Quote of the week

“Blog. n. a Web site containing the writer’s or group of writers’ own experiences, observations, opinions, etc., and often having images and links to other Web sites.”

Editor’s Corner

Today we are launching a CGE blog at https://cgexecblog.wordpress.com/.

So, you might ask, why a blog? After all, CGE has a publication that reaches your desk ten times a year, a website at www.canadiangovernmentexecutive.ca, and daily postings on Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn that you follow.

The short answer: we wanted to create a forum so you can be part of a shared discussion on everything from the challenges you’re experiencing as a public servant to the issues facing a changing public sector.

Our editorial view, what guides us as we populate our website, magazine and social media outlets, is that the public sector is changing, and that your world as a leader of today or tomorrow, is changing with it.

The drivers of change will be well known to all of you: fiscal restraint, technology, citizen engagement, horizontality and globalization of issues, the political drive for more efficiency…

Whatever the list is (and I know you can add to it), sitting still is not an option. The question for all of us has to be: how are we going to respond so that we continue to provide the best service we can to our political masters and to Canadians? How will we need to change if we are to remain relevant as individuals and as institutions?

CGE’s outlets explore these questions. We examine policy options. We provide tools and tips – often from your colleagues in other jurisdictions, often from the private sector – on how you can do your job better. On our website, we also provide an index of upcoming conferences and meetings across Canada, news feeds, and summaries of CGE’s successful events…all focused on providing you, the public servant, with information and tools so you can do your job better.

Did you know that the most linked-to blog on the Internet has had over 50 million page views? (It belongs to Chinese actress Xu Jinglei)?

Our ambitions are more modest: we want a forum – a safe space – for you to create, respond, join in, share experiences. We have invited people who care about the future of our institutions to contribute, and I know their postings will be both powerful and provocative.

I hope you’ll find this new initiative useful and, more important, that you will join in the conversation about the future of public sector management and about the fine work you do.