers questions about administration.

Go to the video here http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dIto5mwDLxo

Renewal of the Public Service – Part Deux

So here is the continuation of my synopsis of the 6th Annual CSPS-CAPPA Symposium that I attended recently. In the last entry I blogged about the work being undertaken by Ian Green. Today’s blog will focus (as much as I can focus, that is) on some of the questions that were discussed about the public service and renewal. The focus of the discussion was on the Federal Public Service.

Q1: Is the public service excellent now? Organizations are very good at blowing their own horn and calling themselves the “best” in the world, in their field, in the universe, in history, etc. But what criteria do we use to judge the performance of governments (apart from the periodic assessment of the voters)? In general, across Canada, the public service is relatively good at routine processes such as the collection of taxes. The Public Service, by and large, is also relatively good at dealing with a crisis – think of the Ice Storm in Eastern Canada or the Red River flooding. There are those who believe that the public service is not so good at the horizontal integration/collaboration needed to deal with complex issues today. And as in most large organizations, some governments are not really good at change.

Q2: How will the Federal Public Service evolve over the next 10 -20 years? There were a range of possibilities discussed – from the narrow focus on federal constitutional responsibilities to a larger role. Citizens expect that governments will work together to deliver services. They really have no patience for jurisdictional finger-pointing. Concepts like Biz-Pal that integrates services from all three orders of government are what citizens are seeking.

Q3: What is the role of the Public servant in relation to Ministers and other elected officials and political staff? The traditional bargain that has underpinned the Westminster model in Canada is changing. The roles of each of the players are overlapping more than they did in the past. Some argue that the “accounting officer” concept that is contained in the Federal Accountability Act is adding to that blurring. As well, given the increased scope and pace of government and the myriad and complexity of issues that government now deals with, some have argued that the traditional bargain is a quaint but outmoded concept and that a new relationship is evolving.

Q4: What will the characteristics of the ideal employee be in 10-20 years? The rapid evolution of knowledge and technology; the instant access to information; the horizontal nature of issues all mean that new employees must be very adaptable and at ease with technology and working with partners both inside and outside the organization. It also means that employees must have a balance between the specialist with in-depth knowledge and the generalist, who can pull together different steams of information.

Q5: Should the current career model (life-long employment) be retained? Demographic changes will mean that in likelihood Canada, like the rest of the industrialized world, will experience more jobs than people. As well, Generation Y-ers (see previous blog on “People & Organization Performance”) are more likely to want to go off for a year or two to gain different experiences. This means that employers, especially governments, must be more flexible in their human resources approaches. Governments must be prepared to allow employees to take a leave of absence for a period of time or even allow for employees to leave for a few years and come back later in their career. They must also make it easier for mid-career professionals to join the public service and give them the supports they need to thrive in the public service culture.

There is a major generational change just around the corner – at the Federal level the average age of a Deputy Minister is 54, ADMs – the successor group, has an average age of 53, while middle executives average age is 51. The entry level executive group’s average age is 50 and the feeder group average age is 47.6. Assuming a retirement age of 65, this means that the feeder group will have retired in less than 20 years.

These are all very interesting questions and there a many more as the public service contemplates it future.

As a final point I want to quote Gaius Petronius Arbiter a Roman Satirist ( 210 BC): “We trained hard, but it seemed that every time we were beginning to form up into teams, we would be reorganized. I was to learn later in life that we tend to meet any new situation by reorganizing; and a wonderful method it can be for creating the illusion of progress while producing confusion, inefficiency, and demoralization.”

People & Organization Performance

Well, as I promised in my blog entry on "Evidence Based Policy Making", I have finally written up my talk to the Deloitte Public Sector Leadership Day in the form of an "Executive Brief" that I have posted on the IPAC website at Executive Briefs . In this paper I deal with issues that all governmental organizations will face in the future as they try to meet citizen expectations. More than in the private sector, government organizations will have to deal with the demographic time bomb as well as the more complex nature of its human resource make up. As a result of these demographics, we are going to be seeing more generations working in the same organization at the same time. The culture and experiences of the Y Generation is different than the ones that preceeded them. I hope you enjoy the paper & let me know what you think!

