The 2019 OneTeamGov Global Report
Missed 90% of the discussions at OTGG 2019? Here is a report of the discoveries made in every session
edited by Lauren Bellefeuille
Observations
After my 40 day journey of reading the notes from every session that took place at OneTeamGov Global 2019, I’ve realized that there are two patterns of topics that seem to be on everyone’s mind:
- Improved communication and
- Effective talent management
At a glance, the topics proposed do not seem to immediately connect with these themes. Yet, as I read deeper into the notes and got a feel for the direction of the conversations that took place, I realized that they almost always came back to these two core problems. People do not feel heard, or informed, or recognized for their skills. They see others not being heard, informed and recognized for their skills. These are concerns that span across levels, departments and countries, and to solve them, even in part, would be a huge innovative leap forward for the public service.
Please enjoy my summarization of the conversations, and make your own connections. What pattern or common threads do you see? If you want to look into any of the discussions deeper, please feel free to read the document with the corresponding session numbers in our shared GoogleDoc.
Thank you to everyone who made this event possible, and to everyone who made it special.
Emma-Rose Beauchamp
These sessions are not written in the order of their popularity, but in the order of their place on the agenda.
All descriptions, explanations and practical actions were derived 100% from the notes taken during the sessions.
1. Rethink & Restructure Public Sector to Address Climate Change
The words that come to mind when we think of climate change include: complex, polarisation, crisis, denial, values, short-termism, privilege, opportunity and responsibility. Although not everyone is on the same page with this issue, the group did agree that Canadians understand the urgency around climate change and that public servants do not need to play the role of whistleblowers, as much as we need to be supporters of actions and initiatives that can help the cause.
Practical Actions
- Embed climate considerations in our projects and initiatives.
- Create a non-partisan chief climate officer who remains across terms.
- Recognize the separation between needs and desires in consumption.
- Take a cue from New Zealand, where the climate policies are expected to look 15–25 years into the future instead of ending with the political term.
- Communicate the facts through multiple channels.
- Be supportive, not alarmist. Offer help to industries who are not usually considered in the climate change discussion and consider the different regions and groups of people affected.
- Take responsibility in your office to influence positive action.
2. Create a talent pool to share resources across ministries
The vision is to allow people with diverse skill sets to explore various areas of the public service. That exploration would foster development and learning while also finding better fits for projects or job openings. The hope is to prevent the occurrence of an insular culture within a department, and help bring fresh ideas that have the potential to break down silos without the constraint of geographic locations. Some of the possible pit falls included the strengthening of negative environments — as people avoid them instead of trying to mitigate them — or creating haves and have-nots amongst employees. Another challenge might be in the new training needs for managers to support this type of employee. Thankfully, an initiative of this sort already exists and can be referenced as an example in Canada’s Free Agents program.
Practical Actions
- Research the pros, cons, successes and failures of the Free Agents program and the Micro Missions program currently operating in the federal government.
- Look into best practices outside of Canada.
- Start in a single department before expanding across government.
- Communicate innovative ideas and job openings to your network.
3. Executives take an ongoing rotation in front-line service delivery
Amber, the idea creator, explained that after taking a promotion to a more senior level, she has been losing touch with her original role as a front line service employee. Everyone has a tendency to become shrouded in their own context and can struggle to remember or consider the perspective of others. Therefore, perhaps this initiative should not just be targeted at executives, but should be extended to policy analysts who do not have the experience of the group they are trying to serve.
The goal of this initiative is to create grounded services that truly meet the needs of the people they are being created for, and to create trust amongst our many layers of hierarchy.
Practical Actions
- Get data! Collecting metrics that can prove both the benefits of taking action, but also the negative impact of not taking action. These can be qualitative or quantitative data that helps us better understand the demographic we are working with.
- Work empathetically and build relationships to foster trust at all levels.
- Be a storyteller of different perspectives and narratives to broaden everyone’s understanding.
