Publication Mail Registration Number: 40052410 THE MAGAZINE FOR PUBLIC SECTOR DECISION MAKERS WINTER 2023 VOLUME 29 | NUMBER 3 0 9 02 61399 70471 $5.00 Display until February 10 www.canadiangovernmentexecutive.ca FUTURE TEST YOUR POLICY AND PROGRAM INSIDE: THE IMPERATIVE FOR KNOWING CANADIANS MODEL INTRAPRENEURSHIP IN INNOVATION MINDSET & MECHANISMS: MEETING THE CYBERSECURITY IMPERATIVE
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Winter 2023 // Canadian Government Executive / 3 CONTENTS 10 The Imperative for Knowing Canadians By Nader Shureih 16 Future test your policy and program: An Anticipatory approach By Jonathan Calof PERSPECTIVE 6 Middle Managers: From Surviving to Thriving By Adam Ali, MBA 12 Ensuring the Future Success of a Remote Government Workforce: Three Key Considerations By Paul West and John Slater, ThinkOn 14 Capital Investment Plan & Delivery Impacts from The Future Workplace By Jonathan Burbee, Gordian 20 Empowering the Citizen Services Ecosystem in Canada: Simplicity, Humanity, Security By Mark Lambert, Accenture 22 MIDDLE MANAGEMENT Model intrapreneurship in innovation By John Wilkins 24 GOVERNING DIGITALLY Mindset & Mechanisms: Meeting the Cyber-Security Imperative By Jeffrey Roy 28 THE LAST WORD By Lori Turnbull 16 Future test your policy and program: An Anticipatory approach CGE ONLINE: Letters We welcome feedback on articles and story ideas. Email lori@promotivemedia.ca About the Cover Future test your policy and program: An Anticipatory approach It’s in the Archives Missed an issue? Misplaced an article? Visit www.canadiangovernmentexecutive.ca for a full archive of past CGE issues, as well as online extras from our many contributors.
OUR MISSION IS TO CONTRIBUTE TO EXCELLENCE IN PUBLIC SERVICE MANAGEMENT EDITORIAL DEPUTY EDITOR | LORI TURNBULL lori@promotivemedia.ca MANAGING EDITOR | TERRI PAVELIC terri@promotivemedia.ca COLUMNISTS | NADER SHUREIH JONATHAN CALOF JEFFREY ROY JOHN WILKINS EDITORIAL ADVISORY BOARD DENISE AMYOT, PENNY BALLANTYNE, JIM CONNELL, MICHAEL FENN, LANA LOUGHEED, JOHN MILLOY, VIC PAKALNIS, ROBERT SHEPHERD, ANDREW TREUSCH, DAVID ZUSSMAN SALES & EVENTS DIRECTOR, CONTENT & BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT | DAVID BLONDEAU 905-727-3875 david@promotivemedia.ca ART & PRODUCTION ART DIRECTOR | ELENA PANKOVA elena@promotivemedia.ca SUBSCRIPTIONS AND ADDRESS CHANGES CIRCULATION SERVICES | circulation@promotivemedia.ca GENERAL INQUIRIES 21374, 2nd Concession Rd, East Gwillimbury, ON, L9N 0H7 Phone 905-727-3875 Fax 905-727-4428 www.canadiangovernmentexecutive.ca CORPORATE GROUP PUBLISHER | J. RICHARD JONES john@promotivemedia.ca Publisher’s Mail Agreement: 40052410 ISSN 1203-7893 Canadian Government Executive magazine is published 6 times per year by Navatar Press. All opinions expressed herein are those of the contributors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher or any person or organization associated with the magazine. Letters, submissions, comments and suggested topics are welcome, and should be sent to lori@promotivemedia.ca REPRINT INFORMATION Reproduction or photocopying is prohibited without the publisher’s prior written consent. High quality reprints of articles and additional copies of the magazine are available through circulation@promotivemedia.ca. Privacy Policy: We do not sell our mailing list or share any confidential information on our subscribers. We acknowledge the financial support of the Government of Canada through the Canada Periodical Fund (CPF) for our publishing activities. www.canadiangovernmentexecutive.ca 4 / Canadian Government Executive // Winter 2023 WEB EDITOR’S NOTE Welcome to the December issue of Canadian Government Executive magazine! As 2023 draws to a close, we are mindful of the many challenges that we face as a country. The affordability crisis is the defining issue of the year. Everything seems to be getting more expensive, whether it be gas, groceries, clothing, or housing. Canadians are feeling the pressure. According to a poll conducted by Nik Nanos in November of 2023, 48.4% of respondents feel worse off financially than they were last year.1 The federal government is under simultaneous pressure to both give Canadians relief and avoid contributing to the inflation crisis by overspending. As a result, the fall fiscal update was measured in tone and substance. It included some federal measures to incentivize the development of affordable housing units, but much of this spending had already been announced and will be rolled out over several years. The next election, whenever it happens, is shaping up to be a debate about how to handle the affordability crisis. The Conservatives, who are way up in the polls, vow to work with municipalities to build housing rapidly and promise to “axe the carbon tax” that they claim is breaking Canadians’ backs. The Liberals are announcing various housing projects at the same time as they’ve declared that, by 2035, all cars sold in Canada must be zero emission. If it happens, it would require significant shifts in how we live, work, and travel. The parties offer distinctly different ideas for how to steer our economy going forward. It will be interesting to see how the U.S. presidential election in 2024 shapes the debates that are happening in Canada. In this issue, we are pleased to offer a series of articles that are forward-looking and future-focused. Authors explore a number of themes including: how to future-test policies and programs; the future of work in the public service; and, shifting from surviving to thriving and embracing innovation. We wish you the best for the holiday season. Please watch for our events and publications in 2024! Reference: 1. Aiello, Rachel. 2023. “Ahead of Freeland’s fiscal update, how are Canadians feeling about their finances?” CTV News. Available at: https://www. ctvnews.ca/politics/ahead-of-freeland-s-fiscal-update-how-are-canadians-feeling-about-finances-1.6649465 Dr. Lori Turnbull Deputy Editor, Canadian Government Executive