Renewal of the Public Service

I attended the CSPS-CAPPA 6th annual symposium in Ottawa last Thursday and Friday – for those who are acronym challenged CSPS= Canada School of Public Service and CAPPA=Canadian Association of Programs in Public Administration. One of the major topics of the session was the future of the federal public service. Ian Green, of the Public Policy Forum (or PPF in acronym) and Jim Lahey from PCO (or Privy Council Office) presented on this topic. Ian is leading the study on Canada’s public service in the 21st Century while Jim is leading the newest public service renewal exercise for the federal government.

Having participated in one of the PPF roundtables a few months ago, it was interesting to hear about the status of the project. A number of trends form the context of the work undertaken by the PPF, among them are the changing demographics in Canada, the increased requirements for Transparency and Accountability, changing technology and the open-sourcing of policy by governments. We have all heard or read about the demographic trends in Canada (if you haven’t I will soon be posting a paper on this on the IPAC website) and what they mean for the future. There are those who believe that we are moving to an era of too few people chasing many jobs which shifts the dynamic between employers and employees. Basically, there are three broad areas that people have identified as key – 1) Leadership; 2) Accountability and 3) Organizational Culture. Not surprisingly, senior public servants are finding that most of their time is being taken in managing the “crisis du jour” and they are not spending enough time managing the organization and leading change. A number of challenges were raised in terms of the leadership needed now and in the future that relate to the skill set of senior management. In the past many people rose from policy positions to be Deputy Ministers. The new skills needed include strategic management skills, human resource skills, financial skills, communication skills, change management skills, public engagement/ stakeholder management skills, just to name a few. How does government ensure that people are well rounded as they move up to senior management positions?

At the same time there is an incredible “churn” at the senior levels. According to a Public Service Commission of Canada report, 50% of EX’s changed positions in the last year. Given that the average tenure in a senior position is shorter than the learning curve to become fully effective how can we expect government to be innovative? At the same time governments have seen a hollowing out of their policy capacity. Do they have the expertise to develop new ground breaking policy nowadays? There are many think tanks and one-issue organizations that can put together in-depth analysis of a policy issue from one point of view. What they lack and what government should excel at is joining all the dots in terms of developing a coherent policy that links, in a collaborative way, the many societal players that deal with the issue identified.

Well that’s all for this blog entry, though I will continue on this topic in my next blog entry and will write about some key questions that were raised about the future of the public service.

Shift Happens/Did You Know 2.0

A second Blog entry in one day – what’s the world coming to?? A friend of mine mentioned a video that has been seen by over 3 million people (in its various versions) in the last 9 months. The video is entitled “Shift Happens” and asks some fundamental questions about the future and provides some startling information. Its purpose is to elicit the participation of people to come up with a system of education for our children that prepares them for the 21st century. Along with the video is a Wiki to give people a forum for discussion and collaboration. Though the video is aimed at the US, there are parallels for Canada. Education is the great leveler in society, and to compete in the new economy our education system must meet the challenge.

Go here to view video
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pMcfrLYDm2U

Evidence Based Policy Making

I had the pleasure of attending the Deloitte Public Sector Leadership Forum on November 13, 2007 as a guest speaker (more about my talk later). One of the other guest speakers was Darrell Bricker, President and COO for Public Affairs of Ipsos Reid. Darrell is co-author (with Edward Greenspon) of a very interesting book that came out a few years ago entitled “Searching for Certainty: Inside the New Canadian Mindset” and a more recent one with John Wright entitled “What Canadians Think (about Almost Everything)”.

In his talk, Darrell spoke about the increasing importance of “evidence” in the development of government policy and in program evaluation. There are three underlying trends that one should be cognizant of:

1) The decline in public trust – not only in government, but in all institutions and organizations. Gone are the days when government could get away with saying to citizens “trust us”. Trust is now situational and has to be earned every time. It can also vanish very rapidly.

2) The rise of the knowledge consumer/citizen – people are not only more educated but they also have available at their fingertips a vast reservoir of human knowledge (thru the Web). People are more likely to challenge authority figures as they too have access to the same knowledge.

3) Searching for Certainty – Canadians are looks for the right answers to questions. They want to be certain about the solutions.