- Use new tools when possible to help shift how we think about our work with one another.
4. Address the power, privilege, and white dominant culture and how they show up in policies and programs
This is a huge issue that is not only a public service problem, but a societal problem. The only way to learn is by being uncomfortable in the face of the data that supports this topic, and through conversations. We must listen, hear and broaden our understandings.
Many in the room felt that this discussion was a chance to recognize their own privilege, and to acknowledge what their culture had done as colonizers. To learn and to recognize internal biases is the only way to correct our policies and our services, where the biases have already been baked in. Despite this seeming like a hard task to achieve, the group came up with some ideas that can be tackled as individuals, or as an institution.
Practical Actions
- Don’t wait for people to come to you with their narratives. Go out, talk to people, gather data, and analyze.
- Be proactive and ask questions at the onset of policy creation. Then ask again, and again iteratively until policy is as inclusive as possible.
- Don’t be scared of our differences. Admit that there is a problem and have the conversation!
- Create spaces, in the workplace and outside, that invite diverse stories and invite people to the table who are not usually present.
5. Decentralizing government into regions
The idea was raised to increase job opportunities across Canada, instead of in only a handful of locations. This should be considered the future of work.
Practical Actions
- Update the governments technology to enable remote working.
- Gain a better understanding of the needs of the regions.
- Communicate openly and build trust with colleagues.
6. Use well-being factors as key social government success factors
This idea originates from New Zealand, where the country is using the well-being of its citizens as an economic measurement. This decision came with an aptly named ‘well-being budget’ that targets five well-being related priorities. You can read more about this interesting initiative in this New York Times article.
Health is not only physical, but includes our mental health, basic rights and access to services like education. Do our services lack the perspective of health? The participants of this session agreed that a higher focus on health and well-being can improve our services, and in turn, do more for our citizens. In order for this initiative to work, there would need to be further collaboration between the federal and provincial governments.
Practical Actions
- Connect with subject matter experts and embed them in policy to gain a broader understanding of well-being.
7. Epic fail week!
In order to learn from our mistakes more efficiently, Lisa proposed that the government host an epic fail week as a way to celebrate our stumbles and learn from the ways that get back up. It has been shown that scientific experiments that fail, and don’t get recorded or published, are simply repeated, wasting time and money.
Further, a culture that accepts failure and does not penalize for it, reaps the rewards of better innovation and more creative ideas. When people are afraid that a mistake or a failed project will stunt their career, they become more risk adverse and less likely to try something outside of the status quo. In order for the public sector to advance, we need to allow people to fail, enable them to learn, and support them in trying new things.
Practical Actions
- Share your own stories, or the stories of others, on a project that failed and what was learned from it.
- Don’t be afraid or cut down by a slap on the wrist.
- Be loud and proud about your failures to make it safe for others to share.
- Frame failures as learning events to make people more comfortable.
- Leave room in your project budget for learning, reiterating and reflecting.
8. Federal, Provincial, and Territorial client centric service - experience focused
Citizens should not be expected to memorize the service offerings of various governments departments. Therefore, regardless of where someone lives, or what they are looking for, they should have a seamless service experience across government levels and departments. With a country of our geography, this can become an issue for in-person services in areas where the technology is not as reliable or language needs are different. We do however have examples of where integration has succeeded, such as the emergency alert system.
A very similar idea was discussed in session 30 and session 11.
Practical Actions
- Find examples of how governments have worked together to deliver a service to adapt and build on the model.
- Use hubs such as public libraries as a starting point for offering multi-level services.
- Look at under-served populations as a starting point for designing interaction methods and points.
9. The government can use modern tools!
Government employees often find that the tools they know and love for working outside of their jobs, are blocked inside the workplace. This inaccessibility of digital tools occurs for a number of reasons including bandwidth issues, information sharing risks, or policies restricting the use of foreign servers. Despite this, many public servants still agree that the benefits of using collaborative tools developed by private industry, outweigh the risks. Many feel that they are prevented from working efficiently due to antiquated rules, and perceived risk versus real risk.
