cpsrtest: lessons from the private sector

Showing posts with label lessons from the private sector. Show all posts

Friday, 12 December 2014

An alternative to the hackathon

by Nick Charney

By now most are familiar with the concept of an open data hackathon: jam people and data together into a small space for a short time and ask them to write applications, liberate data, create visualizations and/or publish analyses (often by providing a monetary reward as an incentive). This has been the model for a long time now and at the height of its hype its merits were debated extensively online. I'm not really interested in re-hashing the debate, but if you want some context you can go read the following from a few years back (and everything those pieces link to):

What I am interested in is fleshing out why we need an alternative approach, how that approach could be structured and what it could mean to the big picture.

Hackathons produce apps, not solutions to wicked problems

A bus tracking app is great at helping me leave the office just at the right minute to catch my bus, but it's completely ineffective at solving the gridlock that hamstrings the bus as soon as I board it.

A health tracking app may help me eat better and exercise more but does little to address the looming healthcare crisis in this country (See: Impossible Conversations: A Review of Chronic Condition by Jeffrey Simpson)

In short, apps address downstream problems facing individuals that are generally easy to deal with. Ought we not be digging in a little deeper, thinking upstream, and investing our effort into solving problems at the macro rather than treating their symptoms at the micro?

Refocusing on wicked problems

Maybe we ought to engage our best and brightest from academic institutions, the public and private sectors and create teams of cross functional experts to gather, crunch and analyse the data.

Maybe we shouldn't ask them to build a minimum viable product in a weekend but rather give them the time required for them to conduct a thoughtful analysis of the status quo, a desired future state, and options on how to get us there (See: Enduring Ideas: The Three Horizons of Growth from McKinsey).

Maybe then we can sit down, have the hard conversations, weigh the evidence and options and chart a coherent way forward.

The wicked impact of solving (or even mitigating) wicked problems

I have no evidence to support this claim so feel free to take me task on it, but I get the sense that solving (or even mitigating) a wicked problem in society will always yield better returns to society at the macro than any app ever could.

I could go down a long tangent on how I think the focus on apps (to the detriment of research) is a by-product of our shortened shadow of the future, our culture of immediacy and the omnipresence of attention economy, but I'll spare you the diatribe for the moment.

What I will say is that I think we need to spend less time scrolling up with our thumbs and more time leaning in with our shoulders.

Tuesday, 7 April 2009

Round Up: Kick Start Your Engagement Engine, Info on the Public Service, Blogs and Blogging, and more!

Looking for a way to jump "kick start your weekly engagement engine" @Cedgell found a way... (!)

... and now on with the show.

On the Public Service

Finally here is an podcast of a piece on CBC Ottawa Morning on Public Service Leadership Grads.

Blogs and Blogging

Public servants have permission to blog, sort of, maybe?
Transparency and Finding Information on Government Web Sites and Food for Thought on public servants using social media c/o Peter Smith. Peter finally has his own URL).
Congrats Etienne on your 100th blog post.
Interested in deep packet inspection? Read this post c/o @canuckflack.

On Social Media

Lesson from the Private Sector

Top employers let grads experiment

Thanks for stopping by. I still plan on writing a brief weekly column this week even though it's Easter.

Cheers!

Tuesday, 3 March 2009

Round Up: March 4

[Note of caution, this is fairly long round up, but I have tried to give context to everything I am pointing to, in the obvious hope that you will click through or engage in whatever discussion you feel most interested in.]

New Blogger

First of all I would like to welcome a new public servant blogger to the fray, friends meet Amanda. You can also catch an article she wrote for CGEM here.

Be Angry(!)

Apparently being angry at work is good for your career, who knew? I would caution you however that always being angry at work is probably NOT good for your career (or your mental health).

On Leaders

In continuing to foster our discussion about leadership, I came across this in a tweet by @DGTweets: Why Can't We Figure Out How to Select Leaders? Here is my favorite musing from the summary on leadership:

Some of the more interesting [questions about leaders] included Kapil Kumar Sopory's suggestion that we look for "... the person with the biggest fire inside of them...." Rowland Freeman would ask, "... how will the selected individual handle power?" Edward Hare suggested that results fall short of expectations "... because we don't understand motives (of the candidate for the leadership position) ... How many aspiring leaders are not genuine or authentic? They're the ones that scare me." These comments raise the question of how much theory tells us about selecting for harder to measure characteristics such as possible behaviors under fire and motives as opposed to skills and past accomplishments.