Darrell spoke about the “Rules of the Road” for navigating the new Canadian mindset. Fundamentally as I stated above, it is all about Trust. Citizens will judge the credibility of the sources of information and will seek what is called “trust marks” in judging the quality of the information provided. As part of this, citizens are demanding higher levels of accountability from their governments. This is why governments must move to “evidence based” policy making. As governments move to an “outcome” focus the accumulation of this evidence in an unbiased form that is readily available to citizens becomes more and more crucial not only in helping shape new policies and programs but also in evaluating the effectiveness of existing policies and programs.

In part of my talk I spoke about the massive demographic shifts that Canada will be experiencing in the next 25 years. I was therefore quite interested to hear Darrell speak of Multiculturalism as the new demographic Mega-trend. He also noted that governments are unprepared to deal with this Mega-trend. I will shortly put my speech up on the IPAC site – watch for it.

The Best Laid Plans

I just finished reading a wonderful book for anyone interested in Canadian politics, government, well-written prose and relaxing with a good book.

The book in question is called "The Best Laid Plans" by Terry Fallis. It is Mr. Fallis' first novel and frankly I could not put it down.

It is the story of a disillusioned and burned out political staffer in Ottawa who teams up with a one of kind maverick who reluctantly agrees to run as the Liberal candidate in a riding that has always elected Conservatives. I don't want to spoil the story so I won't get into too many details. The novel is funny, well written and insightful.

My fellow bus passengers must have thought I was crazy laughing out loud at a particular passage that described the dalliance between our hero's then girlfriend and her boss! In between the laughs,the wonderful prose and imagery there are serious issues raised about the role of the elected official in our modern democratic institutions. I heartily recommend this book. You can visit Terry's website athttp://www.terryfallis.com/ to listen to the podcast of the book and to find a list of bookstores where you can purchase the book.

Happy Birthday Ryerson

Yesterday I had the pleasure of attending a celebration of 45 years of teaching public administration at Ryerson University.

It was a great event that started with a panel speaking about public administration in general and the Ryerson program in particular. Among the panelists were NDP leader and former prof at Ryerson, Jack Layton; the 2007 Pierre de Celles award winner Paul Thomas from the University of Manitoba; Marg Rapapolt, the Deputy Minister of Aboriginal Affairs from the Government of Ontario; and 2 graduates from the Ryerson program. The two graduates spoke about Ryerson's unique approach to connecting to the community in offering their programs.

Ryerson Prez Sheldon Levy then introduced one of the original profs in the program and later Chancellor of the University, also former mayor of Toronto, Federal MP and Cabinet Minister (and many more titles) David Crombie. Mr. Crombie gave an off the cuff speech about how he started at Ryerson - teaching sociology, something he knew nothing about. His students quickly asked him to teach them how city hall worked. The rest is history as they say! Mr. Crombie's speech was entertaining and I am always amazed at how some people can, without any notes, give a wonderful speech.

It was a great afternoon - Congratulations to Ryerson University!!

Freedom of Information & Transparency

For the third consecutive year, the Canadian Newspaper Association has conducted a survey of the ability of individuals to access information at various governmental offices - at the municipal, provincial and federal levels. Once again this year, they found too many cases of government employees not being forthcoming with the information, and in some cases being obstructionist.

In a democracy that espouses the principles of transparency and openness in government, the publics right to know should be paramount. It is the foundation of our democratic society. Frankly, a citizen should not have to file a freedom of information request to obtain basic information. It is the duty of all civil servants to quickly and expeditiously provide this information to the public. Even if the information in question makes the government "look bad", this information must not be with-held. It is only with complete information that citizens can hold government accountable. It is only with complete information - the good, the bad and the ugly- that organizations can learn, improve and innovate.

Based on the results of this annual survey, we obviously have a long way to go in Canada. At the same time, public servants must guard against not providing their recommendations on paper. Too many times, oral briefings/discussions are being substituted for the traditional briefing note. The historical record of the wherefores and the whys of government decisions are important to understand the context of a decision. We should not be afraid of documenting these. So what do you think about this issue?

Joyeux Anniversaire, Ryerson !

Hier, j’ai eu le plaisir d’assister à une célébration des 45 années d’enseignement de l’administration publique à l’Université Ryerson.

