Canadian Government Executive - Volume 22

Figure 1.

Alberta CoLab Projects and Advising Portfolio

June 2016 //

Canadian Government Executive /

by facilitation, visualization, prototyping,

business innovation and modeling, and

customer and user experience techniques.

Alberta CoLab is unique among innova-

tion labs because it specializes in inter-

ministerial projects. It provides strategic

process experts for collaborative advising,

trained facilitators to lead complex pro-

cesses and system mapping for Alberta’s

complex cross-ministry projects. It deliv-

ers capacity-building and training to de-

velop design and systems thinking skills

in government departments. Alberta Co-

Lab has engaged well beyond the GoA as

well, advising on lab strategy and busi-

ness models for other government inno-

vation labs, including the City of Calgary,

Alberta Health Services and the Energy

Futures Lab.

In its inaugural year over 62 workshops

were held for 38 projects in collabora-

tion with 14 different ministries. In 2015,

33 more projects were undertaken. The

newer projects are run by larger teams

because evaluations identified a need

for more sustained stewardship of sys-

temic design projects. It was not enough

to simply initiate projects: Alberta CoLab

lberta CoLab began as a kind

of public service experiment.

Its seeds were planted in 2012

when Alex Ryan, a systemic de-

signer at Booz Allen Hamilton, was asked

to lead a systemic design planning and

training session with the departments of

Energy and Environment. The workshop

convened 19 leaders from five ministries

within the Government of Alberta (GoA).

The goal was to significantly improve the

effectiveness of the natural resource man-

agement system by reframing the col-

lective understanding of the system and

find ways to build collaboration through

tighter group cohesion and alignment.

Remarkably, it delivered. A new consen-

sus towards integrating resource manage-

ment was born. But something even more

important happened: a new community

of practice for systemic design was born

and the team that made it happened was

institutionalized within the GoA.

Ryan was hired by James Allen, the As-

sistant Deputy Minister for Innovation

and Integration in the Department of En-

ergy, as Senior Systems Design Manager.

In 2014, the Department of Energy found-

ed Alberta CoLab as a cross-ministry hub

for systemic design and strategic fore-

sight, with Alex Ryan, Keren Perla as Di-

rector of Design and Foresight, Jonathan

Veal, Sandra Honour and Eleanor Joel

forming the inaugural team. A design stu-

dio was custom-built and the team started

to deliver a continuing series of 6-day

training courses in systemic design. Their

objective was to train public servants in

collaborative skills for policy and program

development. Starting with a core model

of design thinking and systems thinking

and mapping, their approach supported

sees them through to implementation and

evaluation. Figure 1 summarizes the range

of projects and strategic programs Alberta

CoLab has advised on over this period.

The team applies this integrated sys-

temic design approach to a broad range of

projects and policy initiatives from energy

policy and literacy to sustainability man-

agement, from tourism to healthcare. The

cross-ministerial nature of CoLab has led

it to discover new relationships between

ministries, policies and stakeholders. For

example, in 2015, the CoLab convened

thirteen ministries and agencies to co-cre-

ate a sustainable energy strategy to guide

stewardship of the province’s energy sys-

tem for the next decade and beyond.

Another significant project was the de-

velopment of the Open Government Strat-

egy, resulting in online resources, new pol-

icy frameworks and the strategy (which

can be found at the GoA website: open.

alberta.ca)

. Alberta CoLab facilitated a se-

ries of creative design workshops, engag-

ing participants across the government to

map and prototype solutions for open data

and transparent governance, to create a

draft strategy as an end product. Figure

2 shows the Alberta CoLab in action, as

teams constructed maps and models to

share collective insights and learning.

Alberta CoLab managed this project

through three streams of work: Executive

team planning, Community of practice

prototyping, and development of a case

study for their ongoing training. The open

government strategy serves the mission of

“a stronger, transparent relationship be-

Design

Cutting Edge Policy Design

on Complex Problems

Alberta’s CoLab

Peter

Jones