NB: There are also 88 comments on the thread, here are a couple of my favs:

(12) Way too much thinking and evaluating going on. Maybe we can't see the forest for the trees? I watch how people treat and support others. I knew a Coast Guard retiree that became a grade school janitor that ended up becoming head of a school district. Why? Because he knew how to treat people, connect with the kids, teachers, and parents. It wasn't about all the fancy degrees, publishing, and ego. He cared about the kids and their future. Look at the heart and soul of people. See what they do. You will find leaders... (Phil Clark, Clark and Associates)

(17) The criteria for hiring future decision-makers, beyond their education, is often subjective. In many successful cases where the new hire became and effective leader, we had to first convince the hiring authority to look beyond stereotypes and beyond their first-choice, to hire that person.

God may have created man in his own image, but business leaders who use that same measure are often disappointed. (Robert Stevens, CFA, President, Douglas-Allen Inc., Executive Search)

(39) Hiring is a skill like any other skill.

I don't fix my car brakes because I don't have the skill and I might die as a consequence... (Luis X. B. Mourao, Senior Manager R&D, Bang & Olufsen)

(73) A good leader is easily spotted a mile away. The problem is that we often ask the wrong questions, and our internal compasses are sometimes off track... (Marquen Joubert, Senior Vice President, LynRay Engineering)

I think that these comments are all pointed, especially given the conversations I have been having with people on the subject of leaders being promoted into leadership positions because they were technically competent, not necessarily because they are good leaders. Truth be told, I heard this was an issue before I even joined the Public Service.

How We Interact with the Public Should be Simple and Genuine!

I think that Seth Godin's short and simple blog post on Looking for Yes is highly relevant to any government line department.

Moreover, I think we should strive to make all of our interactions with the Canadian Public this genuine.

Reform: HR Processes

Here is an absolutely fantastic piece by David Zussman on simplifying the government hiring process, here's a taste:

... [the committee] has issued two frank assessments of the HR governance system. Specifically, they concluded that the regime was too complex and unwieldy for a modern organization in competition for talent, there were too many rules and constraints that governed the HR system, and there was too much duplication of effort within central agencies and in individual departments.

... the government folded the former Public Service Agency into the Treasury Board and created the position of chief human resources officer (CHRO) to head the new branch. The new CHRO, Michelle D'Auray (former Deputy Minister of Fisheries and Oceans) will oversee a narrower set of corporate functions that includes co-ordinating government-wide employee surveys, monitoring the impact of demographics on hiring needs, and, most importantly, developing an integrated compensation system for the whole of government. Second, many of the responsibilities of the Public Service Agency were dispersed into individual departments, making it clear deputy ministers are the centre of the new HR regime.

About Twitter

If you are interested in knowing more about Twitter and how you can use it, here is a 10 minute TED talk on Twitter, and article that examines whether or not twitter is efficiency engine or workplace distraction.

Saturday, 7 February 2009

Round up: February 7th (Yeah that's right a Saturday Roundup!)

First of all I would just like to give a h/t to Laura who pointed us at this podcast featuring Seth Godin on how the internet is changing leadership.

While I got a lot out of the podcast, if I had to break it down to five simple statements it would look something like this:

People don't line up to follow defend the status quo, they line up to follow people who make change.
People aren't leaders because they are charismatic, they are charismatic because they are leaders.
Leaders need to secure enough in their future to make things happen but isn't so entangled with the religion of the status quo (e.g. bureaucratic tendency for risk aversion) that they are afraid to do something new.
Leaders need to be humble enough to recognize that connecting people and identifying opportunities is more important then recognition.
Shake things up now, ask permission later because very few people get fired for creative instigation (aka virtuous scheming).

The podcast was enough to prompt me to downloaded Seth's audio-book Tribes (which is available for free download here) and will give it a whirl despite Etienne's review, also you can see some of Laura's thoughts here.