Ce fut un événement très intéressant qui a commencé par un panel traitant de l’administration publique en général et du programme de Ryerson en particulier. Parmi les panélistes, on comptait le chef du PND et ancien professeur à Ryerson, Jack Layton ; le récipiendaire du Prix IAPC/Pierre-De-Celles de 2007, Paul Thomas, de l’Université du Manitoba ; Marg Rapapolt, sous-ministre des Affaires indiennes au gouvernement de l’Ontario ; et deux diplômés du programme de Ryerson. Les deux diplômés ont parlé de l’approche unique de Ryerson de connecter la communauté par les programmes qu’elle lui offre.

Le président de Ryerson Sheldon Levy a ensuite présenté l’un des premiers professeurs du programme et le dernier chancelier de l’université, également un ancien maire de Toronto, député fédéral et ministre du cabinet (et bien d’autres titres), David Crombie. M. Crombie a fait un discours impromptu sur ses débuts à Ryerson – son enseignement de la sociologie, dont il ne connaissait rien. Ses étudiants lui ont vite demandé de leur enseigner les rouages de la mairie. Le reste est une histoire ancienne, comme ils disent ! Le discours de M. Crombie était divertissant et l’aisance avec laquelle certaines personnes parviennent, sans aucunes notes, à faire un magnifique discours, m’étonne toujours.

Ce fut un après-midi des plus agréables – Félicitations à l’Université Ryerson !

Donner l'heure juste

La semaine dernière, les Canadiens et Canadiennes ont vu les titres criards à propos de Élections Canada autorisant les femmes musulmanes portant le niqab/le voile ou la burqa à voter sans montrer leur visage au directeur du scrutin. Nous avons vu les politiciens de l’ensemble des principaux partis et plusieurs chroniqueurs faire des reproches à Élections Canada et exiger que Marc Maynard, le président général des élections, comparaisse devant un comité parlementaire pour expliquer pourquoi il permettait ce genre de vote. Après tous ces titres et gesticulations, on penserait que M. Maynard, un fonctionnaire de carrière, avait agi de bon gré en jugeant que les femmes musulmanes qui portaient le voile ou une burqa pouvaient voter sans montrer leur visage. Mais, M. Maynard faisait tout simplement son travail de fonctionnaire – il conseillait les autorités en toute conscience, informant les politiciens de ce que la loi disait en réalité. Le Parlement a amendé la Loi électorale au printemps et ces amendements permettent de voter sans avoir à montrer son visage. En fait, on a dit aux politiciens qu’il en était ainsi et que cela ne modifiait pas la loi. De même, depuis de nombreuses années à présent, on peut voter par correspondance. Vous êtes-vous jamais demandé comment on montre son visage en passant par le système postal ?

Plusieurs commentaires affichés par des Canadiens sur des sites Web demandent pourquoi un fonctionnaire ignorerait les désirs de « ses boss ». Bien, la réponse est très simple…le fait de faire observer la loi du pays surpasse toujours les desirata des « boss ».

Speaking Truth to Power

In the last week, Canadians have seen screaming headlines about Elections Canada allowing Muslim women with niqab/veils or wearing burka’s to vote without showing their face to the returning officer. We have seen politicians from most of the major parties and some columnists castigate Elections Canada and demand that the Marc Maynard, the Chief Electoral Officer appear in front of a parliamentary committee and answer why he would allow this kind of voting. After all the headlines and posturing, one would think that Mr. Maynard, a career civil servant, was acting of his own volition in ruling that Muslim women who wore veils or a burka be allowed to vote without showing their face. But Mr. Maynard was only doing his job as a civil servant – he was speaking truth to power, telling politicians what the law actually said. The Elections Act was amended by Parliament in the spring and those amendments allow for voting without showing one’s face. In fact, the politicians were told that was the case and did not amend the law. As well, for many, many years now, one could vote by mail. Wonder how one shows their face via the postal system?

A number of comments posted by Canadians in some websites are asking why a public servant would disregard the wishes of “his bosses”. Well, the answer is very simple….upholding the law of the land trumps the wishes of the “bosses” every time.

L’accès à l’information et la transparence

Pour la troisième année consécutive, l’Association canadienne des journaux a conduit un sondage concernant la capacité des gens d’accéder à l’information de divers bureaux gouvernementaux – aux paliers municipal, provincial et fédéral. À nouveau cette année, elle a trouvé un nombre important de cas où les employés publics ne sont pas communicatifs à propos de l’information et, parfois même, se montrent obstructionnistes.

