Public service renewal: the weekly round-up

Fellow govvies,

Here're the must-reads of the week. Stay warm and dry!

Snip snip:

•  Death by a thousand cuts: a compelling argument that a disaster-in-the-making is unfolding across government. 
•  And a more positive analysis to balance things out, the Delta Partners argue for a radical cultural shift.
•  It seems that the saga at DND is continuing … is it just media speculation that DND is facing an exodus of public affairs staff?

Remaking public service culture:

• An out-of-the-ordinary, short read on how and why bureaucracies can amplify psychopathic behaviour
• Got a youth network in your department? New to the public service? Then don’t miss this post on The Rise and Fall of Public Sector Youth Groups
•  Worth checking out: Transport Canada launched the new look for government web sites

This post has been a collaborative effort from Lee-Anne Peluk and Nicholas Charney.You can check out Lee-Anne's blog "In the Shuffle" at www.leeannepeluk.wordpress.com

Round Up: Opportunity to Participate, Leadership, Survey Data, News and More

Opportunity to Participate

PPX (Public Policy Forum's new program that aims tackle issues of the future in an intergenerational world) is holding a quarterly social seeking to stimulate big-picture thinking.

May 21, 2009
5:30 to 8pm
Ottawa
ARC Lounge
140 Slater Street

Dubbed the SILOBUSTER, this quarterly social that brings together young professionals from public service, business, and not-for-profit sectors to network, share ideas, build bridges, and talk about a hot public issue, including:

• The economic downturn of course;
• Petro-Canada and Suncor merged;
• GM and Chrysler have been "nationalized";
• Ontario became a have-not province;
• first blue and white - now "green collar" jobs;
• talk of a possible Fall election...

This is a good opportunity to meet other professionals; I have made arrangements to attend, let me know if you are coming so we can share a pint and a great convo.


Leadership

If you don't have time to read Seth Godin's Tribes, you can get pretty much all of it via this talk at TED.


Survey Data

By now you should have been advised via the official channels that the 2008 Public Service Employee Survey Results are now available. I am poking around a little bit seeing if we could open up the data in this survey so we could do some analysis of our own. Let me know if you think you'd be interested and I will keep you informed as to my progress (or lack thereof).


In the News

Apparently the Federal government language tests may have been leaked, and as a result the government is recreating brand new tests and a federal watchdog is homing in on temporary government workers.

Meanwhile, a the Government of Canada has a new Chief Information Officer. You can find a little more info here.

There are a couple of articles worth reading in this month's Canadian Government Executive Magazine, one about the Clerk's campaign for cultural change and an interview with the Deputy Minister of NRCan, Cassie Doyle.

Things Coming Out of PCO

Public Service Renewal Action Plan 2008-2009 is now online. I haven't read it yet but it is on my radar...


Blogs we Like

Peter Cowan blogged about the use of blogs at NRCan on the GTEC blog. This quick read is well worth it. In fact, at the request of a colleague who also read it, I turned his post into a two page deck to illustrate viable business functions of blogs within my department.

Out in Vancouver, David Eaves has been doing some great work to help move the City of Vancouver into an era of open. Read about it on his blog, here and here.

Round Up: Kick Start Your Engagement Engine, Info on the Public Service, Blogs and Blogging, and more!

Looking for a way to jump "kick start your weekly engagement engine" @Cedgell found a way... (!)

... and now on with the show.


On the Public Service

1. PS union files suit against government over 'regressive measures' in budget (or check this podcast c/o CBC Ottawa Morning)
2. MPs focus attention on turnover within PS Committee zeroes in on churn, costly 'classification creep
3. The Honor in Bureaucracy
4. Remarks by Kevin G. Lynch Clerk of the Privy Council to McGill Institute

Finally here is an podcast of a piece on CBC Ottawa Morning on Public Service Leadership Grads.


Blogs and Blogging

1. Public servants have permission to blog, sort of, maybe?
2. Transparency and Finding Information on Government Web Sites and Food for Thought on public servants using social media c/o Peter Smith. Peter finally has his own URL).
3. Congrats Etienne on your 100th blog post.
4. Interested in deep packet inspection? Read this post c/o @canuckflack.