Second, you may or may not notice that we now have a new favicon for the site. Ironically enough I checked my site from my work and my department blocks images from the site I am using to host the image, so if you are behind the same firewall as I am, you don't get to see it!

Third, here is a link to the GCPEDIA summary of the You and the Evolving Public Service Conference, where I am delivering a workshop on networking for public servants and the Keynote Address on Scheming Virtuously (Yes, its now a deck!). Mike was invited but couldn't make it.

Info & Links to Share

Colin McKay (Office of the Privacy Commissioner) posted a government job on craigslist (awesome!).

The NCVM has released their First Annual Report to the Clerk of the Privy Council and Secretary to the Cabinet on the Status of Visible Minorities in the Federal Public Service

CGEM has published their February issue which includes an article written by Etienne, in fact the entire issue focuses on renewal. I obviously haven't gotten to all of it yet, but I plan to.

The PM has decided to fold the Public Service Agency into Treasury Board; you can read Etienne's take on it here.

News (MSM)

Blogs

If You’re a Government 2.0 Guru, You have no Business in Government 2.0 c/o Techno Sailor
US Air Force Social Engagement Process c/o Peter Smith
Canada Revenue Agency announces YouTube contest c/o Mike Kujawski (Make sure to read the comments, and follow them to the spoof video, where the real 'convo' happened).
Performance Management and Measurement c/o Etienne
Statistics Canada launched a census forum c/o Mike Kujawski
GCPEDIA: Government of Canada gets it when it comes to wikis and open-source c/o Douglas Bastien and/or GCPEDIA update c/o Peter Smith (both make some great points, but the latter post also includes some great tweets by @thornley.

BTW, where was my invite? I am looking at you Doug, Joe, Peter, and even Jeff! I have been in communication with all of you in the last 2 weeks!)

Final Reaction

Doug blogged some advice, namely, do not start a blog about the government of Canada. Which prompted Etienne to respond in kind.

Doug raises some key points and to be honest, my initial advice would be similar - don't start a blog about the government of Canada, not unless you are willing to bare out the (potentially numerous) consequences. I feel for both Etienne who has already, and Doug, who seems to be currently, undergoing rigourous reviews. Something that thus far, Mike and I have been able to avoid.

Etienne - I know we haven't chatted in a while now, sadly both Mike and I have been very busy in both our professional and personal lives, which obviously makes making time for side projects such as this blog more difficult to secure. We may in fact have inadvertently reduced the number of posts on the blog but to be honest, producing the roundups is a difficult and time consuming task given the amount of information we come across in a given week. Consider the size of this round up, the amount of information it shares (e.g. outbound links) and the date on which it is posted and well, I suppose I don't even need to finish the sentence - you understand the commitment well enough. With that said, I hope that all of you find the roundups informative and worthwhile.

Thanks everyone for checking in, today's round up was probably more then you bargained for!

Tuesday, 12 August 2008

CPSRenewal.ca Email Rant: 'Distributed Work'

Not sure if this will become a regular feature of the blog or not but sometimes you just need to share things. Rather then simply post a round-up or a full blown column here is an interesting email exchange that Mike and I had today (Note I inverted the order of the email string so you chronologically it reads it top to bottom):

-----Original Message-----
From:ncharney
To: mmangulabnan
Subject: Why not do this with gov offices?

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20080812.wprsuite12/BNStory/Technology/home

FYI more info on 'distributed work'

http://www.thefutureofwork.net/assets/Understanding_Distributed_Work.pdf

-----Original Message-----
From: mmangulabnan
To: ncharney
Subject: RE: Why not do this with gov offices?

because that would be smart...

baha: "[The US] recognize the many benefits and advantages and strongly support it," Mr. Fortier says. "Here, we don't use the carrot and we don't use the stick. There's not even a donkey."

There's tons of commercial space (and vacant commercial space) 2 blocks from my house. I'm not even gonna add up how much I could save in doing away with my bus pass, not having to buy extra groceries for lunches, not to mention buying lunches. (That's over $800 a year for the bus pass alone, for those counting - anyone paying more than that for parking/gas?). There's even a small fitness benefit attached in that I would be much more inclined to walk or bike to and from work every day. I might even be more inclined to work later because it wouldn't take me 40 minutes to get home. Set up an IM and I don't need to be here 85-90% of the time.

