Charting Her Own Path: From newbie to OneTeamGov-er to GC Entrepreneur
This is an extract of an interview that I conducted with Emma-Rose Beauchamp, on October 25, 2019.
The myth of getting a job in government:
“Oh wow! I finally got in! It took a little longer than I thought, but, here I am and now I’ve got all these choices! And there will be training! I’m going to work my way up the levels in my category, and they I’m going to go out and get some different experience maybe at level, or maybe acting, maybe in another department even, and I’ll totally get plan ahead and chart my way! And learn from all these other people who look like they know what they’re doing!”
The more common reality:
“Oh wow! I finally got in! It took a little longer than I thought, but, here I am and now — oh, uh, sure, I’ll do that thing for you, on the side of my desk, that looks exciting. Oh, you’d like me to do more of this thing here? Sure! What’s that? You heard of an opening where they’re looking for people who are doing what I’m doing? Sure, I’ll go do more of this, just over there for a while. Wow, that learning curve was steeper and longer than I thought it would be. Oh, and, it does seem to be a little bit harder than I thought to change categories. And language training — that’s taking more of my time than I thought. But I’m still moving forward, just not quite in the way I expected, or doing the thing I thought I’d be doing, but this is fun and interesting too. And look how much I’m learning! I just never expected it to happen quite in this roundabout, surprising, way. And what was my degree in, again? Never mind.”
And then there’s Emma-Rose…
So, I heard that you basically designed and pitched your own new job that doesn’t exist, and got it, and now it does. We don’t hear about that happening all that often in government, especially at the mid-level. How’d you do it?
Emma-Rose: Well — kinda — but no. I don’t get to work on the actual idea that I pitched. And the program already existed, sort of. But, you know, almost! I did get a tremendous success out of it — I became a Government of Canada Entrepreneur.
You know, I really attribute my experience with OneTeamGov with my current job success. I first heard about OneTeamGov when I started with my organization. Tracy Snow was on my team and she said: “there’s this OneTeamGov thing, and I think you’ll really like it, so just come to one breakfast meeting!” And I did. And the rest is history — I pretty much went to every breakfast meeting thereafter.
Because of the people I met and the skills I developed in doing the OneTeamGov work really opened up my world — it opened up my bubble.
This new job I’ve got as a GC Entrepreneur really all started with the OneTeamGov Victoria experience that happened in May this year. A few months earlier — was it really only just this year? Well, this past Winter, I’d volunteered to be on the Planning Crew for the Unconference.
And what did you really get from that? From being on the event planning team? It was just a side-of-desk thing, right?
Emma-Rose: Well, other than being super fun, with these really great, energizing people, I started getting experience with communications and working on a distributed team. I got a chance, without a job competition and without being screened for my experience, to work on an incredible delivery team for an international event.
So, the Unconference — I got permission to go, based on a Bureaucracy Hack That was done by OneTeamGov UK. They created a business case to travel for the Unconference that could be used to brief management. I used that business case template that the Canadian OneTeamGov chapter adapted, and as a result, received permission from my management to go.
Then, all the crazy planning is over, and I show up to this Unconference, and it’s amazing — you go from room to room, you get exposed to all these ideas, in just one day. It was the most amazing day. But, once it was over, I’d volunteered to write the event report, which ended up being pages and pages of notes from the sessions that captured a week’s worth of conversations that all happened over the space of one day! Despite how long it took me, I think writing that report is one of the most valuable things I could have done — for the OneTeamGov movement, and for myself. Reading through all those notes from the 40 sessions that were held, understanding all the topics, learning from the insights from people…
It was amazing.
Emma-Rose: It was SO amazing!
Good thing we’re having another one, in both Vancouver and in Ottawa on the same day, next month.
Emma-Rose: I know, right? I can’t wait. And to meet all the new volunteers! But back to the May event. Looking over all the individual session notes, I noticed some patterns and trends. And the one that I saw the most was communications and. the experience of it. People felt that they weren’t being heard, and they felt their colleagues weren’t being heard, and they felt most of all that they weren’t hearing each other. And so, I thought maybe something could be done about that. I thought maybe I could do something about that. Even though I work in project management, and not this field at all.
Like what?
Emma-Rose: Well, I’d learned from a from a colleague, Adrian Senn, about the GC Entrepreneur program. I was lucky enough to be nominated by my manager for the opportunity to be a part of it. Based on all that research I did for the OneTeamGov Victoria report, I wrote a proposal, to pitch to our agency-wide GC Entrepreneur event in June 2019. And the premise of my pitch was that if we incentivise collaboration, then people will feel more heard because others are incentivised to listen.