VANGUARDCANADA.COM/C4ISR2024 For more information, contact: David Blondeau at 905-841-7389 or david@promotivemedia.ca January 30, 2024 10th Annual Conference National Arts Centre, Ottawa, ON Presented by INTEROPERABILITY AND INTEGRATION – GETTING THROUGH THE TENSIONS TO SEE THESE LIVED AT SCALE AND AT SPEED Registration: In-person and Virtual Register Now
6 / Canadian Government Executive // Winter 2023 Our work environment continues to change right before our eyes. According to Statistics Canada, before the pandemic, less than 10% of Canadians worked fully remotely and today that number is above 20%, with an even higher percentage working partially remotely. A recent survey by the Global Government Forum amongst Federal Government knowledge workers indicates that more than 80% of these employees currently work in either a remote or hybrid manner. Many of the other roles within the Federal Government such as Border Agents, Service Canada Passport Agents, Correctional Workers, Parks Staff, Food Inspectors, and many others are in fact first line jobs that do not offer the opportunity to work remotely in any form. Since the onset of the pandemic, it has been largely left to Middle Managers to implement and support the progresPERSPECTIVE Sponsored Content By Adam Ali, MBA, PMP Partner - Public Sector Consulting sion to remote and then back and forth through various degrees of hybrid depending on the policies of the day from the Treasury Board Secretariat (TBS) and considering the equity of those in roles that cannot be performed remotely. Through our advisory work with many federal departments, we have continued to witness Middle Managers who must deal with the impact of these changes themselves, while simultaneously being left to execute the directions amongst their staff, usually with incomplete information, unclear rationale and most importantly limited tools. So, what is a Middle Manager anyway? BetterUp (Meg Lyons) defines the middle manager as someone who is in a leadership position and also reports to top management. Middle Managers manage up, and they manage down. They take direction and they give direction. When employees have questions or concerns MIDDLE MANAGERS: From Surviving to Thriving
Winter 2023 // Canadian Government Executive / 7 around strategy and direction, the impact on them, their own well being, etc. it’s their direct manager/supervisor/ team leader that they go to for information, support, empathy and solutioning. While Middle Managers are at the core of any change initiative within the organization, either cheering on and enabling the change amongst teams, or digging in and supporting resistance against the change, the most transformational change through the last four years of course has been the shift in where and how we work. On-site, remote, hybrid has shifted where we work from, how we work with each other and the tools we use to accomplish our work tasks. It has also accelerated our advancement of certain technologies to more effectively allow us to work in these various methods, together, or individually. Middle Managers continue to be thrust into the role of implementing these changes. Early in the pandemic employees looked to and felt supported by Executive levels as they made critical decisions about how, where and when work would be done in the interest of health and safety. We have conducted several Organizational Performance modeling initiatives for various Federal Departments and when reviewing the Public Service Employee Survey (PSES) results over the last four years it is clear that while the impact of Executives on employees initially spiked early in the pandemic, it has since returned to pre-pandemic levels. The data related to Middle Managers, however, depicts a sustained increase in their impact on their employees as they continue to provide critical support to team members to remove barriers, listen and empathize, develop flexible solutions, and continue to guide their journey to new, better, and different ways of working. In the latest PSES data, across the Government of Canada as a whole, when simply looking at Index scores of the impact of factors on employees, whether that be positive or negative impact, we see that the Organization itself and Senior Management have approximately a 68% impact on employees. Whereas direct supervisors, Middle Managers, have an over 80% impact on employees. Its clear Middle Managers are supporting teams, but are organizations supporting and enabling Middle Managers? We are now seeing governments pivot from growth towards restraint and old issues of constrained budgets and concern for productivity are returning. The trend is likely to continue as budgets unfold over the next couple of years and Middle Managers will be at the forefront of supporting austerity exercises and the usual push to do more with less. What cannot be ignored is the need to invest in Middle Managers even through these times of constraint. Without tooling and upskilling the middle layer, Departments and Agencies will inevitably be unable to navigate the steady stream of change taking place and benefits realization will be severely impeded. Gains made to date around Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI), Mental Health, Technology Advancement, Distributed Work Models, etc. are at risk of being diminished without investing in Middle Managers in areas such as the following: Results Based Leadership: • We are no longer in a management by walking around world. The deliverable or outcome of our work is not sitting in a cubicle for 7.5 hours a day. Through our work with many departments, we continue to see managers struggling with how to organize and manage their teams’ work when it is a not a project situation. Where we have seen success is when managers have been able to organize their teams around concrete outputs and outcomes and measure them in a manner that does not only allow to confirm that team members are working but enables them to have better performance conversations, enables them to better demonstrate value to internal and external clients, and empowers staff to be part of a result as opposed to just being a cost and activity on an annual work plan. Tooling