It's funny how we can work almost seamlessly with people in the regions (remember, even Guelph, Montreal, and Toronto are considered 'regions') but it's somehow impossible to work as effectively with someone who's 20 minutes down the road. The mentality seems to be, if you can be in the office, you should be in the office.

If someone can telecommute from Nunavut, surely I can telecommute from Hunt Club...

It seems the only people who are able/allowed to telecommute in the same area are people who have retired and returned to the workforce. I know, and have worked with people who have retired and returned who live in the area and telecommute the majority of their time. The opposite mentality seems to exist for these employees: if you don't need to be in the office, then you don't have to be in the office.

oh to dream.

-----Original Message-----
From:ncharney
To: mmangulabnan
Subject: Why not do this with gov offices?

can i post your mini rant /this email exchange on the blog with links to the article and the background paper I am reading now, after I finish reading it? if you want to make any edits do so in red below, but i think it is gold as is.

-----Original Message-----
From: mmangulabnan
To: ncharney
Subject: RE: Why not do this with gov offices?

[done] - I'm tempted to add something additional about the clothes I have to buy in order to 'look presentable' for my no-clients, but I won't

-----End-----

I don't think Mike wanted me to include that last one but, oh well. Happy Tuesday everyone.

Wednesday, 16 July 2008

Round-Up: July 16

In the News

The Globe and Mail posted a book review that has some lessons we can learn from service delivery models in the private sector.

CSPS

Armchair Discussion – National Capital Region: Post-Secondary Recruitment
Ottawa - Thursday, July 24, 2008
1:00 p.m. to 3:00 p.m. (ET)

Speakers :

Cindy Clark
Program Manager - Post Secondary Recruitment. Public Service Commission, Central Recruitment Programs

Sylvain Chrétien
Program Officer, Public Service Commission, Central Recruitment Programs

Bilingual Presentation

Post-Secondary Recruitment (PSR) is a key component of the public service renewal initiative. Annually, the Public Service Commission (PSC) conducts a post-secondary recruitment campaign to assist departments in recruiting post-secondary graduates.

Any manager who would like to know more about the campaign is invited to attend. This session will be especially beneficial to those managers who have identified a need to recruit post-secondary graduates in their HR plan, and for those managers who indicated they plan to utilize the PSC’s program as a post-secondary recruitment mechanism in their 2008-2009 plans.

You are invited to attend this Armchair Discussion on-site at 65 Guigues Street (Ottawa).

To register, please visit the School’s Web site:

http://www.csps-efpc.gc.ca/events/armchair/program_e.html

Discussion informelle – Région de la Capitale nationale: Le recrutement postsecondaire
Ottawa - Jeudi 24 juillet 2008
13 h 00 à 15 h 00 (HE)

Conférenciers :

Cindy Clark
Chef du programme - Recrutement Post Secondaire, Commission de la fonction publique, Programmes de recrutement centraux

Sylvain Chrétien
Agent de programmes, Commission de la fonction publique, Programmes de recrutement centraux

Présentation bilingue

Le recrutement postsecondaire (RPS) est un élément clé de l’initiative de renouvellement de la fonction publique. Chaque année, la Commission de la fonction publique (CFP) mène une campagne de recrutement postsecondaire pour aider les ministères avec le recrutement des diplômés.

Les gestionnaires qui veulent recevoir plus de renseignements au sujet de la campagne sont invités à y assister. La séance va être utile pour les gestionnaires qui ont identifié un besoin de recruter les diplômés au niveau postsecondaire dans leurs plans RH, et pour les gestionnaires qui ont indiqué qu’ils vont utiliser le programme de la CFP comme un des mécanismes dans leurs plans de recrutement pour l’année financier 2008-2009.

Vous êtes invités à assister à cette Discussion informelle en personne au 65, rue Guigues (Ottawa).

Pour vous inscrire, veuillez consulter le site Web de l’École :

http://www.csps-efpc.gc.ca/events/armchair/program_f.html