Oh, I like that. Tell me more.
Emma-Rose: Well, I posted this presentation about it — and I ended up proposing this to a group of my colleagues from my organization, and to my DM — I was so nervous! I mean, seriously — I’ve only been in my job since late 2017.
And how long have you been in government?
Not long. Really, I’m so new. I’ve been here — and the Canada Revenue Agency is my first department — since 2017.
And you’re pitching, in a GC Entrepreneur event, to your Deputy, two years later.
Emma-Rose: It’s crazy. I know.
It’s freaking fantastic, is what it is.
Emma-Rose: It was so scary. I had so much impostor syndrome.
But now you know better.
Emma-Rose: Well, maybe I’ve learned better. For my presentation, I thought this was one way we could address a much larger, systemic problem, but it was a piece I could get my head around. So I thought this was a launching pad for finding new ideas that could get at the problem in new ways.
Totally not an impostor.
Emma-Rose: So I was just so happy to get my GC Entrepreneur presentation out there, because of the audience. The Unconference report went to an audience that I was already reaching, and that OneTeamGov was already reaching. But, my GC Entrepreneur presentation went out to people who had no idea what they were going to hear. They are innovation-oriented people in the agency who had no expectations of what they were going to hear that day. They were there to hear GC Entrepreneur nominees, who were each asked to pitch a 5 minute or less idea for innovation, for my organization or for the GC at large. A lot of them were tech-driven — like using QR codes to innovate small business tax compliance. My associate GC Entrepreneur, Hamza, who was also chosen to do this role alongside me — he did a presentation on talent management and knowing what skills we already have available in the agency from existing employees.
So you both won! How do you two work together now?
Emma-Rose: We both work with the broader GC Entrepreneur cohort — the GC Entrepreneurs who already exist, and the new ones. We predominantly work with the new cohort, looking for areas of collaboration and synergies between departments, and we also train together. But Hamza and I — we’re trying to work on building a community of innovation within the Agency. We do that alongside our Innovation Lab that we’ve got at the Canada Revenue Agency, which was established in 2015, along with the previous GC Entrepreneur.
So let me recap.
The job I was doing in early 2018, I’m still doing it now — and I also work as a GC Entrepreneur. It’s a 50/50 split, but it takes very careful balancing…I have to admit that it’s not always an even split! In my day job, I do resource management, and my area of expertise is in helping projects realize their full potential. I work with project managers to help them with effective benefit management. It’s a small facet of project management. All of the projects I deal with are major projects, and they need to prove to the agency that they’re successful at the end. And I help them do that.
That sounds to me like performance measurement, or evaluation.
Emma-Rose: Yeah, it’s similar, but rolled up to an agency level. You know, what’s interesting about this — from the facilitation techniques I’ve learned at OneTeamGov, I’ve been able to facilitate these projects better! Its made me a better communicator, and that’s helped me help my clients much more. And it also led to the collaborative creation of a benefits discovery workshop by my team, which has now become something that we do regularly with all projects. What would you call that, exactly?
Well, I would call that creating a whole new step in the project development process — you’ve added value that didn’t previously exist!
Emma-Rose: Yes! I think the value we add is in making things faster for projects — the process of them creating their benefits management plan, and the quality of the way they talk about their benefits is better. It makes it easier for them to report.
Well, you know that the thing about measurement is that what you measure matters.
Emma-Rose: Yes, exactly. So, it’s about them having the measurement plan in place earlier in the project, and that makes it easier for them to prove, to say: “I was here 3 years ago, and now I’m this much farther, present day, and look at how far we’ve come. Basically, being able to value a project increases the value of the project.
So that’s a little bit what were doing here — we’re trying to tap into the value of OneTeamGov.
There are two things I see of value that OneTeamGov brings. First is the connections that you make. You know, its the people. You might even see them on the bus on your way to work, and you’d never have talked to them before. And it’s their skills they bring, their experience, their knowledge — and it’s who they know too. But for me, the second thing that I really noticed is that as a new government employee, OneTeamGov gave me training and helped me develop skills that I would not have had the opportunity for otherwise.
So if all of this happened now, within two years of you starting in government — what’s next?
