A Few Upcoming Opportunities

Hi All -
Hope you had a safe and happy new year, I did, despite accidentally (read: foolishly) putting my car into a snow bank on New Year's Eve, but that is a story for another time.  I figured I should take the time to share a couple of upcoming events (listed by date) that may be of interest:

Open Government Consultation (ends January 16th)
If you didn't know the Government of Canada is currently conducting a public consultation on the issue of open government, the consultation ends January 16th.  If you have something to say, here is your chance.
Details can be found here.
(Disclosure: I have not yet provided input into the consultation, but hope to write an open letter that I will cc my blog on).

Collaborative Management Day (January 25th)
The next instalment of the Collaborative Culture Camp series, a series designed to build capacity for working together openly and embracing a culture of collaboration.  This is a free learning series wholly organized by public servants for public servants and should prove to be worth your time.  
Details can be found here; the program even boasts regional participation for those of you outside the National Capital Region.
(Disclosure: I had a hand in organizing the first camp of the series, and have since signed up to be a volunteer if needed).

Career Bootcamp 2012 (January 27th)
An annual event organization by various federal government young professional networks in partnership with the National Capital Region Young Professionals Network (NCRYPN).  The event is a blend of workshops, professional development, hand-on learning, and networking geared towards new public servants.
Details can be found here; this year the conference is on pace for 300 attendees and seems like a great opportunity to meet your colleagues.
(Disclosure: I am sitting on a panel with Simona Ioffee and Blaise Hebert to discuss Virtual Engagement to Enhance Job Performance).

Crises in Canadian Government: Enable the emerging workforce! (February 9th)
A peer-to-peer roundtable conversation to discuss how the government can enable the emerging workforce and what technologies, policies and ways of thinking/operating could make a difference.  This event is connected to the One Million Acts of Innovation campaign and is free to attend.
Details can be found here; I've spoken with the organizers and the discussion should prove interesting should it bridge the gap between those who would be entering the public service and those who are ready to retire from their careers in it.  
(Disclosure: I've been invited to attend the event and help animate the discussion, but won't be doing any formal presentation).

Unconfirmed Travel Rumours
You might be able to find me in Toronto, Winnipeg and Regina in the next two months, but nothing has been nailed down just yet.  I'll provide more intel when I get it, in the interim if you are in those areas and want to connect, let me know.
Cheers

Originally published by Nick Charney at cpsrenewal.casubscribe/connect

The first step to thinking outside the box, is stepping outside it

I don't care how specialized your organization's mandate is, there will always be more information and knowledge outside your organization than within it.

So here's a question, why are organizations spending money on the dividing line between the two? 

Why are organizations effectively cutting off employees from the resources they need to accomplish their mission through measures like Internet access blocking or refusing to let employees work out of their cages offices.

Is it really fair to ask employees to be innovative and think outside the box with one breath while we deny them the means to actually do so with the next?

This is by far the most detrimental cognitive dissonance of organizational behaviour today. It limits the pool of potential solutions to any given problem, feeds paralysis by analysis, and otherwise undermines employee morale.


Innovation is at the edges

5D by Mark Sebastian

I've argued previously that disruptive innovation is about breaking traditional trade-offs and that the people best suited to innovate are nomads and immigrants: people who move seamlessly from one environment to the next, reconciling divergent world views as they go.

If this is indeed the case (and I believe it is) then the logical place to find innovation may in fact be at the organizational limits. Anyone looking to understand the next iteration of mandate, mission, or modus operandi should set up observation posts at the digital and physical organizational boundaries.

The edge of our organizational models will always be the most interesting places. Most of what informs my thinking (and thus my work) comes from outside the organization, and while some may think that is to my detriment, my experience is quite the opposite. The reason I have had any success is because I have demonstrated a clear and consistent ability to approach problems from a different angle and propose novel solutions; I've even been referred to by some as their "alternate lens".

In concrete terms, this means purposely associating and spending time with with people who I might not run into during a typical day at the office:

• Public servants from other departments, levels of government, and countries 
• Developers and hackers 
• Not for profit organizations 
• Academics and functional experts 
• Journalists, communication firms, and consultancy groups
• Private (for profit) companies
• etc

(... who all share my interest in people, public policy and technology.)

And while the web allows me to do all of this digitally and at relatively low cost, I can not understate the need to supplement online activities with real-world interactions whenever possible. This is one of the primary reasons I am willing to expend my own resources (travel costs, vacation, or weekends) to do things like participate in the Open International Hackathon, go to DC to help the Govloop team hand out free lunch to 500 public servants, or join the Hub Ottawa (a new coworking space).

In short, I make a concerted effort to do these (and other related) things because I know that stepping outside the box is the first step to thinking outside it.

What efforts are you making?  How are the people around you supporting (or blocking) you?


Notes

1. If you are interested in reading more about the confluence of coworking and the public sector I suggest this piece a by Jamey Coughlin entitled "hackers & bureaucrats a beautiful coworking mash-up?"; it was the inspiration for these (and other) thoughts.
2. Chelsea Edgell wrote a post called Reimagining the Boardroom Part 2: Cubicles and Sleep-pods that I read after having written this but felt worth pointing to.
3. I've started writing a special series for Apartment 613 (a popular local culture blog here in Ottawa) about the relationship between bureaucratic culture and the city's culture.   You can read my interview with a local burlesque dancer and photographer, both of whom also happen to be public servants.

If I don't publish anything between now and the new year have a great one and keep on scheming virtuously.

Originally published by Nick Charney at cpsrenewal.casubscribe/connect

The plight of the clay layer

"When I go to Heaven, I'll Spank God's Ass"
by alphadesigner

Let's face it, new hires want everything.

Senior management, perpetually seeking out the best and the brightest, hopes to give these new hires everything they desire but are often too busy with the work to bring the change to the bowels of the organization, leaving the mission to those in the middle.

While I still believe that middle management may be in the best position to foster innovation, I've also come to realize that they are often rendered ineffective by the very nature of being responsible for satisfying increasingly complex demands from both above and below them.

In essence, I think that middle management is unfairly expected to operationalize culture while simultaneously accomplishing mission.  This already uneasy task is made more difficult by the fact that often their contributions go unnoticed, and their resources eroded.  On top of it all, we cast them as the problem. We call them the clay layer. We question their motives, their authenticity.

But to be sure I doubt their impermeability is all that purposeful or sinister.

To be fair, the system is simply not designed to deliver what we are now asking of it. Look at how radically technology and the nature of work has shifted in the last 50 years - why haven't our organizational models kept pace?

The grim reality is that sometimes the system can be so broken (or perhaps more rightly, outdated) that it muddies even the clearest of waters (and perhaps reputations).

Most people I have met in the middle are simply ill-equipped to do all that is asked of them. I doubt it's a fun position to be in, and to be fair I'm not sure what (if anything) we are doing to support those being crunched in the middle.

I personally know many people in the middle who have taken on (read: have thrust upon them) more than any single person could (or should) handle; and this only exacerbates the problem.

This is the plight of the clay layer, and I for one, think we ought to take the time to recognize it.






Originally published by Nick Charney at cpsrenewal.casubscribe/connect