Practical Actions
- Qualify the risks of not taking action and making use of modern tools.
- Don’t assume that access is impossible just because it is difficult.
- Did you manage to get YouTube unblocked? Share your rationale for gaining access to a tool with your network.
- Become a tool advocate for something that you believe in.
- Start with understanding the needs of you or your team before choosing the tool for the job. This will help build your business case and ensure you have what you need.
10. Mentorship 2.0: Every position level represented at the executive committee on a rotating seat -or- act as a co-leader
This topic is envisioned as an expansion of the ‘take me with you’ initiative, where staff are not only able to see how executives make decisions and gain a better understanding of their department, but could also take part in projects alongside executives. This can make succession planning and knowledge transfer significantly smoother, as well as give employees a broader view of the environment they are working in.
Practical Actions
- Display your “Take me with you” sticker proudly.
- Champion a buddy program or sign up to an existing one to be paired with a senior mentor.
- Open your calendar and ask others to do the same.
11. Delivery team exchanges — exchange program across governments
Different services are offered by the federal, provincial and municipal governments, and Canadians currently need to know which level the service belongs to in order to use it or find information on it. Further, the government levels seldom work together despite undertaking similar projects and initiatives.
We need to break down silos between our governments to enable efficiency in our work, economic savings from consolidated efforts and most importantly, to create a seamless service that does not depend so deeply on the knowledge of our customers.
Practical Actions
- Gain a better understanding of why the current rules are in place.
- Create a project group that implements a solution across all 3 levels of government simultaneously.
- Talk to Canadians about their expectations of government and of customer service.
- Share your knowledge and experiences to start bridging the divide.
13. Co-op Opportunities that are Cross Ministry & Cross Sector for Existing Employees
Public servants often do not get the chance to experience a job or learn about a different government department without leaving their substantive position and being hired elsewhere. Therefore, when they leave, they take their experience and their lessons learned with them. However, if employees were given the opportunity to do short ‘co-op’s with different groups, they could share their corporate knowledge with the new group, and bring information back to their department.
Practical Actions
- Share your story about your job and what your department does with a network that extends beyond your workplace.
- Get to know people from a different classification than yours, or with a completely different skill set.
- Say ‘hello’ and ‘good morning’ in the hall to build relationships!
14. Decolonization of Data using stories of voices who have not been traditionally heard
Data gathering and research techniques are inherently biased, and do not have the subjectivity to effectively consider all perspectives. Sometimes the voices that need most be heard, are quiet. These people are often a part of more vulnerable populations and can be the most effected by changes in policy or services.
Practical Actions
- Don’t be afraid to speak with the public about an initiative.
- Use a larger sample size when collecting data.
- In the midst of innovation and practicing transparency, we are reminded to keep our Oath of employment.
15. Anyone can work for anyone
Sometimes public servants receive commands from down the chain, and they wonder how that decision was made. Maybe the proposed solution does not seem grounded in the reality of the front lines workers. Maybe the initiative seems devoid of subject matter expert input. No matter what the situation, or how informed the frontline employee is, they are often limited in their ability to communicate feedback or information up the chain. They even might experience being reprimanded for emailing an executive.
Despite the government beginning to embrace the use of agile environments, hierarchal decision making does not fit well with it. In these environments, trust and collaboration are key.
Practical Actions
- Create autonomy in decision making for lower levels.
- Use existing committees and policies to help ignite change.
- Talk to your teammates about what they would like to see change in the workplace.
- Make use of existing initiatives that may already be in your branch such as ‘Take me with you’, mentorship programs, or team building exercises.
16. Crowdsourcing talent for any initiative
The OneTeamGov Global event is a huge scale crowdsourcing of ideas, input and perspectives, to try and develop practical actions to some of the government’s complex problems. Why not use this technique in the workplace?