On Social Media

1. The Facebook Generation vs. the Fortune 500
2. Facebook, YouTube at work make better employees: study

Lesson from the Private Sector

1. Top employers let grads experiment

Thanks for stopping by. I still plan on writing a brief weekly column this week even though it's Easter.

Cheers!

Round Up: A Little Self-Help, Improving Access to Government, a Lesson On Social Media from the Private Sector and more!

Here is a very quick round up, I am fairly busy this week and it will show.

A Little Self-Help

1. Interview your legend and other advice
2. Ask yourself questions so the whole team learns

Improving Access To Government

Here is a paper by W3C on Improving Access to Government through Better Use of the Web. Here is the abstract for those of you whom are interested:

eGovernment refers to the use of the Web or other information technologies by governing bodies (local, state, federal, multi-national) to interact with their citizenry, between departments and divisions, and between governments themselves. Recognizing that governments throughout the World need assistance and guidance in achieving the promises of electronic government through technology and the Web, this document seeks to define and call forth, but not yet solve, the variety of issues and challenges faced by governments. The use cases, documentation, and explanation are focused on the available or needed technical standards but additionally provide context to note and describe the additional challenges and issues which exist before success can be realized.

Lesson On Social Media from the Private Sector

This video contains valuable insight for those of us looking to use social media behind the firewall.


Blogs We Like

David Eaves blogged on why GCPEDIA will save the Public Service.

Doug blogged why information policy in need of an update. He also provided a link to a paper that I have since added to my pile of to do reading.

While Peter blogged about boring government and social media using a "nugget" from Seth Godin as a starting point....

... and Amanda gives you 4 easy steps to get stuck in the web of rules. If you are interested in a more serious discussion on the matter, she also wrote an article in GCPEDIA that you can contribute to here.


MSM

1. Turnover at top threatens PS reforms
2. The Vancouver police are using Facebook to recruit.
3. Twitter, blogs and other Web 2.0 tools revolutionize government business

Round Up: Mass Collaboration and the New Transparency, MSM on the Recession, GCPEDIA and more

You may have noticed the different title for the round up. I just wanted to thank @TariqAlexander for pointing out that it may be more advantageous to our readership if we give you a sense of the content in the roundups rather then just the date.

Speaking Engagement

First of all I just wanted to let you know that I will be speaking to the National Manager's Community in Toronto on March 27th. Keep an eye on their website because I hear there will be details there soon.


Mass Collaboration and the New Transparency

I got to watch Us Now at the CSPS. It was a great film, if you want more information on it you can read Mike Kujawski's blog post. In it you will find a great link to a summary written by Richard Akerman.

It just so happens that 2 of the panelists at the CSPS screening were also on the Agenda with Steve Paikin discussing the New Transparency.

Here is a related article on how Dell uses social media to gather employees ideas and another discussion on Open Source Government Transparency Projects (#osgtp). If you are interested in these projects @NoelDickover seems to be the person to talk to.


Rules

Laura had an interesting post entitled: Assure mediocrity: create more rules. Here is a (very powerful) taste:

At a time when the government is trying so hard to become an ‘employer of choice’ and our Universities push out graduates trained in traditional communications, journalists and engineers, who among the professionals working in the government is trained in ‘bureaucracy 101′? I shouldn’t even have to understand how to escalate issues through the hierarchy to get work done, much less teach my staff how to do so. I feel like I’m corrupting people instead of nurturing their growth. I should get to talk about collaborative work practices and using social media for professional development and citizen engagement instead.

Make sure you read down into the comments as well. If you are interested in this topic, then you might want to provide some input into the Federal Public Service Code of Conduct.


MSM on the Recession

1. The Public Service is not safe from recession; and
2. Public servants in BC polled on taking ‘free’ time off to avoid wider layoffs

GCPEDIA Challenge

Here are some new pages of interest to public servants using social media on GCPEDIA. I would invite you all to contribute to them if you have additional information that may be of use:

1. Public Servants on Twitter
2. Public Servant bloggers

Speaking of public servant bloggers, I have created a single feed using Yahoo Pipes that will allow you to subscribe to all of the blogs listed in the GCPEDIA article.

Finally, @laureent wants your help fostering a discussion on Mentorship Programs in the Public service. If anyone has any resources they could contribute please visit the page and share your experience.


