Canadian Government Executive - Volume 23 - Issue 1

28 / Canadian Government Executive // January 2017 Culture Gilles Paquet T he critical challenge facing the public service is changing its culture. This is a direct conse- quence of the complexities and intricacies of the new kind of work re- quired by the “new governance” required in the 21st century. At stake is not simply a change in attitude, but a new aware- ness that change is not, and will not, be a one-time thing. The inter-relationships among all levels of government, depart- ments, stakeholders and citizens, as well as among jobs and functions within the public service, are bound to be more com- plex, unspecified, and ever-changing in the digital era. These days, there is a great deal of loose talk about “stewardship” in the public service as if it were some sort of passive activity designed to ensure that things don’t fall apart. It should be a lot more than that. It should be about breathing new life into structures. The task of stew- ardship is to ensure that the new gover- nance system works well. But it is crucial to recognize that it is fruitless to be an ex- ecutive in an organization that is poorly designed: stewardship entails, therefore, some concern for design and continuous interaction with the construction of the governance system. Even though I like to refer mostly to persons in positions of authority, it should also be clear that stewardship is not the preserve of executives, senior managers and supervisors. Stewardship is a process (neither a task nor a position) in which persons at all levels of the organization must partake. By focusing on those who are expected to effect change, I want to emphasize two main points: (1) that those in authority may, because of their author- ity, make or break the new governance; and (2) that those who wish to institute change cannot do it at arms’ length and be themselves untouched by the change. It’s about “do as I do”, not “do as I say.” The Context has Changed The new governance requires making sense of people’s experience by putting it into a larger context. For the public service, this means providing a sense of purpose, a sensitivity to why peo- ple do what they do, and a way to shape the organization by building a shared understanding with the many stakeholders. Meaning-mak- ing is about reflecting meanings that existed in the partners, and connecting them to one another in new ways appropriate to the de- mands of the new situation. Second, community-building is about establishing, developing, maintaining, sustaining and nour- ishing relationships within and be- real Cultural Change in the Public Service How to bring about tween organizations. It is all about skill- fully working interfaces where dilemmas, inconsistencies, contradictions and para- doxes are omnipresent. This requires the mastery of dialogue, the capacity to sus- pend judgment, and the ability to ques- tion one’s assumptions. Thirdly, stewardship cannot emerge unless the public service can improve its ability to adapt rather than simply rely on its traditional authority. This means an ability to “nudge”, to help the community address its particular challenges. As many observers of government have noted over the past quarter century, this means more contact between the public service and the people it serves. The heart of the matter is not goal-seek- ing and control, but intelligence and in- novation: the definition of standards and norms, and the negotiation of a moral, intellectual and emotional norm-holding pact, built on a multi-level dialogue. The whole institutional process becomes itself the learning process and the source of the redefinition of norms and stan- dards as a result of experience. Modest proposals I’m not denying that there has been some progress on this front, partic- ularly at the local levels of govern- ment. But the provincial and fed- eral levels are lagging badly. For the new governance system to take hold requires a thorough renewal of our way of selecting, evaluating and coaching executives. The first proposal has to do with