The inherent issue in the current system is in the classification of employees, which can limit them to their current position. Crowdsourcing talent could help public servants get to know each other in ways that they traditionally don’t, such as getting a more fulsome understand of their skills and therefore being able to create a better alignment of an individual’s skills with job needs. This knowledge could even be taken a step further by being recorded in a block chain or database of skills and education. An initiative likes this has the potential to break down inequality tensions by giving a voice to introverts, marginalized individuals and people who don’t test well.
Practical Actions
- Use the Free Agent model to show what is possible.
- Shift your focus from ‘hiring’ to ‘recruiting’ when filling a position or adding to a team.
- Use plain language in job descriptions.
- Use one digital space to post jobs, resumes, micro missions, and skills.
17. Work in interdisciplinary teams with the authority and resources to get the job done and enable change
When it comes to project and program delivery, many public servants feel that there exists a bottleneck in information flow and decision making as it goes up the hierarchy. The solution proposed is to use agile, multi-disciplinary teams that have many skillsets represented. This gives the team the opportunity to view their initiative through multiple lenses, move faster, and learn from each other. They key in interdisciplinary teams is to work collaboratively towards a common goal, while taking advantage of the strengths of the individuals on the team.
Practical Actions
- Create a clear vision and guiding principles for your team.
- Look for opportunities to bring in new voices.
- Recognize your mistakes and failures and learn from them.
- Work in the open when at all possible.
- Foster trust between your delivery team and your executive team.
18. Ministers for Digital Government at provincial and federal levels (with bottom up demand from public services)
This started with a bold question: Does hierarchy matter in government?
The current government hierarchy is based on the military chain of command, and works well in the context of what it was designed for. Despite this, many would agree that the initiatives and projects being worked on in the government could benefit from breaking down these hierarchies and bring decision making power to a lower level.
That being said, there is a current tension between wanting to flatten the hierarchy, and the desire to have someone in position at the top who can help move digital initiatives forward. Their platform also allows them to increase digital literacy, and they are more readily heard by their colleagues.
Practical Actions
- Make use of existing initiatives that may already be in your branch such as ‘Take me with you’, mentorship programs, or team building exercises. If there are none, champion one!
- Bridge the gap between IT and service delivery on your project team.
- When possible, communicate the benefits of your digital work to your executive to create another ally.
- Share your success inside and outside of government.
19. Dedicate one per week, month, etc. where public servants choose their own initiative/project to work on
Author Daniel Pink write that people are motivated by 3 things in the workplace: purpose, autonomy and mastery. Given the opportunity, employees will be more engaged and effective in their work if they are given the freedom to pursue passion projects alongside their regular workload.
Luckily, this concept is starting to gain traction. People in the session for instance, are already attending OneTeamGov meet-ups or worked on delivering the global unconference. Health Canada has a ‘stretch project’ program that allow employees to dedicate 20% of their time a project of personal interest. One participant mentioned that their manager allows 2 hours a week of free time, set aside for any development the employee wants to pursue. However, the main challenge shown to crop up is in maintaining this protected time and not sliding back to the old schedule.
Practical Actions
- Keep asking questions and being persistent with projects or initiatives that are important to you.
- If you end up with some extra time in your work schedule, spend it on personal development to show the merits.
- Have the discussion with your director concerning your unique situation and how to include an initiative you care about into your week.
20. Increase risk tolerance in leadership to develop new ideas
If the government wants to achieve true innovation, there needs to exist an environment to do so. With new ideas comes risk and uncertainty, but they do not need to be followed with fear. Only in an environment that is safe, trusting, accepting of changes and failure, and can share lessons learned, will there be true developments.
Practical Actions
- Use prototyping as a way to show proof of concept.
- Take accountability of the risks of what you are proposing. Look into them, ask questions and analyze them.
- Include an analysis of the risks associated with in-action.