Two Inspirational Tweets

I just wanted to leave you with two nice little tweets that I came across this week on twitter:

1. @DGTweets: ‘Every valuable human being must be a radical and a rebel, for what he must aim at is to make things better than they are.’
2. @micah: My hiring strategy: I will believe in you today, if you will surprise me tomorrow.

Oh and thanks to all those who commented on last week's column.

Round up: February 7th (Yeah that's right a Saturday Roundup!)

First of all I would just like to give a h/t to Laura who pointed us at this podcast featuring Seth Godin on how the internet is changing leadership.

While I got a lot out of the podcast, if I had to break it down to five simple statements it would look something like this:

1. People don't line up to follow defend the status quo, they line up to follow people who make change.
2. People aren't leaders because they are charismatic, they are charismatic because they are leaders.
3. Leaders need to secure enough in their future to make things happen but isn't so entangled with the religion of the status quo (e.g. bureaucratic tendency for risk aversion) that they are afraid to do something new.
4. Leaders need to be humble enough to recognize that connecting people and identifying opportunities is more important then recognition.
5. Shake things up now, ask permission later because very few people get fired for creative instigation (aka virtuous scheming).

The podcast was enough to prompt me to downloaded Seth's audio-book Tribes (which is available for free download here) and will give it a whirl despite Etienne's review, also you can see some of Laura's thoughts here.

Second, you may or may not notice that we now have a new favicon for the site. Ironically enough I checked my site from my work and my department blocks images from the site I am using to host the image, so if you are behind the same firewall as I am, you don't get to see it!

Third, here is a link to the GCPEDIA summary of the You and the Evolving Public Service Conference, where I am delivering a workshop on networking for public servants and the Keynote Address on Scheming Virtuously (Yes, its now a deck!). Mike was invited but couldn't make it.

Info & Links to Share

Colin McKay (Office of the Privacy Commissioner) posted a government job on craigslist (awesome!).

The NCVM has released their First Annual Report to the Clerk of the Privy Council and Secretary to the Cabinet on the Status of Visible Minorities in the Federal Public Service

CGEM has published their February issue which includes an article written by Etienne, in fact the entire issue focuses on renewal. I obviously haven't gotten to all of it yet, but I plan to.

The PM has decided to fold the Public Service Agency into Treasury Board; you can read Etienne's take on it here.


News (MSM)

1. 44% say work interferes with family time (Downturn strains ability to find elusive work-life balance)
2. Assault on the bureaucrats: Ottawa may be planning civil service wage freeze
3. When real work disappears, bring on the busywork
   

Blogs

1. If You’re a Government 2.0 Guru, You have no Business in Government 2.0 c/o Techno Sailor
   
2. US Air Force Social Engagement Process c/o Peter Smith
   
3. Canada Revenue Agency announces YouTube contest c/o Mike Kujawski (Make sure to read the comments, and follow them to the spoof video, where the real 'convo' happened).
4. Performance Management and Measurement c/o Etienne
5. Statistics Canada launched a census forum c/o Mike Kujawski
6. GCPEDIA: Government of Canada gets it when it comes to wikis and open-source c/o Douglas Bastien and/or GCPEDIA update c/o Peter Smith (both make some great points, but the latter post also includes some great tweets by @thornley.
   

BTW, where was my invite? I am looking at you Doug, Joe, Peter, and even Jeff! I have been in communication with all of you in the last 2 weeks!)

Final Reaction

Doug blogged some advice, namely, do not start a blog about the government of Canada. Which prompted Etienne to respond in kind.

Doug raises some key points and to be honest, my initial advice would be similar - don't start a blog about the government of Canada, not unless you are willing to bare out the (potentially numerous) consequences. I feel for both Etienne who has already, and Doug, who seems to be currently, undergoing rigourous reviews. Something that thus far, Mike and I have been able to avoid.

Etienne - I know we haven't chatted in a while now, sadly both Mike and I have been very busy in both our professional and personal lives, which obviously makes making time for side projects such as this blog more difficult to secure. We may in fact have inadvertently reduced the number of posts on the blog but to be honest, producing the roundups is a difficult and time consuming task given the amount of information we come across in a given week. Consider the size of this round up, the amount of information it shares (e.g. outbound links) and the date on which it is posted and well, I suppose I don't even need to finish the sentence - you understand the commitment well enough. With that said, I hope that all of you find the roundups informative and worthwhile.

Thanks everyone for checking in, today's round up was probably more then you bargained for!