and training Middle Managers to strategize, organize and lead around a results dimension is critical to future success. Change Leadership: • Everyone knows change is around us. Middle Managers sit in the difficult position of executing change every day while both empathizing and convincing staff to join them on the journey that they themselves may not even be sure about. We have conducted Change Leadership workshops across many Federal departments and without a doubt the greatest impact is always at the Middle Manager level. They engage in the discussion, they ask for more, they use the learnings immediately in practice. More organizations need to support their managers with Change Leadership training, job aids, and tools to reduce the anxiety and pressure on these managers while also ensuring better uptake and consistency within the changes underway. Agile Mindset: • An Agile mindset values innovation and recognizes the importance of experimentation and problem-solving skills within teams. A day doesn’t go by that I don’t here Federal Government clients telling us they need to be more agile. While workshops on general scrum techniques have been great for foundational knowledge in some organizations, what Middle Managers really need are learnings, tools and techniques to apply an agile mindset to the day-to-day activities of their team. Coaching on how to apply agile techniques to the development of policies, briefing notes, executive briefing decks, options analyses, financial forecasts, communications plans, and so on, turning the work all teams do on a daily, weekly, monthly, quarterly, and annual basis into “products” that can contribute to departmental internal and external outcomes. Sponsored Content PERSPECTIVE More organizations need to support their managers with Change Leadership training, job aids, and tools to reduce the anxiety and pressure on these managers while also ensuring better uptake and consistency within the changes underway.
8 / Canadian Government Executive // Winter 2023 PERSPECTIVE one and is quickly becoming the new “safety blanket” for managers. Not surprisingly, most of the capabilities at the Middle Manager and Team level in this area have come from learning from trial and error, youtube and peers. For Power BI and other business intelligence tools to be useful in supporting many of the items on this list as well as more broadly, Middle Managers need targeted training, coaching and job aids on how to build, view and tell executive level data stories based upon the dashboards and reports at hand. Working with departments on a daily basis, the need for access to relevant data on a timely basis in order to tell concise stories about opportunities, challenges, results and so on has never been more vital and Middle Managers continue to be disheartened by the lack of consistent enablement from their organizations. Artificial Intelligence Readiness: • Artificial Intelligence (AI) and in particular, Generative AI, have burst onto the corporate scene much faster than most anticipated. Those inundated with AI applications and ideas at home or in the world at large are itching to bring some of that to their workplaces. TBS recently launched a Guide on the use of Generative AI (September 2023) and many departments are undertaking various path finder projects to experiment and implement AI tools. While the promise of AI is real, the core of the organization that will need to be ready for the tools, ready to adapt business processes and ready to enable teams still require support to achieve the intended plans. Once again, tools and learnings to support Middle Managers would provide the grease necessary to support a smooth transition through AI related change. As the jobs of Middle Managers continue to get more challenging in a more complex environment and their role becomes more vital to their organizations’ success, this calls out for action. It won’t be enough to try to hunker down and try to survive. It requires investing time and effort in equipping them to thrive. As the most famous singer on the planet once said, Are you ready for it? Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) Awareness: • ESG objectives, particularly those related to Greening and DEI, are very prevalent in Mandate Letters. The awareness, skills and tools to be able to engrain and embed the thinking and practices required within departmental processes so that the outcomes become part of everyday life requires investment. In the most recent Auditor General Report (Oct 2023) DEI shortcomings were one of the items flagged for Management Action. Who will need to implement the Management Response? Yes, Middle Managers. Our client departments that are having greater success in these areas are the ones that embed principles around DEI, Accessibility, GBA Plus, etc. within both their strategic and day-today processes and do not simply add checklists to the end of their processes or initiatives. Collaboration Tools: • Teams are working in a more decentralized and virtual manner than ever before. How do we help Middle Managers in this environment besides giving everyone MS Teams, which is of course now the standard for online meetings? Luckily for Departments, MS Teams is only one piece of the broader Microsoft M365 suite that many departments have already implemented or are enroute to implementing. Tools such as SharePoint, OneDrive, MS Planner, Power Automate, Forms, Polls, etc. offer the opportunity to bring results driven orientations to life in an online fashion that Middle Managers can use as a lifeline to keep on top of their teams’ outcomes. Business Intelligence Tools: • A typical Middle Manager survival tool over the years has been MS Excel and for some MS Access. They have gone from traditional black books to black book “systems” to help organize, manage and track their teams and work. Over the last few years Power BI has exploded onto the desktops of everySponsored Content Once again, tools and learnings to support Middle Managers would provide the grease necessary to support a smooth transition through AI related change.