- Be mindful of your own perfection paralysis when working on a new idea.
21. Guaranteed Whistleblower Idea
When it comes to the use of power and secrecy, there needs to be an internal check. Many people are fearful to rock the boat when they see critical information not being shared, or inappropriate behavior. Do we need NGO’s to fulfill a ombudsman role for public servants? Do we need to improve or include online systems for raising issues?
Practical Actions
- Exercise courage and bravery and speak up.
- Use milestone interviews such as exit interviews or one-on-ones to bring up subjects of concern.
- Be a champion of transparency and support others when they choose to speak up.
- Work in the open when you are not working with protected information.
22. Cross Government Open Offices ( Satellite offices, flexible work options)
20 years ago, productivity of employees was a legitimate concern for managers. However, there now exist systems and software to keep in touch from anywhere in the world. So is it still necessary to have an entire team located in one office?
Currently, there are some flexible work arrangements available, but the agreement is applied differently by each manager. The existence of satellite offices would not only bring these conversations to the forefront, but they would make team work easier for special projects and save real estate in popular locations for those who really need to be there. The key to making this possible of course is having the tools to make it work such as reliable wifi and laptops.
Practical Actions
- Find executive champions who can support flexible work arrangements.
- Read your department’s telework agreement.
- Adopt Cloud First Principles (Zero Trust) so employees can be secured on the network no matter where they are located.
News Alert!
Since the OneTeamGov Global unconference event, Ottawa has launched 5 satellite offices to give government employees a place to work that is closer to their home, in an effort to reduce traffic congestion.
23. All policy is developed and co-created by community/groups/public that it impacts
For the most part, policy dictates how services are delivered. This leads to service delivery issues, since the people we are serving are not effectively being included in the process. In order to better address their needs, governments need to switch the power dynamic to not only include the affected communities, but to have them more closely engaged in the design process. This method aims to improve the understanding of even our most difficult services in communities.
Practical Actions
- Build time into policy creation to have conversations with those affected.
- Use plain language and encourage conversations through multiple channels.
- Be critical and ask questions about your department’s current policy process.
- If you think you have a handle on some of this work, create a tool kit and share it with the policy community.
24. Community Field Trips for All Public Servants
In order to get a better sense of how our policies and services are effecting people, public servants could go on ‘field trips’ to visit the communities to engage in discussions about the impact of potential policies and programs. This is a practice that could take place before changes are made, as well as after to gauge the effects of those changes. This initiative would allow public servants to connect to their work in a more meaningful way.
One of the major barriers of these field trips would be privacy of the individuals and groups most likely to be targeted and being careful to be respectful of people’s lives.
Practical Actions
- This can be done on a smaller scale by taking a shift at a service centre if you are from headquarters.
- If you do get a chance to go on a field trip, debrief afterwards.
- Be open to realizing you may have been wrong.
25. Formalized Citizens’ Mandates
To avoid the government acting in it’s own interest, it would beneficial to have a committee comprised of representatives from the public available to consult on policy and government activities. This group is envisioned to be put together in a similar manner to a jury, where the identities of the individuals are protected, people are selected across demographics, but the duty could be declined. The success of this program would hinge on follow-through on the part of the government body.
Some of the current challenges of the government that this idea hopes to overcome are:
- The traditional polarization of two political parties.
- Opening the dialogue to what modern government should be.
- Introduce a balancing of local vs. regional and urban vs. rural needs.
- Can help bring focus to issues and help identify real priorities to those that are impacted by policies and programs.
Practical Actions
- Start small with a town hall on a particular issue.
- Meet citizens where they are or use technology to bridge geographical gaps.
- Utilize trained facilitators and interpreters to tease apart the real issues being raised by citizens.