Round-Up: January 19th

Kathryn May reported that PS unions are set to battle wage freeze.

Etienne offers some thoughts on the State of HR.

There is a new blog in the ever (slowly) expanding unofficial universe of GoC bloggers. You can check it out here.

Interesting piece c/o Harvard Business: Trapped in a Risk-Averse Workplace.

Round Up: January 14

Fairly quick little update.

Apparently the GoC is considering a new policy re: security screening, the new one would apparently involve finger printing and credit checks.

Etienne has shared some of his work re: the use of Facebook as a Public Servant.

Our last weekly got three comments (reproduced verbatim):

kp said...

good article...I'd say that you are already one of "those" leaders.

January 09, 2009

Stephane Dubord said...

Here here kp!

But on the topic of risk-aversion in the PS, we had a discussion on the issue at the MTP Forum last month with Anatole Papadopoulos, and came out with a lot of reasons why it permeates the PS.

First is the type of employee attracted to the PS. Those looking for job stability and pensions aren't necessarily the risk-taking type.

Second, there's the risk-reward balance. In the private sector, if you risk and succeed, there's a high reward factor, which the PS lacks. Even if you risk, and succeed, in some major endeavor, you won't get a bonus or a promotion out of it. You'll just get to include it in your competency portfolio for your next competition.

I think the reason for the lack of risk-taking is that the PS attracts risk-averse employees to begin with, and then doesn't offer any incentive to risk. No matter how little there is to lose, it still outweighs the lack of incentives to gain.

January 12, 2009

Anonymous said...

Hi Nick and Mike. I've been lurking your site for months and just **have to** come out of hiding after reading your most recent post. The Human Resources Branch at Industry Canada is in the process of designing an innovative new physical workspace for itself. We are lowering the cubicle walls, creating collaborative work pods, providing private rooms for those times when work requires major concentration and going wireless in order to create a mobile workforce. And, we're doing it in full partnership with our Accommodations folks who are keen to implement something new with us. If you're interested in hearing more about our plans and following our story as we move into the new space in May or June 2009, send me an email ... nathalie(dot)kachulis(at)ic(dot)gc(dot)ca. :o)

Nathalie Kachulis
Deputy DG, HRB
Industry Canada

And our last email rant got this comment:

Anonymous said...

It's interesting to note that the Ontario Public Service and the City of Vancouver are on that list. If the provincial and municipal governments can make it on there, what's stopping us?

-A

January 14, 2009

Thanks to all of our readers/those who leave comments. Nathalie, I will send you an email before the week is up!

Round Up: December 3

Here are a couple of things that may be of interest:

1. Federal employees earn more then private workers
2. PS hiring under fire
3. Audit finds fault with 14% of top bureaucratic appointments
   
4. Failure to Accept Responsibility is a Failure to Lead c/o Havard Business Publishing

Also you may notice that we have added some new ways to get in touch with us on the right hand side of the page, we now have links to both our GCPEDIA and facebook profiles. You can also now follow me on twitter. I am trying to deepen our use of social media to foster discussion on public service renewal. In addition to this, Mike and I would like to do some podcasting or even set up a youtube channel, but we really don't have the time right now.

Cheers... and keep your eye on the Governor General. Interesting times ahead.

Round-Up: December 2nd

Keep your eyes peeled, we may have a new government...


News

1. Strike ban proposal 'atrocious,' unions say
2. PSAC calls on all members to back coalition
3. Public service under fire
4. Goodwill toward public servants - Nothing beats a display of non-denominational holiday spirit for lightening the mood in The System
5. PSAC denies report striking postal workers crossing picket lines
6. Critics slam plan for new pay equity legislation
7. Facebook isn't just for friends
8. Managers want tribes, not teams

Other interesting tidbits

1. Gen-Y workers are worth taking the time to understand
2. Three Ways to Beat Burnout c/o Harvard Business Journal

Blogs

The financial collapse and the unsaid thoughts of public servants c/o David Eaves.

Round-Up: November 26

News

1. No recession in Ottawa
2. How to land a job in Ottawa
3. 'Whistleblower' sues PSAC over dismissal
4. Advisers accuse PSAC of selling out rights claim
5. A tale of two contracts

Blogs

Etienne has a new domain name, update your RSS feeds accordingly.