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THE IMPERATIVE FOR KNOWING CANADIANS In the face of dynamic shifts experienced by Canada since 2019, ranging from demographic changes and the rise of e-commerce to housing challenges and evolving work paradigms, it’s increasingly evident that traditional governance mechanisms may not be as effective as they once were. 10 / Canadian Government Executive // Winter 2023 KNOWING CANADIANS With the advancements in data collection and analytics, governments at all levels must consider a pivot towards a more data-informed approach. For two decades, Environics Analytics has partnered with Canadian governments at all 3 levels, providing them with nuanced insights that transcend basic demographics. While Statistics Canada remains a beacon of demographic understanding, truly knowing Canadians, especially in today’s fast-paced world, demands a deeper, more integrative approach. Small-area statistical accuracy has been invaluable for data-informed decisions, but the rapidly changing socio-economic landscape necessitates an even more agile approach. BY NADER SHUREIH
Governments stand on the threshold of a transformative era. By integrating various data sources and harnessing advanced analytics, they can significantly amplify policy efficacy. Instead of generic policies, imagine the potential of bespoke strategies tailored to real, current needs. Winter 2023 // Canadian Government Executive / 11 KNOWING CANADIANS The Speed of Change and the Need for Responsiveness Previously, annual demographic trends sufficed. But today, with technological advancements, trends are captured quarterly, offering a closer, near-real-time view of changes. The pandemic only accelerated this evolution, compelling us to innovate and adapt at an unprecedented pace. This rapid data acquisition and processing isn’t just a luxury; it’s becoming essential. Governments stand on the threshold of a transformative era. By integrating various data sources and harnessing advanced analytics, they can significantly amplify policy efficacy. Instead of generic policies, imagine the potential of bespoke strategies tailored to real, current needs. Consider a scenario: Service Canada could leverage near real-time immigration insights so that when 10,339 permanent residents choose Halifax as their new home between April 2022 and March 2023, and over 4,000 of them are from India, such insights mean that services can be adapted to cater to the unique needs of these new citizens, leading to more efficient and effective program planning and service delivery. Or consider another scenario that empowers local governments to truly grasp the impact of remote work on downtown cores. As of June 2023, the downtown cores of Longueuil, Burnaby, Gatineau, and Calgary are still witnessing a 65% decline in return-tooffice numbers compared to January 2020. These crucial insights, derived from anonymized, de-identified mobile device observations, provide a granular understanding of urban behavior. As a result, economic and social revitalization programs can be developed for these affected downtown areas, leveraging a mix of consumption and psychographic data about local and visiting populations. The aim? To infuse life back into these neighbourhoods and districts, supporting local communities and small businesses, and creating vibrant urban centers once more. With the potential to revolutionize program development, service delivery, and overall governance, the integration of data is not just a suggestion—it’s an imperative. Canada, with its rich tapestry of cultures and its ever-evolving demographic landscape, requires an approach that’s as dynamic as its populace. Adopting a data-centric approach isn’t just about staying updated; it’s about future-proofing our governance for the challenges and opportunities of tomorrow. The true strength of the Canadian government lies in its ability to better understand and adapt its mechanisms to its people’s needs. Arming Canada’s government executives with refined, integrated, and privacycompliant data is not just beneficial, it’s essential. As we embark on this series centered on “Knowing Canadians,” future discussions will delve into Canadians’ perspectives on the environment, health, electric vehicles, and mobility. Embracing comprehensive data is not just the future; it’s the present imperative.
