Nous Group hosted a panel discussion for Canada public sector leaders on the topic “Ambiguity, Meet Clarity: How to lead a successful transformation”. The webinar was part of the Institute of Public Administration of Canada (IPAC) 18th annual Leadership Summit.

Joining the panel on 2 March 2023 were Adil Khalfan (President and CEO of Kensington Health), Aaron Jaffery (Director General for Service Experience Design and Delivery at Service Canada) and Mohammad Qureshi (Corporate Chief Information Officer and Associate Deputy Minister at GovTechON). The discussion was chaired by Nous’ Government Sector Lead for Canada, Kelly Rowe.

We are pleased to share some key themes from the discussion.

Transformation is not easy. That’s the consensus among public sector leaders, who cite challenges including accessing investment and skills, navigating roadblocks and sustaining momentum.

When asked to describe transformation, Mohammad Qureshi said it was about “how we meet people where they are from a government-service-delivery perspective”. He added that people should be at the centre of how services are designed, so they can access services any way they interact with government.

The panelists noted government services were designed in a siloed fashion around legacy systems, but we live in a digital world where users expect seamless service delivery. Mr Qureshi said when a disjointed service delivery model and pain points that surround it are made real for political parties and for government, the case for change “automatically gets built”.

Rebuilding services requires governance that is well designed, flexible and agile. The panel noted that agile governance involved reducing the risk in transformation decisions and focusing on outcomes. This means that after each phase of the transformation, leaders can decide to pivot or to not move forward.

But even with strong governance in place, problems are bound to happen. Mr Qureshi said a collaborative and open culture where people feel safe raising issues early and owning up to their mistakes can remove and even prevent roadblocks. Having the right people around the table then helps to resolve challenges.

Accessing the required capability and capacity is more complex in the public sector. It was noted that the public sector was competing with the private sector for talent but was often unable to match compensation. Governments can buy skills from the market and while this may achieve the transformation it would not build organizational flexibility and agility from within, which is essential for long-term success. This tells us that leaders must balance knowledge transfer and getting the transformation done.

But transformations can go wrong, even when leaders take all the right steps. Drawing on his experience, Adil Khalfan said leaders should build strong relationships with industry partners and be flexible. He said transformation was “one sliver of the rest of the pie” and called for leaders to value social capital over adherence to processes or contracts. This will allow leaders to build the trust required for long-term transformation success.

The panel agreed that a culture shift is often the most challenging part of a transformation. Mr Qureshi argued that the only way to genuinely shift culture is through collaboration. “It can’t be that Ontario Health does a piece, the ministry does a piece, and Service Canada does a piece. They all have to work together, as if they are one organization,” he said. “That’s the true way we’ll be able to shift culture.”

So, what are the takeaways? Listening to our three panelists, and drawing on my own experience, I have identified four key elements for successful transformation:

  1. Build relationships and trust and work with peers and across silos to get alignment throughout the transformation.
  2. Raise issues and risks openly and early.
  3. Governance design and the governing body need to be focused on outcomes.
  4. Benefits to citizens must be the ultimate objective.

The challenge now for public sector leaders is to bring these to life.

Written by Kelly Rowe during her time as a Principal at Nous.

Get in touch to explore how we can help your government agency achieve success in transformation.