Mike Kujawski thinks that Social Media will be hot during the recession. He lists a couple of compelling reasons, reasons that proponents could find support for by leveraging the recent speech from the throne's specific commitment to making government more effective (at least in my opinion):

Part of a solid economic and fiscal foundation is the sound management of government. To make Canada’s national government more effective, our Government is committed to reform and streamline the way it does business.

Our Government will pursue innovative reforms to the administration of programs and services, drawing on the successful experiences of other governments around the world. It will build partnerships with third parties and the private sector to deliver better services at a lower overall cost.

Other

Also, following PSAC's lead, CAPE has tentatively agreed to 6.8% over 4 years.

Round-Up: November 25

News

My director came by my office and dropped an article for me to read, entitled Digital Diplomacy: New Technologies, New Players . It is about DFAIT's use of Web 2.0 technologies. It's a great read, here is a small excerpt:

All of these initiatives are innovative and worthwhile, but they still fall far short of how opponents of Canadian policies use Web 2.0 technologies to get their messages out.

Here is a response from a fellow public servant to Randall Denley's article - Unions need to wake up to the reality of today's economy - that we linked to yesterday.

Regardless of where you sit on the issue, here is a small selection of the press coverage around PSAC's acceptance of the 6.8% over 4 years:

1. Economic woes temper public-sector wage demands
2. Federal employees agree to 'tough times' wage deal
3. Biggest government union trades money for job security

Apparently the Clerk of the Privy Council may be moving onto a diplomatic position, more info c/o the Toronto Star.

Blogs

Etienne has another hope filled post on his blog worth reading.


Happy Tuesday Everyone.

Round-Up: November 24th

Things inside the GoC

1. PCO put up a power point presentation from a PS Recruitment fair.
2. The fall edition of Its my day is up and running.
3. You probably want to read the speech from the throne if you haven't already. Here is the relevant snippet on Public Service Renewal:

The Public Service of Canada is a key national institution. Public servants inspect our food and police our borders. They deliver programs and services to millions of Canadians in every region of this country, from our largest cities to the most remote Arctic communities. Drawing on the recommendations of the Prime Minister’s Advisory Committee on the Public Service, our Government is committed to the continued renewal of the Public Service.

News

1. Don't ignore value of digital generation
2. PS faces forced wage controls
3. Ottawa public servants face stagnant wages, fewer colleagues
4. Unions need to wake up to the reality of today's economy
5. How clerk's job moved to the centre of power
6. Federal public service faces challenge of renewal
7. Civil service hiring outlook remains healthy

Blogs

1. What's the Fuss Over Leadership? c/o Etienne
2. On-the-Spot Job Offers: Real Solution or Quick Fix? (c/o Etienne - we really like this one!)
3. For What it's Worth c/o Paul Crookall @ CGEM. (I was also @ the Osbaldeston Lecture, I hope to provide my reaction in the future, but in the interim you can get the flavour of the lecture from Paul's blog posting.)

Interesting Armchairs being offered @ CSPS

1. Depression Was Not Part of my Career plan (EN/FR)
2. Bottom Up Change: It Starts with an Individual (EN/FR) (by our Friend Etienne Laliberté)
3. Government Blogging - Best Practices and Tips for Success (by our friend Mike Kujawski)

Other things of interest

1. 10 Ways to Make Office Slacker Pull His Weight

Round-Up: November 18

Here are some links that may be of interest:

c/o Ottawa Citizen

1. Government assets could be sold to balance budget, Flaherty says

Here is the snippet you probably want to know about:

Mr. Flaherty also said the government is looking at controlling the rate of growth in the salaries of public servants, and is continuing a strategic review of expenditures at all government departments.

c/o Havard Business Publishing

1. What leaders need to do right to move up
2. Confessions of an unrepentant BlackBerry addict

Round-Up: 'bout time.

Like I said, a lot has crossed my desk these past few weeks. Hopefully this post captures most of it. Yes this post is rushed ... sorry but rushed updates are better then no updates!


Blogs

Etienne has started posting the results of his unofficial survey on PS Renewal:

1. Challenges of Conducting the survey
2. Access to Web 2.0 and PS Renewal related websites
3. Interest and Usefulness of PS Renewal related websites
4. Getting Involved in PS Renewal
5. Ideas on How to Get Involved

We also wanted to wish AIR a happy anniversary. Btw since drafting this update his blog has seen a slew of new posts – go check it out.