Emma-Rose: Oh my goodness! I don’t know! I mean — its exciting, this opportunity with the GC Entrepreneurs opens a lot of doors, right, so I don’t know, honestly. I have no answer for you. I feel like I’m just holding onto the handlebars of life right now and going for a ride! I have no idea where I’m going right now, but it seems hopeful.
So what you’re saying is that your job of the future doesn’t even exist yet.
Emma-Rose: Yeah, maybe not.
But clearly, you’re going to build it.
Emma-Rose: Yeah, Maybe!
Maybe you’re building it right now, in the work you’re doing.
Emma-Rose: Right. Now there’s a thought.
So, after all this — what are you going to bring back to OneTeamGov, now?
Emma-Rose: I’ll be bringing back more experience. Sharing what I’ve learned. I have no idea how I’m supposed to contribute to everything that OneTeamGov is, but I want to try. I’ll definitely have more of an idea of what’s going on in government right now. When I first got in to the GC Entrepreneur program I felt very much like a fraud — like, why me? What am I going to bring to this huge complex organization, and processes? But I was assured by the OneTeamGov community that I belong here. And more, that not only could I use my experience from OneTeamGov in my GC Entrepreneur experience, but that I can now, and will be able to, take my experience from my GC Entrepreneur position, and bring it back around to OneTeamGov.
So I want to go back to the intangibles of how OneTeamGov helped you grow?
Emma-Rose: I think meeting these OneTeamGov people and seeing how they were able to speak confidently about what they believed in, both being confident in their ideas but also being OK in the areas where they were wrong, or didn’t know, and being comfortable asking for help. So, that gave me the ability to just say it, and own it, and if I’m wrong, then I can own that too, and that made me able, and comfortable, to make my GC Entrepreneur pitch. Because that was so scary. When you’re new — when you don’t know the process or the people, that’s just terrifying. More than anything, being a part of OneTeamGov taught me confidence. Confidence that I could fall down, and get back up again. Confidence that it’s OK to ask for help, to make mistakes, to not know. To be confident in the not knowing. And in that vulnerable incubation period where the idea is still new — you know? To not let fear just have you hide it away. Let it breathe. Give other people the chance to comment on your idea so that it can grow. I mean, my GC Entrepreneur idea, I could have sat on it, and been afraid. But I knew from my year of going to those OneTeamGov breakfast meetings that sitting on things doesn’t accomplish anything. So, now, this GC Entrepreneur idea that I was brave enough to share, it can now be carried by anyone, and added to. If I’d sat on it, and not talked about it, I’d still be there sitting, and knowing that there is a solvable problem, and not having the courage to suggest that solution. I mean, I know that my idea only moves the needle a tiny bit, only makes something marginally better. It’s going to take many ideas like mine. Or many idea not like mine! It’ll take lots of us being brave and bringing ideas forward and working together — and letting the ideas, and the projects, work together, build on each other.
I know it’s all a bit idealistic. But — I like my dreamer’s version of the government. You have to have some big goal that you’re working together towards in order to get anywhere at all. In the end, I don’t think it’s really about achieving any one thing — it’s about movement. It’s about moving in the right direction. And I think we’re doing that. I think I’m doing that. I think OneTeamGov, and now becoming a GC Entrepreneur, has helped me do that.
So did you expect in any way that the one thing you would get the most out of OneTeamGov was confidence?
Emma-Rose: No. Definitely not.
I thought the thing I would get out of this is a social feeling of belonging. Which I did get! But that turned out not to be the biggest thing. OneTeamGov for sure helps me feel safe and comfortable and gives me a sense of community and all of that keeps me going back. But in hindsight, that’s the thing that got me to show up at OneTeamGov. Not the thing that makes OneTeamGov so valuable. The thing that makes OneTeamGov so valuable is what everybody else brings. And everything you gain from that. From being there.
So you know that being a GC Entrepreneur is about helping to infuse this kind of entrepreneurial spirit in all public servants, right?
Emma-Rose: Right! That’s so exciting to me.
And clearly, you’re doing it! But did you know about the myth of planning a career path in the government?
Emma-Rose: Well, I’m learning that it’s a myth!
I think you’re demonstrating it.
Emma-Rose: Yeah.
But in the best possible way.
Emma-Rose: Right. Wow.
Emma-Rose Beauchamp (@emrobeau on Twitter) works as a Resource Management Officer, and is a GC Entrepreneur, at the Canada Revenue Agency.
Rae Bourassa (@BourassaRae on Twitter) works as a Senior Policy Analyst at Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada, and is working on her dream of becoming a storyteller for the Government of Canada.
