Canadian Government Executive - Volume 23 - Issue 02

February 2017 // Canadian Government Executive / 29 tile, Uncertain, Complex and Ambiguous. Today, the relentless upheavals of the digital world threaten to make any new product or service obsolete even before it launches. Fortunately, strategies exist for deal- ing with these chaotic realities, and for mitigating their risks. But there’s a catch: These strategies have to be incorporated into project planning at the very earliest stages. Applying them only when the need becomes inescapable will almost certainly be too little, too late. In the words of the legendary UCLA basketball coach John Wooden, “Failing to prepare is preparing to fail.” The most necessary strategies are be- coming increasingly obvious. A recent report from BC Auditor General Carol Bellringer cites three main reasons for government IT failures: inadequate in- house skills, “overly ambitious” goals and “incomplete” business cases. All three factors point to a foundation of knowledge that is not up to support- ing the initiatives that must be built on top of it. And in so many of these recent disasters, the lack of knowledge or skill was recognized only in hindsight, only after internal problems became public humiliations. Successful IT projects begin with the critical skills necessary for achieving ob- jectives while anticipating and avoiding risk. But it’s clear that not all govern- ment departments have those skills at the ready. Indeed, media coverage of the problems in Shared Services has pointed to decision makers who had little or no experience with IT project management. So, if skills gaps aren’t clear or obvious, how is a government executive sup- posed to plan for training? The good news is that my team at Global Knowl- edge offers deep experience in govern- ment training, as well as expertise in proactively identifying the upgraded skills necessary for any IT-based initia- tive. In working to bring Canadians the Government 2.0 they’re demanding, government decision makers are deal- ing with some tough realities. Budget restrictions mean that the most-needed tech and project management skills probably can’t be recruited from out- side. To be blunt, today’s government executives have to get more talent out of the talent they already have. Developing that talent requires pre- cisely focused training, and precisely focused training requires planning — not in the midst of the project, but in the earliest stages of scoping. It should be noted that the needed skills go well beyond IT. Recent events have demon- strated that development is also need- ed in project management, as well as in the so-called soft skills of leadership and communication. Furthermore, the realities of today’s world mean that new expertise is also needed in cybersecu- rity, data protection, privacy, account- ability and governance. Workplace training has traditionally been given in reaction to a need. When a need arose, people were sent on a course. Unfortunately, that after-the- fact approach to learning won’t help anyone stay off the “red” list. Work- place learning in general (and govern- ment learning in particular) requires a long-term approach that is part of the organization’s foundational principles. At Global Knowledge, we recommend starting with a skills-gap analysis. As the name implies, it is an assessment of whatever shortfalls exist in the capa- bilities of a group or individual, and it is accompanied by a detailed learning plan to provide the missing skills. Ideally, the skills-gap analysis will be part of an overall learning strategy, one that aligns all learning plans with the strategic aims and priorities of the organization. (It bears repeating: Unless training is ex- plicitly linked to a larger organizational strategy, it is likely to be a poor use of your scarce resources.) Finally, as the government’s recent problems with IT implementation have shown, there is a need for software training, a need that applies whether the product is off-the- shelf or customized for government use. Once again, success depends on having a training plan identified, procured and implemented well before the software itself goes live. Budget constraints are a fact of gov- ernment life, as are tight timelines. And it is true that training for measurable outcomes takes time and money. To- gether, these realities present training as one of the more expendable line items in an IT project. But delaying skills devel- opment or eliminating it altogether rep- resents the worst kind of false economy. As history has shown us repeatedly, governments will never be praised for the money they save on a failure. Global Knowledge is the world’s leading provider of training in the skills most relevant to deliverology, including IT, project management, leadership and communications. Visit us at globalknowledge.ca to discover how Global Knowledge can help you make deliverology a reality. Budget restrictions mean that the most-needed skills probably can’t be recruited from outside. To be blunt, today’s government executives have to get more talent out of the talent they already have.