Toutes les bonnes choses ......... et le 202 ème blogue

Eh bien selon le décompte sur Blogger, ceci est mon 202ème poste depuis que j'ai commencé le blogue à la fin d'août 2007. Mes premiers blogues étaient de notre conférence annuelle à Winnipeg et j'ai posté directement sur notre site web. Un an ou moins plus tard, j'ai décidé de passer au site public Blogger qui m'a donné beaucoup plus de flexibilité en termes de transfert de photos, de vidéos ainsi qu'une plus grand auditoire. Et la "cerise sur le sundae" c'est que c'est gratuit!  

J'ai joint l'IAPC en tant que PDG en août 2006 juste à temps pour la conférence annuelle de l'Île du Prince Edouard. Au cours des 4 dernières années, j'ai eu le plaisir de rencontrer de nombreux fonctionnaires dévoués de partout au pays - d'une mer à l'autre - et de tous les niveaux de gouvernement. Il est regrettable que le public canadien ne sache pas toutes les grandes réalisations des fonctionnaires. À l'IAPC, nous avons essayé de mettre en évidence l'excellence grâce à nos prix et d'autres événements. Dans le temps que j'ai été ici, j'ai revu des centaines et des centaines de soumissions pour notre Prix de gestion innovatrice commandité par IBM Canada et KPMG; notre  Prix IAPC/Deloitte de leadership dans le secteur public; et la crème de la crème, la Médaille Vanier. En lisant les soumissions j'ai toujours été frappé par les merveilleux exemples de service public. Chaque année, il était difficile de choisir les finalistes parmi les candidats et encore plus difficile de sélectionner les gagnants - en fait tous sont gagnants! 

J'ai eu l'occasion de rencontrer de nombreux universitaires de nos grandes universités qui enseignent l'administration publique et la politique public. Leurs travaux constituent un sous-tendent du travail de la fonction publique au Canada. Au fil des années, j'ai lu une pléthore d'articles extraordinaires dans la revue Administration publique du Canada. 


J'ai eu l'occasion de travailler avec les présidents incroyable dans mes 4 ans à l'IAPC - Luc Bernier, Carol Layton, Louis Borgeat, Bill Greenlaw et Wynne Young. Ils sont tous bénévoles et ont très occupé avec leur emplois, mais ils croient tous dans la fonction publique et dans l'IAPC et on librement donné de leur temps et continue à donner de leur temps à l'IAPC. La même chose vaut pour le conseil d'administration, les présidents des groupes régionaux et leurs exécutifs et tous les bénévoles qui donnent de leur temps parce qu'ils croient que l'excellence dans le service public est important au Canada et partout dans le monde. Les 17 groupes régionaux de l'IAPC sont très actif et offrent un large éventail d'activités d'apprentissage à la fois membres de l'IAPC et les non-membres. 

Et je m'en voudrais si je ne mentionne pas le personnel dévoué de l'IAPC.  

Donc, vous devriez avoir deviné que je quitte l'IAPC. En effet, je vais continuer à travailler dans le domaine de l'administration publique et la politique comme sous-ministre adjoint au ministère de l'Éducation de l'Ontario. J'ai hâte aux défis et aux opportunités que ce boulot va apporter. 

Pour ces hauts fonctionnaires qui ont lu mon blogue, je tiens à vous encourager à augmenter votre soutien à l'IAPC. Il existe de nombreuses juridictions qui n'ont pas augmenté leur contribution à IAPC depuis le début des années 1990 et d'autres (vous savez qui vous êtes), qui ne fournissent aucune aide de base à cette magnifique institution. Comme je l'ai mentionné dans mon dernier éditorial dans le numéro de juin du magazine Management Secteur Public, sans l'IAPC je crois vraiment que le corps des connaissances actuelles de l'administration publique au Canada ne serait pas aussi grande qu'elle l'est aujourd'hui. Je vous invite à redonner à votre profession choisie - le service public - et à investir dans l'avenir les fonctionnaires en soutenant l'IAPC.

All Good Things.........and the 201st blog post

Well according to the count on Blogger, this is my 201st post since I started the blog in late August 2007. My first blogs were from our annual conference in Winnipeg and I actually posted directly on the website.  A year or less later I decided to move to Blogger a public site that gave me much more flexibility in terms of uploading pictures, videos as well as greater exposure.  And the "cerise sur le sundae" as we say in Québec is that it is free!