Dans une démocratie qui épouse les principes de la transparence et l’ouverture d’esprit, il semblerait primordial que le public ait le droit de savoir. C’est le fondement de notre société démocratique. Franchement, un citoyen ne devrait pas avoir à remplir une demande d’accès à l’information pour obtenir de simples renseignements. C’est le devoir de tous les fonctionnaires de fournir rapidement et dans les meilleurs délais ces renseignements au public. Même si les renseignements en question ne donnent pas une bonne impression du gouvernement, ils ne doivent pas être dissimulés. Ce n’est qu’avec toute l’information que les citoyens peuvent tenir responsable le gouvernement. Ce n’est qu’avec toute l’information – la bonne, la mauvaise et la laide – que les organismes peuvent tirer des leçons, s’améliorer et innover.

D’après les résultats du sondage de cette année, nous avons visiblement bien du chemin à faire au Canada. Néanmoins, les fonctionnaires doivent se garder de ne pas fournir leurs recommandations par écrit. Trop souvent, les discussions ou rapports verbaux remplacent la note documentaire traditionnelle. Le dossier historique des aboutissants et des tenants des décisions gouvernementales est important pour comprendre le contexte d’une décision. Nous ne devrions pas craindre de les documenter. Et vous, qu’avez-vous à dire à ce sujet ?

All aBoard

I along with three other people, including Senator Hugh Segal, were appointed to the Board of the Institute for Clinical Evaluative Sciences (www.ices.on.ca). Since its inception in 1992, ICES has played a key role in providing unique scientific insights to help policymakers, managers, planners, practitioners and other researchers shape the future direction of the Ontario health care system. Their unbiased, evidence-based knowledge and recommendations, profiled in atlases, investigative reports, and peer-reviewed journals, are used to guide decision-making and inform changes in health care delivery.

Given my interest in Health Care - from both my work in the scientific field (my first degree was in Biology - Human Genetics) and my work at the Ontario Ministry of Finance, this appointment is a natural fit. I'm looking forward to my fisrt Board meeting next week and will let you know about any interesting developments. In a future blog I might even relate my past research on osteporosis using beagles to public management & administration (might be a stretch, but I'll find some link!)

All Good Things Must Come to an End

Well, it is a few days after the end of the 2007 IPAC Annual Conference in friendly Winnipeg, Manitoba. As promised here is my post on the last day of the conference.

The day started out early again with a meeting of the Board of the IPAC Endowment Fund at 7:30 am. Maria-David Evans (DM in Alberta) was chosen as the President of the Endowment Fund and I was appointed Secretary/Treasurer. For those of you who don’t know (that would probably be most of you) the Endowment Fund is a registered charity that is utilized to fund the Pierre de Celles award, the Student Thought Leadership award and now the annual Galimberti lecture. With our new site we will be adding more about the Fund and be asking IPACers to donate to continue with these endeavors and a number of new ideas.

The 3rd day of the conference started with a re-cap of the previous days activities by the MC (me again, just in case you have not read the previous posts). After that erudite compilation of the events, the session heard from Gilles Paquet on “Accountability in a Fishbowl”. Gilles is my former dean when I was at the University of Ottawa @ the Faculty of Administration (now called the Telfer School of Management). He is also a prolific writer and commentator on television. What a speech – if you were not there you missed a very provocative, thought-provoking view of the ills that have gripped some of our accountability mechanisms, with the over reliance on rules, rules and more rules. In no way could I do justice to the arguments put forward by Prof Paquet. The talk left the room quite energized.

Following this performance, Maurice Boisvert, president of the Institute of Public Administration of Quebec invited delegates to the 2008 IPAC Conference that will take place in Quebec City. It will be the 60th annual IPAC conference (the first was held in Quebec City), the 100th anniversary of the Public Service Commission of Canada and the 400th anniversary of the founding of Quebec City!! There will be a lot to celebrate….book early!

The next session featured a panel on “Building Trustworthy, Accountable and Responsive Government”. The panel was moderated by David Zussman (also from the University of Ottawa and an IPAC Board member) and featured Peter Aucoin, Ruth Hubbard, Howard Pawley and Vice Chief Glen Pratt.