26. How do we bring humanity back into our workplaces by connecting transactional HR with employee engagement and health
Despite human resources being about people and jobs, there is a feeling that the field has become increasingly transactional and task-oriented. The increased focus on rules and processes in the field of HR has caused a collective forgetfulness of the human experience. Meanwhile, choosing to work with someone is anything but impersonal. Yet, there seems to be a coldness in the focus on qualifications that is driving this phenomenon.
So how can we bring more empathy and compassion back into the process?
Practical Actions
- Talk to people who were hired and not hired about their experience going through HR.
- Put more emphasis on the conversational and human connection piece of a job interview (Not suggesting this is simple, but it warrants further discussion).
- Focus on what you can do and change in your daily work, instead of what you can’t.
27. What’s next for OneTeamGov?
We all know why we are here — at this unconference and in this session. The people in this room have written about it, tweeted about it, talked about it and done something about it. OneTeamGov has given us something in return for our passion and hard work. It has given us a palpable feeling of community. It has formed a support network around us and our ideas. It has given us projects, answers, initiatives and friendships without conditions, without judgement and without hierarchy. It has been our antidote for bureaucracy.
With so many people from the movement gathered in the room, we couldn’t help but gush about our experiences and how excited we are for the next chapter — which looks like it will include more events. Many of these people have ran or attended radical events designed to shift perspectives in the past that included, or even focused on, executives. These events allowed them to take part and listen to discussions without their title preceding them, and to attend in a learning capacity. It was suggested that given the concentration of government employees and OneTeamGov groups, that there should be an unconference in Ottawa that includes key ministers.
Practical Actions
- Find someone who will listen. Be a champion of what you believe in until you find them.
- Take the first step instead of waiting for someone else and then criticising them when they don’t take it.
- Keep participating in OneTeamGov meet ups
- Run an unconference for the top executives in your area to communicate the business value of taking these actions, and the business risks of doing nothing.
- Encourage your executive team to attend a OneTeamGov meet up.
- Share your experience of getting approval to attend this event, or ones like it, so the rationale can be used by others.
- Lead by example and break down silos by just talking to people.
28. Equal Opportunity procurement for small vendors
Small vendors are not the typical contract of choice for the government, but maybe it doesn’t need to be this way. It’s true there are a lot of challenges of dealing with small vendors. They come with a risk of instability or lack of capacity, and they are often unable to wait during our RFP cycle. Meanwhile, our current financial structures are built to gravitate to large multi-million dollar contracts that deliver on many requirements.
Despite these, in order to encourage entrepreneurship, buy into the local economy, and dare I say, possibly even save money, the government should reconfigure to include the use of small vendors.
Practical Actions
- Look into the work from BC DevX who are currently working towards making this a reality.
- Create a smaller vendor team that can act as coaches and liaisons between the government and small vendors.
- Make our RFP processes and our timelines transparent, so that small vendors can try to work with them.
- Simplify the process of working with us for small vendors.
29. Getting rid of job classifications
There are a lot of good things to be said about the current job classification system. It attempts to be fair, it provides clear-ish expectations and roles, its easy for figuring out compensation and it supports the current hierarchical structure. However, it does not always achieve what it was intended to. Also, it’s old.
The current system provides equality but not equity by design, and was created with the problems of the day in mind. Now, the government is facing a new environment and the classification system needs to catch up to adjust. For instance, classifications are helpful for task-based work that is easy to describe and categorize, but computers are quickly taking over those roles. Humans however will be doing the work of autonomy, mastery, intrinsic motivations, creativity, problem solving or skills that might not even be on the radar yet. We need our job descriptions and recruitment efforts to be able evolve and adapt to future landscapes as the very nature of work changes.
Practical Actions
- Look into groups that are trying to do things differently like the Canadian Digital Services or Canada’s Free Agents.
- Promote flexible work arrangements wherever possible to encourage new skills onto your team that may not be centrally located.
- Identify what challenges recruitment is currently facing to act as a starting point for reimaging the new solution.
