The Ottawa One Team Gov Unconference Report
Following an incredibly successful OneTeamGov Global Victoria Unconference in summer 2019, we accepted the challenge to run a similar Unconference in Ottawa — the heart of the federal public service in Canada — and on 17 December 2019, we did it!
Our aim for the day was to break down boundaries between people, particularly between policy practitioners and those focused on service delivery, and create a space that welcomed everyone, regardless of position or sector, to share and learn from each other.
We made a space for people to talk about topics of their choice, and to follow their own path throughout the day. This helped start real discussions, pulling from the experience, knowledge and expertise in the rooms.
All participants had an equal voice, and created the agenda through a collaborative agenda-setting activity.
The Ottawa Unconference by numbers
- 258 people attended and 450 people registered
- 95 “beyond awesome” volunteers made the day possible — thank you!
- 69 unique organizations were represented — 48 federal organizations, 3 provinces, 2 municipalities, 7 private organizations, 5 non-governmental organizations, and 4 from academia
- 40 breakout discussions happened with 5 dedicated French sessions
- Extra activities included yoga and meditation, LEGO® Serious Play®, networking, facilitation skills, discussions on the circular economy, healthy workplaces and mental health, and a dance party, not to mention a full day of podcast recording!
- 5–7 person organizing team, with a supporting cast of 12 members including 3 months of weekly calls from September to December and 6 Sunday morning working sessions
- 1 Unconference with over 100 tweets shared about the day!
Why the Unconference mattered to participants
On the day of the Unconference, the format mattered as much as the content. By crowd-sourcing the topics to be discussed right then and there, participants felt encouraged and safe to speak honestly and genuinely about what they see as challenges facing the public service.
A participatory approach to building the agenda enabled trust, and allowed for trends to be identified and groupthink to be avoided. This leads to broader content from a diversity of perspectives. By learning and connecting in a new way, whether it was through the opportunity to participate in French-only sessions at any time during the day, or through changing thought patterns by tapping into the physical and metaphysical-self during yoga or meditation or dance or LEGO® Serious Play®, participants were able to be and bring their whole selves.
Agenda-setting instructions — Why change a winning strategy?
When we attended the OneTeamGov Global event in London, we were all amazed by the method and facilitation used to crowdsource ideas and topics for breakout sessions “How we’re pitching at One Team Gov Global”. We decided to keep the same approach, Liberating Structures’ 25/10 method.
Breakout Session Highlights
We took a lot of notes throughout the day and these are organised by theme for you below. Click through to read the Google docs with more information on the topics that interest you.
1. Human resources and hours of work
- Manage employees anywhere by deliverables, not by hours in the office (more trust in the workplace)
- Designing a service to equip teams with psychological safety and modern skillsets
- 4 day work weeks (but 7 day public facing services)
- All learning plans (annual) need to include “fieldwork” (spending minimum one day with citizens or organizations impacted by their policy or service, etc.)
2. Technology
- What is digital sovereignty for: government? individuals? for public good vs. private interest?
- That all departments use the same tools and/or technologies (interoperability)
- All teams across gov communicate in the open about their successes and failures on a centralized platform
3. Facilitation
- Listening skills and guiding groups “in the room”
- Getting to outcomes and agreements
4. Design
- Keep humans at the centre of design + delivery (in and out of government)
- Introduce interdepartmental collaborative spaces in government offices (i.e. more with teams and less individual work)
- Talent scouts for specific projects
- Establish/create system panels that deal with issues from a system perspective / not by department lines + allow for a multidisciplinary makeup
See here for the full list of agenda items and breakout session notes.
What we Heard from Participants
In a post-event survey, participants were given the opportunity to share their reactions and key takeaways from the day. Participants reflected on a variety of new practices, such as how to set a collaborative agenda, new facilitation techniques, as well as learning about lesser-known public service practices (such as the Government of Canada’s Free Agent program).
Participants shared feelings of empowerment, including personal commitments to apply these new learning in their own workplaces.
Participants told us that they will…
- “…Establish composting on my floor, and personally bring it across the street for composting”
- “Push the envelope by making working in the open the default”
- “Invite people with diverse or challenging perspectives into my conversations”
- “Initiate opportunities to talk about and resolve toxic behaviours”
- “Continue to provide contrary views and question leaders more directly”
Feedback demonstrated a clear and common desire for spaces that allow for horizontal collaboration, real human connection, and that motivate positive change.