Then it was time for the closing banquet and the announcement of the winners of the 2007 IPAC Awards for Innovative Management that are sponsored by KPMG and IBM Canada. The audience tensed up as the moment arrived….the BRONZE award went to LearnNow BC (BC Education)…..the SILVER went to Nunavut Community Skills Information System (Nunavut Education)…..and the GOLD went to……wait for it……Provincial Wait Times Information System (Cancer Care Ontario). Congratulations to all the participants and to the three winning entries!! You can see a list of all the submissions by going to the awards page of this website and the press release is on the Media page. The presentations from the top three can be found on the Winnipeg conference website.

After lunch, Jacques Bourgault, Professor at UQAM and a past IPAC president gave the inaugural Galimberti lecture. The topic was the evolving role of Deputy Ministers. We will soon be posting the full speech by Prof Bourgault, so watch for it – it was a tour de force.

Sadly, we then turned to the closing remarks. We had a number of speakers addressing the delegates: Debra Woodgate, Carol Layton, Lloyd Axworthy and Jules Lavalee. And, Paul Thomas gave an insightful synopsis of the conference.

Then the MC took the stage…..see you next year in Quebec City!

I want to take this opportunity to publicly thank Debra Woodgate and her team for putting on an incredible conference. Putting on a conference of this magnitude and scope takes an incredible amount of time, energy, planning and caffeine! As a green conference it was great going to the cybercafé and down loading the presentations on the memory stick (you can go to the Conference Website as well) as opposed to lugging home the equivalent of a couple of trees of paper home. The sessions were informative and varied, the social activities were wonderful, the food was great, the organization was superb, the volunteers were friendly and helpful and I think that I speak for all the delegates when I say…..Job well done!

To Debra, Christina, Heather, Nick (my bodyguard!), Diana, Angie, Cheryl, Troy, Matt, Melanie, John, Joan, Kim, and everyone on the different committees and volunteers…thank you!

Another Great Day at 2007 IPAC Annual Meeting

Today got off to an energizing start with a New Professionals Breakfast at 7:00 am. Yes, you read that right - 7:00 am. The session was organized by New Professionals and provided them an opportunity to meet and discuss issues with senior public servants, otherwise known as "experienced" public servants. The session was a two-way learning experience and there was lots of discussion on key questions such as how does one acquire political acumen, how do you deal with requests from on-high that don't really make sense, and what is the best piece of advice that someone gave you as you progressed in your career.

We then moved on to the Opening Remarks from the illustrious MC (me!) who tried his best to recap the previous day's activities and then introduced the 2 keynote speakers for the first plenary sessions on "Service Delivery in a Networked Public Sector". The delegates heard from Alan Latourelle, CEO of Parks Canada and Beth Bell, partner IBM Global Business Services. The presentation by Beth was quite interesting as it addressed IBM's own transformation and how they applied those experiences to their advisory services including for Service Canada and Service BC.

The concurrent sessions on public service delivery were all well attended. The adjudicated paper session on Horizontal Policy was so well attended that the session had to be moved to bigger meeting room.

The keynote speaker in the afternoon, Chief Ovide Mercredi spoke with passion about the issues that affect the aboriginal community and the way that successive governments have ignored the promises made in signed treaties. The afternoon concurrent sessions on challenges and opportunities in a networked age were also very well attended.

The presentations of the finalists for the 2007 IPAC Award for Innovative Management featured 3 incredibly innovative and creative initiatives. The theme for this year's award is "New Service Breakthroughs with Technology". The award is co-sponsored by KPMG and IBM, Canada. The 3 finalists are LearnNow BC, from BC Education, the Provincial Wait Times Information Systems fronm Cancer Care Ontario and the Nunavut Community Skills Information System from Nunavut Education. You can read the backgrounders on the finalists on our website. The Gold, Silver and Bronze award winners will be announced at the Wednesday Luncheon.

The highlight of the day was the President's reception and Banquet. We were honoured to have the Lt. Governor of Manitoba, the Honourable John Harvard and Her Honour Lenore Berscheid attend the Banquet. Other distinguished guests included Paul Vogt, Manitoba's top civil servant, Howard Pawley, former Premier of Manitoba and Lloyd Axworthy, President of the University of Winnipeg. The meal was extraordinary!! After the meal, the awards part of the evening began with the Parenteau award for the best French language article in CPA in 2006 go to Lise Prefontaine and the Hodgetts award for the best English language article in CPA in 2006 going to Ian Clark and David Trick.

