Hello again! XFN Update
I am somewhat ashamed that I haven’t written anything on XFN since August 27, 2019. So what has happened these last 10 months? Great question!
September — November 2019
We spent the fall recruiting our 2nd cohort of XFN participants. This was a great chance to test what we had learnt from recruiting cohort one. If you are curious, those lessons learned are here.
While we were successful at addressing many issues that arose during round 1, there was of course still a lot of learning from round 2. Some things worth noting are:
- While we assessed fewer competencies in each activity, some competencies were still difficult to assess and we are still trying to assess too many at once.
- We did not have assessors observe our initial non-assessed group brainstorm activity, but assessors said they would have found it useful to see the dynamic of the group and thought it could make participants more comfortable to have them there before they jump into the assessed activity.
- Data was provided for participants to work with during the group assessment, but assessors felt too much emphasis was placed on the data and it took away from their ability to view the other competencies in action.
In terms of what worked well:
- Completing the written assessments virtually was a much smoother process than completing written assessments in-person.
- The combination of the three assessment tools (group, individual interview, and written activity) continue to be essential for having a full picture of a candidates competencies.
- Informal feedback continues to be a useful practice and is appreciated by candidates who were not successful.
- Assessor training in advance of assessments is a best practice we should keep doing.
In the end our assessment process led to a diverse cohort of 10 individuals, representing four classifications and levels 02–07.
Amidst the recruitment we had our first cohort start their second assignments at the beginning of October 2019 and we tested our first ever XFN assignment transition day. The purpose was for participants to pull out their learning from their most recent assignment and to situate it within their existing knowledge of the policy life cycle before submerging themselves into their next learning experience. The day was highly successful and it was a quick and easy decision to make the XFN assignment transition day an element of the program moving forward.
December 2019 — February 2020
This part of the “timeline” is a bit harder for me to share. I had to take some time out of office due to life outside of work and this coincided with a pre-planned vacation, which led to an extended period out of office, something I never ever thought I would do.
I feel this piece is important to share because, to me, taking the time off was the responsible thing to do, no matter how contrary it felt to my “work ethic”. Should you ever feel you are in a place where you can’t properly perform your work duties due to outside factors I encourage you to consider taking time off. The work will always be there when you get back and the show will go on without you.
This was true for XFN. My Directors, Qi Wang and Linda MacMillan and XFN Talent Manager, Nathalie Leclerc, led the charge for onboarding our second cohort of participants in January 2020 and transitioning them into their first assignments. This was a very pivotal moment for the program and I can truly say it was hard not to be a part of it.
Qi and Nathalie also saw cohort 1 through selecting their final assignments in the program in February 2020, another key moment I was very sad to miss.
March 2020 — Present
I finally returned to work on March 9, just in time for the world to be hit with the COVID-19 pandemic. The pandemic did have an impact on our program in the following ways:
- Cohort 1 final assignment start dates were shifted for many.
- Testing and discovering virtual tools that allow us to deliver all program tools, including monthly learning sessions, weekly cohort calls, bilats, and cohort networking/information sharing (we landed on BlueJeans, Slack and GoogleDrive).
- Running our host manager speed networking event virtually for Cohort 2 to select their second assignment.
- Participants from both cohorts starting and ending assignments virtually.
- Delaying recruitment of cohort 3 (we know we will recruit again, but at this time do not know when).
With that being said, we have seen the resilience of our 20 participants during this time and that has been inspiring. Through their lived experience we are learning how we can support participants remotely in XFN, which is providing excellent data for making the program available across Canada.
Next Steps
So what is next for XFN? At the beginning of June 2020 we had a Talent Manager transition for cohort 2 and welcomed Pierre Lecours back to the XFN team. If you have read my previous blogs, you may recall that Pierre helped with the development of XFN and is the curator of the developmental mindset aspect of the program (click here to learn more).
With Pierre’s support, we will be working on various pieces for the program including:
- Evaluation against program assumptions/objectives.
- Scaling the impact of the program.
- XFN across Canada.
As our work continues, I plan to share openly about what we learn and how we pivot in the new virtual environment the GoC is working in.
Stay tuned!