“We truly enjoyed our experience, we felt engaged and inspired throughout the day. Everyone we met had something new and interesting to share, and we all left with creative ideas we never would have been able to come up with on our own. Nous avons aussi énormément apprécié avoir la possibilité d’échanger en français dans une salle dédiée. Nous y avons passé du temps avec plaisir.”
“It is nice to know that I am not alone — that I am part of a large group of people who want to make change.”
The collaborative and often novel way of setting an agenda received the most comment and stood out as a highlight for many attendees. Other comments included notice of how well organized the event was, and the hard work of volunteers (especially the facilitators, who were thrown into the unknown and had to be very flexible!).
“We’d like to acknowledge the facilitators’ excellent work. It’s not easy to discuss a topic you’ve only just been assigned, but they all pulled it off brilliantly. Every attendee had room to share their perspectives and to learn from each other.”
Suggestions for future improvement included ideas on how to get even more out of discussion sessions during the Unconference, as well as opportunities to build on the event through follow-up with participants.
Participants acknowledged the challenges of carrying change into the workplace, and reminded us that our work is not over:
- “Despite feeling motivated [during the event], I am not sure how to translate my motivation into action in my workplace.”
- “The public service is like quicksand. The ties that seem to be lasting can be broken quickly. Despite everything, the links established during the event are likely to last a few sandstorms.”
However, most of all, it was clear that participants were most thankful for the opportunity to meet like-minded people, engage in fulfilling conversation, and be inspired.
“I didn’t realize how much I needed this — it certainly recharged my batteries and creative energy, giving me a refreshed perspective on bringing change to the #GC.”
The Unconference Captured in Pictures
What has Happened Since and What Happens Next
#OneGreenGov
As a result of conversations that took place at the One Team Gov Canada unconferences organisers created a 24 hour worldwide event; OneGreenGov which took place on 22 January under the theme sustainability. This included tackling the climate emergency, pollution, food and water supplies, and inequity caused by climate events.
We will shortly be publishing a set of blog post following the event on the One Team Gov Medium publication, which you’ll find below:
If you’re interested in learning more about what was discussed, contact @EricShoesmith who has a juicy list of sustainability and climate resources to share, just ask him!
Exploring Future Leadership Online Series
The global virtual workshop series held on the 10, 11 and 12 February 2020 created a space to talk about radical new ways to lead, underpinned by empathy, vulnerability, and collaboration. Leadership was explored across three themes Self, Others, and the System/Community.
There will be more bog posts coming soon about this, but you can read all about the approach we took on the blog below:
Innovate on Demand
Innovate on demand is a podcast series centralized around the theme of Innovation — the good and the bad. Check it out and stay tuned for the OneTeamGov recordings!
Breakfast meetups
OneTeamGov breakfasts are held every 2 weeks in several cities across Canada (and worldwide), and offer an opportunity to get together with other public sector reform enthusiasts, to discuss topics in a facilitated way. Participants propose and vote on topics, with discussion time limited to 5 minutes each. Participants can vote to extend that time by a few minutes. Follow @OneTeamGovCan and @GouvEnsemble on twitter to stay informed.
Virtual meetups
Similar to the in-person meetups, the virtual meetup is a digital opportunity for people all around Canada to take part in an open, honest, and safe discussion on topics that interest them. (you can add the OneTeamGov channel on Slack, and search the hashtag #canadameetup to stay informed)
This is what we know about so far — what else is happening out there? Tell us, so we can showcase your work! OneTeamGov is constantly evolving!
Inspiration for the format of this post comes from our friends at OneTeamGov Finland — the beauty of being part of such a community and movement is the willingness to freely share our individual work so we can make the collective better. You never know who you’ll inspire. Thanks, friends!
This report was collectively written and edited by the following fantastic humans and OneTeamGov enthusiasts:
- Rae Bourassa @BourassaRae
- Joel Bourgeoys @Joel_B
- Kayleigh Chaston-Vickers @kayleigh_cv
- Ashley Evans @ashlevanss
- Ioana Finichiu @IFiniq
- Colleen Tiernan @ColleenTiernan
- Sam Villis @stamanfar