Carol Layton then announced that our highest award, the Vanier Medal was awarded to the late Joe Galimberti. Carol Galimberti and Tony Galimberti received the award on behalf of her husband and his father.

The formal part of the evening continued with a speech by Carol Layton on her last year and an introduction of IPAC's new president, Louis Borgeat. Louis then had the opportunity to toast Carol and to highlight his priorities for the next year. Look for an article by Louis in October's issue of PSM.

Once again, the Manitoba organizing committee went above and beyond the call of duty. It was another fantastic day of thought provoking presentations, discussions and networking. Kudos to Manitoba!!

It's close to 1:00 am now and as don't seem to have as much energy as I did when I was younger it is time for me to sign-off. Don't miss my final post on Wednesday night/early Thursday on the last day of the conference.

Making Connections

The first full day of the 2007 IPAC National Conference started today. The day got off to a good start when the MC called the meeting to order. Since I am the MC for this conference, I guess I am rating my own performance here. The distinguished guests at the opening session were piped in by a bag-piper. The 560 delegates heard welcome messages from Dr. Lloyd Axworthy, Honourary Chair of the Conference; Carol Layton, IPAC President; Vic Toews, President of the Treasury Board, Government of Canada; Greg Selinger, Minister of Finance, Government of Manitoba; Annita Stenning, CAO, City of Winnipeg; and Jules Lavallee, Conference Elder. I had the opportunity of introducing each of the special guests who were seated on comfortable armchairs on the stage. As there was no chair for me, I got my workout by climbing onto the raised platform to introduce each guest. Felt a little like a pop-up doll.

The conference then heard from Bill Eggers of Deloitte who spoke about public service in a networked aged. Essentially he spoke about the need for collaborative government. Part of his talk on how Proctor & Gamble are leveraging ideas reminded me of Don Tapscott's book entitled Wikinomics. He also spoke about engaging front line people and citizens to obtain solutions to issues rather than using one or two experts. This reminded me of the Open Space concept. The key for governments in the future is how to use the new web technology and other tools to engage stakeholders and citizens in policy development. I think that we have a long way to go in most Canadian jurisdictions in opening up the policy development process.

The 5 concurrent sessions on Governance Models were well attended. I dropped by the one on P3's but is was overflowing so I went to the adjudicated paper session which turned out to be very interesting.

Over lunch, the Group Excellence award was handed out to the Nova Scotia Regional Group and the Pierre de Celles teaching award was presented to Paul Thomas. Dr. Axworthy then spoke about the need for public servants to globally engage in issues.

In the evening, delegates attended the "It's a Prairie Party" at the Centre Culturel Franco-Manibotain. We had a wide varity of food - Ukrainian, Oriental, Italian, Aboriginal & a dessert buffet. We were also entertained by the Walking Wolf Singers and Dancers, which included a hoop dancer. WOW!! I couldn't fit into the hoop, never mind his performance. The Romanetz Ukrainian Dance Ensemble performed a number of Ukrainian dances that were also quite an aerobic workout. The Asham Stompers performed some traditional Metis jigs, reels and square dances. The youngest member, 7 year old Michael, brought the delegates to their feet with his incredible dancing. Words cannot do his dance justice. The last group were the Fubuki Daiko Japanese drum and flute group. After the show, delegates who still had stamina were dancing up a storm. They are probably still dancing as I write this entry.

Overall it was an incredible first full day of the Conference. The feedback from all has been overwhelmingly positive. The Manitoba organizing group has done a tremendous job and the MC was fantastic!!

Conference Off to a Rip-Roaring Start!

The 59th Annual IPAC Conference un-officially got underway on Sunday August 26th. Over the weekend, the Board of Directors of IPAC met to consider a wide variety of matters coming from IPAC committees as well as other important matters. The Board got a demonstration of this new website & were very impressed by the site, its capability and the exciting future functionality that will be possible with this website. Kudos were expressed to our responsive and imaginative web designers - Treefrog Interactive. On Saturday & Sunday, IPAC hosted an international workshop with some 60 participants from our partner countries and Canadian jurisdictions.