I joined IPAC as CEO in August 2006 just in time for the Annual conference in PEI.  In the last 4 years, I have had the pleasure of meeting many dedicated public servants from across the country - from sea to sea to sea - and from all orders of government.  It is unfortunate that the Canadian public does not hear of all the great accomplishments of public servants.  At IPAC we have tried to highlight this excellence through our awards and other events. In the time I have been here I have reviewed hundreds upon hundreds of submissions for our Innovative Management Awards co-sponsored by IBM Canada and KPMG; our IPAC/Deloitte Public Sector Leadership Awards and la crème de la crème, the Vanier Medal.  As I read these I was always struck by the wonderful examples of public service that leaped off the page.  Every year it was difficult to choose the finalists from among the nominees and harder still to select the winners - actually all are winners!

I have had the opportunity to meet with many academics from our great Universities who teach public administration and policy.  Their work provides an underpinning to the work of public service in Canada.  Over the years I have read a plethora of extraordinary articles in the Canadian Public Administration journal.

I have had the opportunity of working with incredible Presidents in my 4 years at IPAC - Luc Bernier, Carol Layton, Louis Borgeat, Bill Greenlaw and Wynne Young.  They are all volunteers and have very busy "day" jobs but they all believe in public service and in IPAC and freely gave of their time and continue to give of their time to IPAC.  The same holds true for the Board of Directors, the Regional Group Chairs and Regional Group Executives and all the volunteers who give of their time because they believe that excellence in public service is important in Canada and around the world. IPAC very active 17 regional groups provide a wide range of learning activities to both IPAC members and non-members alike.

And I would be remiss if I did not mention the dedicated staff at IPAC who keep the place running.

So you should have guessed by now that I am leaving IPAC.  Indeed I am going to continue to work in the field of public administration and policy as an assistant deputy minister with the Ontario Ministry of Education. I look forward to the challenges and opportunities that the new job will bring and I look fondly back at my time at IPAC.

For those senior public servants who read my blog, I want to encourage you to increase your support to IPAC.  There are many jurisdictions who have not increased their contribution in support of IPAC since the early 1990's and others (you know who you are) who provide no core support to this wonderful institution.  As I mentioned in my last editorial in the June issue of Public Sector Management magazine, without IPAC I truly believe that the existing body of knowledge on public administration in Canada would not be as extensive as it is today. I urge you to give back to your chosen profession - the public service - and to invest in future public servants by supporting IPAC.

Prix IAPC pour la gestion innovatrice

Eh bien nous avons finalement lu les plus de 80 présentations que nous avons reçu cette année le Prix de gestion innovatrice commondité par IBM Canada et KPMG. Neuf finalistes ont été sélectionnés et ils feront des présentations au jury de sélection au début de juillet, à Toronto.

Comme vous le savez le thème de cette année est la collaboration. Il y avait de nombreux soumissions valables, mais nous avons dû faire un choix pour sélectionner les finalistes. Inutile de dire que les choix ont été difficiles à faire étant donné le calibre des plus de 80 soumissions.
Et les finalistes sont:

• Public Transportation for the 2010 Olympic Winter Games - South Coast British Columbia Transportation Authority (Translink)
• Aboriginal Economic Partnerships - Alberta Aboriginal Relations
• Alberta's 10 year plan to End Homelessness - Alberta Housing & Urban Affairs
• Working Horizontally to Develop a Transformative Initiative on Accessible Transportation - Accessibility Directorate, Ontario Ministry of Community & Social Services
• Ontario's Statistical Neighbours: A Tool for Planning - Ontario Ministry of Education
• Human Resources Process Lab - Canadian Food Inspection Agency
• Restructuring Canada's Automotive Industry - Industry Canada
• Impetus for Change: Federal, Provincial, Territorial Pandemic Coordination - Public Health Agency of Canada
• La négociation et la mise en oeuvre de l'Accord de commerce et de coopération Québec-Ontario - Ministère de Dévelloppement économique, de l'Innovation et de l'Exportation

Innovative Management Award - Finalists

Well we finally made it through the over 80 submissions that we received for this year Innovative Management Award co-sponsored by IBM Canada and KPMG.  Nine finalists were selected and they will be making presentations to the selection jury in early July in Toronto.

As you may recall the theme for this year's award is collaboration. There were many worthy submissions but we had to make a choice to decide on the finalists.  Needless to say that the choices were difficult to make given the calibre of the over 80 submissions.