30. “ One Stop Shop” — Government service agents provide all services to citizens regardless of federal, provincial, municipal level
Citizens already view the government as a single entity. Therefore, until they are indoctrinated into the maze of departments and services, they struggle to deal with it. They are not wrong in this thinking. Government services exist to help the public, so it is logical to offer services that are as easy to use as possible, with little burden on the individual to learn about its complexities.
Practical Actions
- Meet people and share information with different levels of government.
- Advocate for shared systems and software between similar services at various levels of government.
- Could be led by an organization that already has the beginnings of the infrastructure to do this, such as the Canada Revenue Agency or provincial service offices like Service Ontario.
31. TECH: Competent public servants need room to learn, experiment and pitch ideas before bureaucracy kicks in
The government has had no shortage of smart, productive and skilled people walk through its doors, but it has a real knack of frustrating them into leaving. Here is a story that has been seen again and again:
A developer for the public service needs to create a solution to solve a problem. They are given little time to research, experiment or learn. Then, in the midst of developing a solution, they become bombarded with feedback and an onslaught of yeses and noes. All the while, they may not have access to the basic tools of their trade. Yet, they are still expected to perform.
Sound familiar? Government employees often feel that they suffer from not having the technologies or resources they need to live up to the full potential of their skills. They simultaneously end up in technology silos because their access is different to their colleagues in other departments or divisions. Employees often find themselves going to great lengths when they care about their job to get around these limitations by occasionally breaking the rules. If governments really wants to modernize, innovate and keep up with current industry standards, they need to re-evaluate risk assessments, security protocols, project timelines and expectations of subject matter experts.
Practical Actions
- Make use of open source and free technology whenever and wherever possible to improve the sustainability of our solutions.
- Research and learn about what it takes to develop solutions if you are not in that space.
- Create a catalogue of ‘endorsed’ tools to open the door for professionals to use the technologies they need.
- Grant access to mainstream technologies that are being taught in schools.
- Make use of ‘translators’ who can communicate the needs of the tech team.
32. Empowered employees making decisions without multiple approvals
Many employees feel that their time and their skills are under utilized due to the bottleneck that is created by the current approval standards. Further, the workload of the common executive is already heavy, and could use the relief of delegating decision making authority on non-contentious issues. In order for the empowerment of lower levels to become a reality, divisions and teams will need to foster trust both up and down the chain, and evaluate their tolerance for risk. It is time for a reimagining of what an even distribution of decision making power could look like.
Practical Actions
- Increase the transparency around how and why decisions are made.
- Look at your business process and identify one type of decision that could get made at a lower level. Make your case and share it with your colleagues.
- Create decision making criteria for a type of decision you encounter in your job.
❤Heartbeat Sessions
The unconference also included 8 “heart beat” sessions. These sessions were determined by clustering the remaining ideas that were not voted as highly on a map and analyzing emergent themes. These themes became the topic of discussion for the remaining 8 breakout discussions.
1. How might we encourage courage?
In order to mitigate the tendency for people to have a work persona and a home persona, and then act out of fear, there is a call to bring more courage into the work place, and for leaders to make space for that courage to occur. Enabling courage in the work place takes two things; people who are willing to put themselves out there for something they care about, and others being willing and able to receive that from them. Further, in order to minimize turbulence on a team and allow courage to create growth, all parties need to be able to receive honest feedback.
Practical Actions
- When you see an act of courage from a colleague, acknowledge it and support it.
- Ask questions to your colleagues to see what they would like to see in the workplace and what they might be afraid to say.
- Create a safe place for people to communicate and bring their whole selves to the conversation.
- Lead by example and show courage through being vulnerable.
2. Reforming relationship between political system & public sector
There seems to be tension between the political system and the public service in terms of their priorities and their major goals. Can the two ever be aligned? And if so, what would that look like?
The main issues stem from a break down in information flow between the groups, leading to decisions that might have unintended consequences at the lower levels. This can be attributed to a few things, including briefings that go up the chain without the presence of the subject matter expert, the ‘political window’ that enforces a limited time for decisions and initiatives to get done, and a possible misunderstanding from the top of what public servants are actually enabled to do.