12 / Canadian Government Executive // Winter 2023 could “enhance the inclusion of neurodivergent individuals in the workforce.”2 Digital modernization also fuels greater efficiency in the public sector by enabling more self-service options for citizens, such as the ability to complete forms online instead of having to fill out paper forms in person. When citizens have self-service options, public service workers are freed up to spend more time focusing on bigger strategic problems. As the government continues to embrace remote work options, the IT infrastructure underpinning the public sector will need to be modernized. This is critical to ensure mobile workers have the applications and tools they need to work effectively from anywhere. But while digital transformation presents several opportunities, there are also inherent risks. This is especially true for public sector entities that handle vast amounts of sensitive data, making them prime targets for cyberattacks and security breaches. By Paul West and John Slater PERSPECTIVE Sponsored Content Today, more than three years since the term COVID-19 became part of our lexicon, remote work shows no signs of slowing down. This is true not only for private sector workers but for those in the public sector too. According to research by Global Government Forum, 82 percent of Canadian public servants work remotely, including 19 percent who do so full-time.1 Supporting a mobile workforce has several benefits for government leaders, including fostering different approaches to collaboration, enabling greater productivity, boosting employee retention, and opening the door to more diverse hiring. According to a study by Deloitte, remote work and advancements in technology have “opened up opportunities for people with disabilities” while work flexibility Paul West, Director, Global Public Sector, ThinkOn John Slater, Chief Security Officer, ThinkOn It is crucial for government executives to ask the right questions and make thoughtful decisions as they undertake the significant task of digital infrastructure modernization. This will help ensure the government mitigates risks while reaping the benefits of a mobile public sector, well into the future. Consideration #1: Choose the right cloud solution A remote public workforce handling reams of data needs a secure and robust data management solution. While a hyperscale solution might be tempting, a hyperscale provider’s “one size fits all” approach has several drawbacks for the public sector. The varying needs of government departments often require a more personalized, tailored solution. For example, some remote public service workers may have application requirements for wireless and handheld devices where a hyperscale solution isn’t necessary or appropriate. Another important consideration when it comes to data management services is data sovereignty. When the hyperscalers are foreign-owned, any data stored in a hyperscale cloud is controlled by a foreign interest. The solution? A sovereign, secure, hybrid cloud that allows public sector ENSURING THE FUTURE SUCCESS OF A REMOTE GOVERNMENT WORKFORCE: Three Key Considerations
Winter 2023 // Canadian Government Executive / 13 organizations to choose what data they want to keep in Canada and store securely in an isolated way, ensuring the data isn’t misused. When a sovereign cloud provider has a thriving partner ecosystem, public sector entities get the best of both worlds. At ThinkOn, we have the tools to interconnect with hyperscalers like Microsoft or Google, and can provide the personalization needed for a bespoke solution. A multi-tenant cloud solution is also more efficient and cost-effective, helping bolster Canadian competitiveness with a solution that’s diverse, sovereign, and hybrid. Finally, there’s no vendor lock-in, meaning public sector entities can move applications from one provider to another if their needs change. As the public sector undergoes the digital modernization needed to enable a remote workforce, it’s critical that decision makers keep data sovereignty top of mind. With a remote or hybrid workforce, it becomes increasingly critical to ensure foreign governments are unable to access sensitive Canadian data by coercing a foreign-based company. Consideration #2: Find the right technology partners Public sector workers and government executives rely on insights gleaned from data to make important decisions, such as how best to allocate funds and resources. Sensitive metadata, such as citizens’ personal information, is embedded within the vast amounts of data flowing through government departments and agencies. As organizations continue to embrace remote work, the amount of data handled by public organizations keeps growing. As stewards of this data, government leaders charged with selecting technology partners must prioritize data security. And those technology partners need to have the right expertise and systems in place to secure collected data, while also providing a way to extract meaningful information from it. When evaluating potential technology vendors, public service agencies should consider the standards those vendors adhere to when it comes to security and data management. Whether evaluating a Canadian or international software company, decision makers should feel confident there are strong security guardrails in place. With this in mind, those charged with making decisions need to ask vendors what controls, protections, and assurances are built into the design of the data. Consideration #3: Know when to retire legacy infrastructure An important part of digital transformation is knowing when to abandon legacy infrastructure that no longer serves your needs. This can be harder than it sounds, especially when legacy assets represent a significant capex investment. Public sector executives should stay focused on the bigger picture and resist the temptation to hold on to legacy assets while trying to squeeze more value out of them. This could mean replacing legacy assets with more efficient solutions that are better optimized to enable a remote workforce. While we’re on the topic of legacy infrastructure, let’s talk about legacy data. There’s an abundance of government data sitting in boxes—stored on paper, tapes, and CDs. This data is a goldmine of valuable information for government decision-making, and needs to be made easily available online, which is why the public sector’s digital modernization efforts must encompass the digitization of legacy data. This includes ensuring data is protected and securely stored once digitized. Undertaking an IT modernization process requires introducing new applications, solutions, and tools. When upgrading digital infrastructure, bear in mind that implementing foreign-owned software and tools means granting foreign