And the finalists are:

• Public Transportation for the 2010 Olympic Winter Games - South Coast British Columbia Transportation Authority (Translink)
• Aboriginal Economic Partnerships - Alberta Aboriginal Relations
• Alberta's 10 year plan to End Homelessness - Alberta Housing & Urban Affairs
• Working Horizontally to Develop a Transformative Initiative on Accessible Transportation - Accessibility Directorate, Ontario Ministry of Community & Social Services
• Ontario's Statistical Neighbours: A Tool for Planning - Ontario Ministry of Education
• Human Resources Process Lab - Canadian Food Inspection Agency
• Restructuring Canada's Automotive Industry - Industry Canada
• Impetus for Change: Federal, Provincial, Territorial Pandemic Coordination - Public Health Agency of Canada
• La négociation et la mise en oeuvre de l'Accord de commerce et de coopération Québec-Ontario - Ministère de Dévelloppement économique, de l'Innovation et de l'Exportation

National Public Service Week 2010

June 13 to 19, 2010 is National Public Service Week.  It is that time of year when some governments across Canada celebrate public service and the achievements of public servants.  The Governor General of Canada has put out a statement commending the public servants for the work that they do.

There are many activities taking place across the country that are aimed at celebrating the excellence in public service that we find day in and day out in public services in Canada.  The Government of Canada has a website dedicated to National Public Service Week that includes information about activities being undertaken by the Federal government.  The Government of Manitoba has also set up a website to highlight what is happening in that province for National Public Service Week.

While I am happy that some public services are celebrating National Public Service Week, it would be great to have a coordinated campaign that includes the public service of all orders of government across Canada that highlights the value of public service in Canada.  Maybe next year??

In the meantime, I would urge all public servants to take pride in their work and to celebrate their chosen profession.  Have a great public service week!

E-Government in the USA

Have come across a couple of reports on E-government in the USA.  The first is from Pew Research and is a survey that describes the relationship of citizens to public administration - according to this study, 40% of adult internet users have gone online to obtain raw data about government spending and about government activities.  And 31% of online adults have used social media to stay informed about government activities and want to be more engaged & contribute to policy development.  This last part on the desire of citizens wanting to contribute to policy development does not surprise me as I have written about the advantage of what I called "open source policy development" in past blogs.  You can access the Pew study here.

The second report is a report from the Office of Management and Budget entitled "FY 2009 Report to Congress on the Implementation of The E-Government Act of 2002".  This report describes how the US government uses e-government tools to improve its performance and delivery of services and information to the public.  The report also delves into transparency and participation initiatives.

In its first year in office, the Obama Administration leveraged the power of information technology to transform the Federal Government. Starting on his first full day in office, the President led this effort by issuing a directive to make the Government more open and transparent. The Administration engaged the American people in new ways such as virtual town hall meetings and improved the quality of the services delivered to the public. Key initiatives demonstrate the commitment to changing the way Government works:

• In May 2009, Data.gov was launched to enhance access to Federal data. Since then, the site has grown to contain over 167,000 datasets and tools for using the data. After the Environmental Protection Agency toxic release data was featured on Data.gov, the frequency of downloads of that data increased over tenfold.
• In June 2009, the IT Dashboard was implemented to provide unprecedented transparency into $78 billion in annual Federal spending on IT investments. Agency CIOs now review the IT Dashboard monthly to provide updated status information on major IT investments more frequently than ever before.
• In September 2009, Apps.gov was launched to provide Federal agencies easy access to new cloud computing and social media technologies. This enabled agencies to transform their computing services quickly and avoid months of delay and redundant effort.
• In October 2009, a new platform, CyberScope, was launched to streamline the annual security reporting workload and improved the ability to analyze and report on IT security across the Federal Government.
• In December 2009, OMB issued the Open Government Directive instructing all agencies to implement the principles of transparency, participation and collaboration set forth by the President.

 The report also includes many examples of initiatives undertaken in e-government that have application to Canada. You can access the full report here.

The High Road: the Podcast

As I mentioned in a previous blog post, Terry Fallis has written a sequel to his award winning first novel The Best Laid Plans.  His second novel entitled, The High Road is scheduled to be published in September 2010.  For those who followed Terry's experience with self-publishing his first novel before McClelland & Stewart published it know that Terry also podcast his first novel.  Well M&S has agreed to allow Terry to podcast The High Road!!  That is quite unusual for a publisher and kudos to M&S.  Well Terry has started his podcast and you can listen to Terry reading his novel on iTunes or on his website.