Practical Actions
- Take responsibility for a piece of the system that you have influence over and try to make it better.
- Redesign briefing notes with user experience testing to see what format is the easiest to understand and gets the most information across.
- Self publish on topics that you believe yourself to be an expert on.
- Take analysts or team members who have worked on a file with you to meetings, or if you are the analyst, make use of the ‘Take me with you’ initiative.
3. Too inward facing public sector reform
The way the government tends to operate and how the people within it try to create change, is inherently inwardly focused. This inside-out view that many employees have is born from innocent efforts, such as learning from more senior employees or never leaving to get outside experiences. Without shifting to a citizen centric model, the government will always inherently favour itself starting from the inside, despite good intentions to change.
Practical Actions
- Use an outside-in approach to thinking whenever possible in your work.
- Bring the OneTeamGov principles into your workplace.
- Look at private companies like Amazon and Google as examples of service-first models.
- Bring service design professionals into your projects.
4. What happens if the public service can not fully tap human/collective potential
Cancelled due to inattendance
5. How Can We Ensure Citizens Are at the Centre?
In order to design the best services that provide real value for citizens, governments need to ensure that they are both at the centre of the initiative, at the centre of the tools, and at the centre of the discussion.
Practical Actions
- Ask questions to the public and listen to what they need.
- Consult and create partnerships with various groups of the public.
- Evaluation the risk from both sides. What are the risks of doing something different? What are the risks of staying the same?
- To avoid citizens going in circles to interact with us, create a process flow map from their perspective to improve our processes.
6. What are the key drivers for public sector system reform?
The main driver to public sector reformation is the existence of barriers that makes working efficiently with citizens in mind difficult. Some of these challenges include the culture, funding, technologies available, legislation and laborious processes. Understanding these challenges, and their direct and indirect consequences, can help drive reform and prioritize initiatives.
Practical Actions
- Start small by asking employees what isn’t working for them.
- Learn from examples where you have seen change that you want to emulate.
7. I feel angry when conversations about equity are deemed to be not important
Sadness, curiosity, and a sense of failure are all feelings that were being claimed by the participants of this discussion. While we all seem to want to do better, there persists the feeling that equity is still out of reach, and that we, as the people who make up the public service, are not doing / saying/ thinking enough about what it means to be equitable to all of our colleagues. These gaps were pointed out in the accessibility of government buildings and tools, use / misuse of gender pronouns, lack of integration of indigenous knowledge and misunderstandings of cultures and values. In a time where the global news portrays an unraveling of progress, how can we do better and be better in our work environment? How can we breach these often difficult topics and approach them with compassion? How can we forgo the fear we feel, in exchange for creating change within our circle of reach?
Practical Actions
- Understand what it means to be an ally and be one.
- Continue the discussions with people of varying perspectives.
- Keep pushing for diversity and inclusion.
- Call people out on inappropriate behavior.
- Self-reflect on how your actions might be harmful.
8. From where might OneTeamGov draw our idea of what is radical?
Is radical change time-bound? Is there a time limit on what we consider radical? Or does it even matter, as long as we are changing?
Maybe the answers to these aren’t particularly clear, but one thing that is clear; standing still is not an option. Yet, there is a general feeling that the government isn’t ready for the future and where the momentum of technology is taking people. It doesn’t help to repeatedly squash ideas from the people on the inside when they do offer up new solutions and ways to be better. To encourage change making, we must make sure that as an institution we listen, choose our words, and suspend risk aversion until the idea can be explored.
Practical Actions
- look to the great radicalizers like Tesla and Google to set an example.
- Continue participating in OneTeamGov!
- Host learning events for public servants with presenters from the private sector.
- Encourage colleagues who have ideas and provide them with shelter to work on these ideas.