companies access to potentially sensitive data that they can use in harmful ways. Before enlisting the services of a foreign-owned company, Canadian public sector executives should ask themselves: do the benefits outweigh the risks when it comes to allowing access to sensitive citizen data? When contemplating this question, consider bad actors, which come in two forms: non-state-related bad actors that use ransomware and the dark web, and state-related bad actors that harvest data for malicious objectives. This reinforces the need to keep Canadian data secure in Canada with companies that have proven expertise and experience. A bright future for Canadian data When the COVID-19 pandemic forced a large swath of the public sector to work from home, it quickly became evident that it’s possible for thousands of government workers to work remotely—if the right tools are in place. Improvements in security for software tools have been key in facilitating the transition to remote work, allowing employees to work securely from anywhere, using their desktops, laptops, or smartphones. With a mobile workforce, protecting data and keeping it secure is a top priority. Thankfully, there are robust cybersecurity tools available to protect data, like VPNs and other forms of encryption and authentication. Ongoing digital transformation—adapting to an everchanging environment and optimizing infrastructure and processes—will be critical to ensure continuous data security so that public servants can continue to work remotely into the future, using secure software tools. The benefits to a public sector that fully embraces digital modernization are twofold: public servants are empowered to work and collaborate in new and innovative ways, and government leaders are empowered to hire more diversely, while realizing efficiency and productivity gains. With opportunities come risks, but these can be contained if government leaders make careful, deliberate decisions during the digital transformation journey. Doing so will help them capitalize on the opportunities available to them, ensuring the future competitiveness and success of Canada’s public service. Learn more about ThinkOn’s data centre services and sovereign cloud: https://thinkon.com/ References: 1. Richard Johnstone. 2023. “Four in Five Canadian public servants working remotely in part or in full, survey finds.” Global Government Forum. October 9. https://www.globalgovernmentforum.com/four-in-five-canadian-public-servants-working-remotelyin-part-or-in-full-survey-finds/ 2. Christina Brodzik, Jonathan Pearce, Monika Mahto, Brenna Sniderman, Abha Kulkarni, Roxana Corduneanu. 2023. “Inclusive or isolated? New DEI considerations when working from anywhere.” May 25. https://www2. deloitte.com/xe/en/insights/topics/ value-of-diversity-and-inclusion/ diversity-and-inclusion.html Sponsored Content PERSPECTIVE
14 / Canadian Government Executive // Winter 2023 THE FUTURE WORKPLACE PERSPECTIVE and the cost of employing experienced planning and project delivery staff impairs many organizations’ ability to deliver changes that workers need. With shortages in in-house procurement professionals, innovative procurement methods become crucial. Fortunately, third parties are able to provide the solutions – but it’s up to each organization to determine which partner best suits to their needs. BUILDING BETTER COMMUNITIES The call for a new workplace requirements has imposed pressure on those making capital investment plans. Layered upon the already complex considerations that drive prioritization efforts is the stress of meeting new norms. While there are innovative solutions and services to help organizations with the transformation, what is certain is that the transition to the Future Workplace will take time. Gordian partners with public sector real estate organizations to provide accurate insights, robust technology, and comprehensive expertise needed to reimagine the workplace. Gordian’s capital planning and public procurement solutions empower the public sector to make better decisions, complete more efficient projects and deliver better outcomes for your communities. References 1. Office report: small on personal desk space, big on meeting space - The Globe and Mail 2. Ontario Public Service (OPS) Modern Office Space Version 1.0 (infrastructureontario.ca) - PowerPoint Presentation (gccollab.ca) - Blueprint. (gov.bc.ca) 3. “The Future of the Central Business District – Creating dynamic urban centers”, JLL Global Research, May 2023 4. Home - ModernTO (createto.ca) 5. Federal public works department aims to cut up to half its office space | CBC News To this day, workers in all industries are still experiencing ripple effects of the pandemic. Organizations were forced to quickly implement new strategies for people management. From adjusting office hours to reconfiguring spaces, organizations are striving to do what’s best for their employees. Various industry publications have been producing content discussing the economic and workforce implications of different approaches. While the conclusions are diverse, one common takeaway is that corporate real estate organizations now have to consider what the future of the workplace might look like when creating their capital investment plans. A NEW CONSIDERATION Capital planning was already a multi-faceted process. In addition to condition-based life-cycle management, many organizations have stringent sustainability and social objectives to meet. The need to configure newly acquired space or reconfigure existing space to meet new corporate objectives only adds to the complexity. For example, a recent Globe and Mail article1 noted the trend of offices going from private and dedicated desk space towards more collaborative areas. In response, governments are refreshing corporate space planning guidelines and standards to support these adaptations2. In today’s competitive labour market, organizations that wish to get employees back into the office have to entice employees by making corporate space as attractive and functional as their home office. This is consistent with research related to the need to adapt existing office spaces to meet new demand for more amenities and ‘experience-based’ spaces3. Now, government organizations such as the City of Toronto are using this new demand to justify workplace modernization efforts. Initiatives such as Toronto’s ModernTO4 are leading the way by calling for reevaluation of existing facilities to better suit community needs and releasing assets to the market for community use. Real property expenses are often the second line item in public sector budgets, after human capital. Underutilized space is costly as it needs to be air conditioned, maintained, leased or amortized. So reevaluating existing spaces to see where the overall footprint can be reduced is beneficial. Aside from the internal benefits of portfolio reassessment, public sector entities can also make beneficial economic impacts in their communities by reducing their footprint5. Many communities are reconsidering how Central Business Districts will function as places to attract and retain businesses by reimagining the impact of their government, educational and cultural institutions. Since reconfiguring facilities also means considerable budget demands, sometimes it is difficult to justify the extra expense given already strained capital investment plans. To help defend these new plans, many organizations are turning to sophisticated software and advisory services. MAKING THE TRANSFORMATION Forces that led to reconsideration of how spaces are used have also impacted the ability to make needed changes. Labour shortages, fluctuating construction costs Sponsored Content Capital Investment Plan & Delivery Impacts from