I have listened to the first two chapters and listening to Terry read his work is a delight.  And obviously I am not the only one who thinks so as THR has risen up the iTunes charts and others such as the President of the Canadian Booksellers Association have lauded Terry's book.

I would heartily recommend that you listen to this wonderful Canadian political novel.  If you enjoyed The Best Laid Plans, you will love The High Road.

 

Innovative Management Award - More

A few days ago I blogged about IPAC's Innovative Management Award.  Well the application deadline has arrived along with almost 100 submissions!  I am now plowing my way through a number of these submissions and I can tell that it will be a very difficult job to come up with a handful of finalists from the amazing examples of collaboration that I have read about so far. These are such great examples of how governments right across Canada are engaging in collaboration to develop better policies and programs.  The collaborations include multiple ministries/departments within a jurisdiction, collaboration with other orders of government - federal, provincial, municipal and aboriginal, collaboration with the private sector, collaboration with NGO's and community groups, collaboration with citizens and collaboration with other countries.  WOW!!!

I am not sure how I will triage all these submissions, but one thing I can attest to is that citizens should be proud of the public service in Canada for engaging in innovative and collaborative approaches to program & policy development and implementation.  Stay tuned for the list of the finalists shortly (have to have it shortly as the awards jury meets in early July to hear from the finalists and award the Gold, Silver & Bronze).

Once again, thanks to our sponsors, IBM Canada and KPMG for supporting this important award and especially thanks to all the organizations across Canada that have submitted nominations.

2nd Curve Health Care Organizations

As part of IPAC's "Sustaining Transformation: Building a Resilient Organization" conference that we held on May 31st & June 1st, Dr. Marty Merry spoke about the opportunity to create 2nd curve health care organizations.

His premise is that the complexity of our health care system as outpaced its capacity to deliver safe patient care under the old "craft" model. What is required to move from a 4 sigma (6,210 defects/1 million = avoidable deaths) to a 6 sigma organization (3.4 defects/1 million) is a paradigm shift. Moving to a second curve system that imports the best of management science into the field of health care delivery would move an organization from 4 to 6 sigma. As Dr. Merry noted - what is the rate of preventable deaths that would be acceptable. If we say that we are satisfied with 95% success rate, that means that 50,000 people die from preventable deaths in our system. The only real answer that is acceptable is ZERO!

But how do we get there?

Dr Merry laid out "The Vision: 10 Rules of Performance in a Redesigned/2nd Curve Health Care System" (adapted from the Institute of Medicine, 2003):

1. Care is based on continuous  healing relationships;
2. Care is customized based on patient needs and values;
3. The patient is the source of control;
4. Knowledge is shared and information flows freely;
5. Decision making is evidence based;
6. Safety is a system property;
7. Transparency is necessary;
8. Needs are anticipated;
9. Waste is continuously decreased; and
10. Cooperation among clinicians is a priority.

Dr. Merry spoke about the characteristics of a second curve health care organization that is patient focused.  I could not do justice to his full talk, but have no fear as we will be posting the videos of his talk on teh IPAC website shortly.

Resilience Conference

As I wrote previously, on Monday & Tuesday, we organized a conference entitled “Sustaining Transformation: Building a Resilient Organization” that focused on health care.  We had an amazing array of speakers! The conference was videoed and will be posting the videos on our website in the next short while.

Among our keynote speakers was Saäd Rafi, DM of the Ministry of Health and Long Term Care who spoke to the delegates on the need for resilience and a focus on quality of care. He spoke of the need for health care organizations to act as a real system that is better aligned to quality health outcomes and that the future core business of the sector is a focus on quality care. There are some who equate the amount of funding to the level of quality. Saäd emphasized that more money does not result in better quality. Indeed there is an argument that true quality is less expensive as it focuses on the best practices for the delivery of care based on evidence. Saäd spoke about the Ontario government’s new legislation “Excellent Care for All” that is presently being debated in the Legislature. This legislation focuses on quality and patient outcomes and requires every hospital to develop an annual Quality Plan that includes regular surveys of patients, their families, and staff to gauge the level of quality being delivered.

Saäd also connected what the Ministry is doing to the 4 parts of resilience model- Responds, Monitors, Anticipates and Learns. He emphasized that the learn is the most difficult as it requires behavioral changes in the system as a whole. The delegates appreciated his take on the challenges and opportunities ahead and the need to build truly resilient organizations in order to be successful.

There were a number of other incredible speakers, such as Dr. Marty Merry and Dr. Josh Tepper on 2nd curve health care organizations that I will blog about in a future update.