On Sunday, the Annual General Meeting of IPAC was held and was well attended. The new annual report was distributed to attendees (it can be found on this website) and the President of IPAC, Carol Layton spoke about the past year and the renewal and changes that have been and are being implemented. Bill Greenlaw, the National Treasurer presented his report as did the National Secretary, Syd Baxter.

The proposed bylaw amendments were approved unanimously, including the change to my title from Executive Director to CEO. Guess I have to get some new business cards!! The proposed $5 increase in membership fees was also approved - these will be effective January 1, 2008. So if you are not yet a member -sign up now and save $5!!

The Welcome Reception was held at the Winnipeg Art Gallery - also known as the WAG. We had a wonderful reception in the "penthouse" which included a wonderful terrace with sculpture garden and reflecting pool and fountain. I did not notice any delegates fall into the pool, though I may have missed that part. Debra Woodgate, Head of the organizing committee welcomed the delegates to Winnipeg. BTW, there are 564 registered delegates at this conference - the second highest total in IPAC history!!

On a final note - I will be MC-ing the conference over the next three days. I am at this very moment frantically preparing for this new task. I will let you know how it goes.

Click here for pictures!

Gabriel

Status Quon't

Welcome to the new IPAC Website! The title of this post comes from the title of the 2006-2007 IPAC Annual Report "Status Quon't: A Time of Renewal". Over the last year we have been hard at work in building upon the strong foundation of IPAC. It has been a time of renewal. As with all other organizations, we cannot stand still. IPAC must continue to evolve to meet the needs of its members and meet the challenges that the future hold.

One of the important areas that we have worked hard on renewing is this Website. As you navigate this site, we hope that the information is more easily searchable. You will also note that we now have a "members-only" section that will require a password. In this part of the site you will soon have electronic access, through our partnership with Blackwell-Wiley, to all issues of Canadian Public Administration. Not only all future issues, but also the first 50 years will be available on-line as of January 2008.

As a member, you will also have access to Public Sector Magazine on-line. Our plan is to supplement the printed PSM that you receive with additional articles of interest to our members.

We have many other plans to utilize this new site which is Web 2.0 and will allow us to fully utilize all the capabilities of a modern Website.

I don't want to divulge everything in this first post, so stay tuned for further updates.

In a future post we will let you know how you will get your password and how you will be able to update your profile and your interests on-line.

As well, I will be posting from our 59th Annual Conference in beautiful Winnipeg to keep you up-to-date on what is happening.

That's all for now...See you all in Winnipeg for the Annual Conference.

Gabriel

Status Quon’n

Bienvenue au nouveau site Web de l’IAPC! Le titre de cette entrée sur mon blogue vient du rapport annuel de 2006-2007 de l’IAPC intitulé « Status Quon’n : un temps de renouveau ». L’année dernière fut une année durant laquelle nous avons travaillé fort à améliorer notre organisation. C’est un temps de « renouveau » pour l’IAPC. Comme toute autre organisation, l ‘IAPC doit évoluer pour répondre aux attentes de nos membres et aux défis qui nous devrons relever.

Comme vous pouvez le constater, notre site Web a été rafraichi. Nous espérons que vous trouverez plus facilement l’information que vous cherchez. Vous verrez aussi que nous avons établi une section seulement pour les membres de l’IAPC. Vous aurez besoin d’un mot de passe pour y accéder. À partir de janvier 2008, vous aurez accès, via le site Web, au contenu d’Administration Publique du Canada – non seulement les nouveaux numéros, mais aussi les premiers 50 ans de la revue grâce a notre partenariat avec Blackwell-Wiley.
En tant que membre de l’IAPC, vous aurez également accès à notre magazine, Management Secteur Public, par l’entremise du site Web. Notre plan est de continuer à publier 3 numéros par année et d’ajouter d’autres articles d’intérêt sur le site Web.

Nous avons d’autres projets en perspective afin de profiter de la nouvelle technologie qu’offre notre site. Mais, je ne veux pas tout divulguer aujourd’hui. Dans un prochain blogue, je vous laisserai savoir comment obtenir votre mot de passe et comment mettre à jour votre profil de membre.

À bientôt…..gabriel