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FUTURE TEST YOUR POLICY AND PROGRAM: AN ANTICIPATORY APPROACH BY JONATHAN CALOF 16 / Canadian Government Executive // Winter 2023 FUTURE TEST APPROACH Future test involves techniques that provide a structured approach for examining policy, program and proposals from the perspective of its ability to succeed based on an external environmental perspective. For purposes of brevity, the article will use the word program to mean program, policy or legislation. The article is based on thirty years experience using the techniques discussed in this article to help Federal governments in several countries in the world including Canada, several provincial governments and municipal governments to develop, implement and then monitor new programs. Considerable research is done today to create these programs: industry consultation is frequently done; econometric modeling and a arrange of other techniques. Future test is an additional technique (actually techniques) that recognize that for the program to succeed from a future test perspective two questions need to be addressed: 1) Will the program be used as intended? For the program to succeed, it must be used by the people/groups that it targets in the way it was envisioned. For a small business investment program that I was involved with, venture capital firms would have to use the credit and small businesses would have to accept funding from venture capital firms. In the case of a nanotechnology program that I helped to advise, the companies in that industry are the ones who will have to apply for and use the funds for and hopefully do the research envisioned by the program. Governments create programs but they can’t control who decides to use it and how they use it. So future test asks the question, when the program is launched will the people intended to use it, use it and will they use it in the way it was intended. 2) When the program is actioned will the desired outcome make sense any more? It takes time to create and implement a Jonathan Calof, UNESCO Professor, co-chair anticipatory systems for innovation and new ventures, University of New Brunswick and Full Professor Telfer School of Management, University of Ottawa calof@telfer.uottawa.ca
Winter 2023 // Canadian Government Executive / 17 FUTURE TEST APPROACH Examples of the future test approach Will the program be used by the targets in the way envisioned. For the small business venture capital credit to work, venture capital firms need to value the credit as being sufficient to cause them to make investments in small businesses. As well, for the program to work small businesses must accept this venture capital investment. Competitive intelligence was used to develop profiles on selected investment capital firms and small businesses to future test whether they would act in the way required. Interviews were also done with each of these groups as well. The conclusion based on using competitive intelligence and market research techniques was that venture capital firms welcomed the credits but small businesses did not welcome venture capital which many referred to as “vulture capital”. The program would not work. In another case a loan guarantee program to assist alternative energy firms failed because although the companies would use it, the banks in that country did not want to provide loans to firms in this industry. Profiling and market research approaches were used in this case as well. When the program is actioned will the desired outcome make sense any more? In the case of the incentive for investing in small business, results would be seen quickly (two years). But the nanotechnology program (and telecommunications legislation that used this approach) would require many years to see the impact of the program. It takes a lot of time for a company to develop and then take to market a nanotechnology product. Now add in the amount of time to develop the legislation, get it through Parliament and depending on the country the Senate and then the time to fully implement it and you have between one year and 20+ years between the idea and the implementation. David Wolfe a noted economist from University of Toronto said that impact of decisions being made by government today on Autonomous Vehicles will impact what we see in AV’s in thirty years. Key in all this is that while statistical databases, market research, industry consultation and the like are very important in developing programs, policies and legislation, these are typically routed either in the past (statistics) or today. This means that as part of the future test approach the question is asked what the environment will look like next year (tax policy) or in 20 years (nanotechnology) and how will the program. Let’s call this the program temporal period. For the small business venture capital investment program, it took roughly one year to get the program running and another year for the investment firms to start applying for it. In the nanotechnology program it was two years to get it past the legislature but it would be another five years before the R&D investment would result in the commercialization activities envisioned. Future test asks the question for example in the case of the nanotechnology program, will the market in seven years still want the products envisioned by the program? Will other countries/companies have leapfrogged the intended products. Programs are normally developed in the context of the problem today that needs to be fixed, future test in this sense looks at whether the “fix” will make sense when the results of the program occur. Future test involves techniques that provide a structured approach for examining policy, program and proposals from the perspective of its ability to succeed based on an external environmental perspective.