Over the course of his posts Etienne mentioned that:

The figures are better for my friends at CPSRenewal.ca who, despite the fact they use the same platform as I do (Blogger), are able to be reached by an additional 25% of public servants (that means 65,000 more people!). That is a relief, since I think their blog is the single best source of news on PS Renewal. But why is my blog blocked more than their's? I don't know...

The reason that our blog is more accessible then Etienne's is that we registered a unique domain name that doesn't end in ".blogspot.com". Our reasoning (dictated to us by our experience) was that the blogspot domain was routinely blocked by internal firewalls while a unique URL was more likely to reach more of our colleagues. The result was our deliberate purchasing (with our own funds) a domain name to use.

In other blognews GCPEDIA has been garnering some coverage in the blogosphere (outside our own coverage of course). Check out these posts at Spaghetti Testing and SoSaidThe.Org respectively.


2008 Public Service Employee Survey

You should be getting or already gotten a link and an access code in order to complete the 2008 PSES. More information can be found on their website. It goes without saying that this is a good opportunity for you to participate.


Opportunities for Public Servants Abroad

Interested in working in Afghanistan as a Public Servant? Check out this webpage.


News

The Ottawa Citizen published an article called Rise of the Public Sector. Here is the snippet on renewal:

... efforts at public sector renewal should continue and be more widely publicized. In Ottawa, the Privy Council has been leading a reform and renewal effort on the grounds that a well-functioning public sector is crucial to our competitive performance, and that argument will now resonate much more than it has in the past. Slogans that might have seemed pretentious or empty in the recent past -- being the "best employer in the country" -- now have a chance of being given a fair hearing. People who might have aimed at a corporate career may now see some attractions to working in a sector that is, on the whole, untainted by "greed" and now clearly responsible for the well-being of both the economy and society.

I also came across an article entitled The public service must lead change out of Atlantic Canada.


A cool new space for civic-minded young Canadians?

[h/t to Robin for sharing this with us. Here is an email from someone from PPF looking to start an initiative targetted at youth.]

From: Vinod Rajasekaran [mailto:vinod.rajasekaran@ppforum.ca]
Subject: PPX : a cool new space for civic-minded young Canadians

Hi!

My name is Vinod and I am a Research Associate with the Public Policy Forum (PPF). I thought you’d be interested to know that the PPF is starting up a new venture called PPX that is focused on engaging young Canadians – PPX is youth-designed and youth-led.

So, what is PPX?

It is a new kind of space that brings together young Canadians from all fields and sectors to learn about, inform, mingle, collaborate on, influence, and discuss issues that matter to Canada and the world.

Why are we doing it?

Young Canadians care about their communities. But traditional ways of engagement do not respect or reflect the ways in which they organize themselves, interact, and hope to influence. Public issues need to be seen as relevant and worth participating in.

What will we do together?

Using a mixture of web 2.0 stuff (blogging, texting, Facebook, etc.) and events (cappuccino sessions, lectures, dinners, etc.) in new and creative settings, we will generate approaches to tackle issues affecting Canada and the world, strengthen relationships between young professionals and Baby Boomer executives, increase collaboration between the public, private, and not-for-profit sectors, and reinvigorate public debate.

We don’t have a website just yet, but do have a Facebook page where we have discussions, post events, and share ideas. I invite you to check it out and join the group.

Also…the first PPX project is a workshop on retaining young talent. A few words about it: Lately, attracting and retaining young talent has become a challenge for businesses, NGOs, and the public service. To help address this issue, organizations need to better understand the values, interests and priorities of Gen Y on the nature of work and the workplace. While some studies by HR experts exist, rarely has an opportunity been created to bring together Gen Ys, who are the workforce of the future, to develop recommendations.

This workshop is still in conceptual stage but, if you have any ideas or thoughts, feel free to email me!

Here is the link to PPX Facebook page:

http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=43065177400&ref=share


Thanks and look forward to hearing from you on PPX!

Cheers,


Vinod Rajasekaran
Research Associate / Associé à la recherche
Public Policy Forum / Forum des politiques publiques
1405 - 130 rue Albert Street
Ottawa, Ontario, Canada K1P 5G4
Tel/Tél 613 238 7858 x 230
Fax/Téléc 613 238 7990
Vinod.Rajasekaran@ppforum.ca

Round-Up: October 29

News

The Federal Government's own Wikipedia (GCPEDIA - only available from behind the firewall) has been mentioned in the main stream media.