18 / Canadian Government Executive // Winter 2023 FUTURE TEST APPROACH Looked a slightly different way future test at this stage asks the question are the decisions that the intended targets of the program making suggest that the program outcomes will be realized. If not, then the program can be altered at an early point. proposed program fit then? Will what is proposed today lead to the appropriate outcome when the intended results of the program are finally realized. Techniques such as horizon scanning, scenarios, road maps are examples of techniques used for this purpose. For a program designed to encourage a specific type of cleantech development we had to look at what other countries were doing in this industry and what they were developing. The question being is what we are supporting going to lead to the countries companies being in front of the industry or trailing what is already being developed. Sometimes future test includes used a futures literacy approach to help envision distant futures and distant desired, futures. Predicting 10 to 20 years is not possible but, in a program, I did with a small town they envisioned what they would like to look like in 10 years (futures literacy). We then looked at what was required to realize that future (timelining approach) which led to the identification of decisions that needed to be made now and actioned so that the future vision could be realized. Market insight was used to identify what needed to be done to successfully action the decisions (profiling, market assessment and other techniques). In this example town leadership realized that one of the major factors limiting attraction of business to the town was the poor state of the hospital. This led to using competitive intelligence/market insight, to learn about the hospital approval process and then profile those that would be responsible for making the decision. The result of actioning what future test identified was that the leadership applied to the province for the new hospital and it was successful. The hospital proposal was approved and implemented. Along with other actions taken by the group the actual future ten years later was very close to the one desired. Future test past implementation Predicting how people will react to programs and trying to determine what future environment will look like is fraught with much uncertainty. Over time, things change and that can affect the likelihood of program success. The idea of future test past implementation is to continually monitoring for signs that: 1) The program is being used or will be used as intended 2) That the desired outcome of the program still makes sense There is a technique in competitive intelligence called timelining, foresight has a similar technique called back-casting. The essence of both is that long before the actual event occurs, there will be signs that you can follow that will let you know if the event will happen. While we tend to focus on the endpoint, for example that the appropriate nanotechnology products are being commercialized, we know that several activities have to occur before that, for example, doing the research, before that hiring the appropriate research staff, before that applying for the funds, before that exploration activities. These are just a few of the activities that you will find on a timeline. Under a timeline/back casting future test approach is do the “signs” (information) that we can pick up on for each step of the timeline suggest that the eventual outcome (the desired nanotechnology products) will be what was intended. The earlier you can figure this out the quicker corrective action can be taken. Looked a slightly different way future test at this stage asks the question are the decisions that the intended targets of the program making suggest that the program outcomes will be realized. If not, then the program can be altered at an early point. For the nanotechnology program we sat down with both companies in the industry and government and drew out the timeline.
Winter 2023 // Canadian Government Executive / 19 FUTURE TEST APPROACH The first step in the timeline (post program announcement) would be companies asking questions about the program to government officers. The second step was they then applying to the program. Other sequencing steps were identified including those related to R&D activities. Now business analytics is brought in to future test the program. To address the first step in the timeline, the recommendation for future test was to gather from government officers who answer companies’ questions about programs a list of all questions and discussions they had with companies about the program. The questions about the nanotechnology program were gathered and analyzed. Content analysis and word maps would show in a sense what they planned to use the program for (or hoped that the program would do). This would enable projecting how the companies would likely use the program, the type of R&D they were thinking of doing. The applications were also analyzed on an ongoing basis. This would let the department know at a very early stage if the eventual products envisioned by the program were going to be developed and then whether commercialization would happen. This type of future test was done on an ongoing basis and enabled the Department to modify both the program and the program information material to ensure that program objectives could be realized. The above addresses the question of is the program going to be used as intended and could be done on a frequent basis. As for the question of does the outcome of the program still make sense. Competitive intelligence, foresight and futures literacy approaches would be used. If the products are expected to be in the future, what does that future now look like. One year into the program a new roadmap would be put together. Further officers would ve asked when they were at trade shows and conferences to look for information on emerging innovations in the nanotechnology industry that would challenge the ability of the program to reach its targets. Looking at decisions being made that can affect the market for the intended nanotechnology will enable the department to determine whether the future market will still support the investment. Again, information gathered enables the Department to further modify the program, its delivery and how it was being communicated to companies. This future test approach has been applied by me both directly through consulting activities and indirectly by government officers taking my program. It has been used to develop Telecommunications policy, identify agrifood markets, develop industrial policy, create investment tax credit, loan guarantee programs and grant programs for many different industries and more. The future test approach has been used in several countries include Canada at the Federal provincial and municipal levels. A future test approach using techniques from competitive intelligence, market insight, foresight, futures literacy, and marketing is not intended to replace how programs (including policies and legislation) are developed but does provide an additional approach to help better develop and target programs, policies and legislation. A future test approach using techniques from competitive intelligence, market insight, foresight, futures literacy, and marketing is not intended to replace how programs (including policies and legislation) are developed but does provide an additional approach to help better develop and target programs, policies and legislation.
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