Check it out - at first glance it looks pretty good, perhaps we will poke around a little more and put together a weekly column on it for next week (I have already started this week's column).

In the meantime, you could flashback and read our very first weekly column, Public-Wiki-Service? How a Simple Wiki Could Change the Way We Work. We published it back in May, 'nuff said.

Blogs

Etienne has another post that addresses the issue of personal initiatives and official languages (read the comments on his post for my take).

Round-Up: October 28

A friend of mine forwarded me this paper on Gen Y, entitled What Millennial Workers Want: How to Attract and Retain Gen Y Employees.

The PM announced changes in the senior ranks of the Public Service.

And there are apparently now billions in Federal IT Projects Under Review.

Round-Up

News

PS Faces Money Manager Crisis

Blogs

Etienne has a great post into Values and Ethics.

Peter Smith shows some innovative ways to mashup government data (Part I / Part II).

Don't forget about the Government 2.0 Best Practices Wiki.

Round-Up October 20

News

1. BC Public Service ranks in the Top 50 employeers in BC (ranked # 4)
2. Here are the top 100 rankings nationally, all we are saying is have a look.
3. Hard financial times could mean a freeze on public service hiring.

Other Publications

I came across this interesting read from the OECD: Cultural Change in Government: Promoting a High-Performance Culture.

Here is are a couple of excerpts worth sharing:

(Intro): No organization can remain the same without loosing relevancy in a changing society. Governments are now part of a global movement that has been described by many (Barzelay, 2001; Hood, 2000; Kim and Moon, 2002) as an era of new public management (NPM). Public cynicism and frustration with government have led to many policy developments to provide catalysts for high performance organizations. The current challenge is not to determine whether to change but how to change to increase organizational effectiveness and global competitiveness. In order to respond to such challenges, many organizations attempt to carry out various organizational initiatives. Without an alteration of the fundamental values and expectations of organizations of individuals change remains superficial and short-term in duration. Failed attempts to change often produce cynicism, frustration, loss of trust, and deterioration of morale amongst organization members.

(Culture Change): Human organizations build up tremendous inertia over time, and it takes tremendous initiative and determination to budge them. It takes large amounts of energy for people to shift beliefs, habits, thinking, and rationale away from how things have always been done. Such changes require a long-term commitment and sustained application of time and energy from leadership and the organization (Fitzgerald, 1988). It is also critical that the cultural-change processes are viewed as ongoing, not as a project with an end. Senior leaders should be directly supported by a personal executive coach for at least the first few years of the change process so that they can sustain the commitment and effectiveness in role modelling the new cultural behaviors. It is important to point out that if the leaders do not change, culture will not change (Crane, 2002: 205).

(Creating a High Performance Culture): High-performance organizations also recognize that all employees-both those involved directly in the mission and mission support help create organizational value and that job processes, tools, and mission support arrangements must be tailored to support mission accomplishment. A dedication to continuous learning and improvement can not only help an agency respond to change but also to anticipate change, create new opportunities and pursue a shared vision that is ambitious. Incentives that are result-oriented, citizen-based and realistic are particularly important in steering the workforce and subject to balanced measures that reveal the multiple dimensions of performance. Incentives should be part of a performance management system under which employee performance expectations are aligned with the agency missionstatement, and in which personal accountability for performance is reinforced by both rewards and consequences.

(Practical Application): ... those who lead government reform should persuade and/or communicate with ordinary government employees for better understanding and broader participation. Without such efforts, the simple delivery of reform measures from the top would be too naïve to succeed. [Enter our Blog]

(Conclusion): Cultural change could happen at different levels ranging from visible to invisible levels. A change in process or policy does not necessarily lead to cultural change. Therefore, it is fair to say that real cultural change requires that the organization's members accept the changed behaviors, beliefs, or assumptions and that the change is sustained over a relatively long period of time.

Round-Up: October 15

News

Forecast is for more chilly times in the PS


Comments on Our Blog

Just wanted to say keep them coming (especially on our weekly columns), of particular interest to me was Etienne's comment on our 12 step program.