Getting our Groove Back: How to start a movement for digital transformation
In-person welcome [10:00am]
Speaker: Alistair Croll
Alistair welcomes the group back for the final day of the Executive Cohort.
Pay Us Less: a Recipe for Eliminating Consulting, Brought to you by a Consultant [10:15am]
Speaker: Jenna McNeil
Government spending on consultants has been making the news. There are reports of big consulting firms sending junior employees into companies armed with templates and platitudes, while all the while, no one understands what problem they are meant to be solving. News outlets have reported on outrageous price tags for work that seemingly could’ve been done in-house. Complaints circulate that the government would prefer to spend on consultants rather than building internal capacity. Does the consulting industry really " infantilize our governments", as economist Mariana Mazzucato claims?
What strategies can the public sector employ to improve the health of their relationships with consultants? What are the best ways to select when to engage an outside team? How can government maximize the value of working with consultants? How can we work towards building symbiotic vendor-government relationships that empower us to better serve the public, together?
In this keynote, Jenna will suggest five actionable strategies to support efficient, effective consultant-public servant partnerships.
> Strategy 1: Create processes and conditions to avoid vendor lock-in.
> Strategy 2: Undertake procurement reform, including some tweaks that are actually quite small.
> Strategy 3: “Learn by Doing” with consultants: understand the appropriate scenarios for embedding, hybridizing, and outsourcing.
> Strategy 4: Facilitate conversations about metrics as soon at the project inception stage.
> Strategy 5: Produce assets of enduring value that can be reused and are easily accessible; plan from the beginning to ensure that nothing is lost.
In a climate suspicious of consulting work, let’s have frank conversations about what’s working and what isn’t, and propose changes to modernize how government leverages consulting hours for the public good.
Topic Tables [10:45am]
Speaker:
With our minds full, we'll take an extended morning break. Throughout the space we'll have tables dedicated to top-of-mind topics, staffed with subject matter experts and FWD50 faculty. Participants will spend an hour engaged in wide-ranging, expert-led conversations on a wide range of issues, offering a chance to tackle your specififc challenges with some of our online and in-person speakers.
Digital Transformation: a Practice Guide [11:45am]
Speakers: Luciana Lazzaretti, Roxane Auclair, Kent Aitken
The Government of Canada is renewing its commitment to citizen service delivery, enabled by a digital workforce working in modernized organizations. How do we get there?
The CSPS Digital Academy spoke with over 30 Government of Canada executives who have been leading transformation, ranging from senior ADMs to directors, to understand what drives digital progress in the GC, what strategies and tactics move the bar, and what questions are still hard to answer. This session will unveil the 15 success factors and initiatives that were recurring themes across these interviews, and explore the harder-to-talk-about lessons learned.
Lunchtime [12:25pm]
Leading a Data Strategy in a Large Enterprise [1:40pm]
Speaker: Ima Okonny
Enhancing service delivery and meeting growing expectations requires the evolution of data strategies and governance structures to address key gaps and enable the right client-centric insights at the right time. This presentation discusses data as the fuel of digital transformation and the enterprise data and analytics capabilities required to provide timely evidence-based insight – with the required security, legal, ethical and privacy protocols maintained.
Getting Canada’s Digital Groove Back [2:20pm]
Speakers: Viet Vu, André Côté, Tanya Coyle
Join the Dais, Canada’s platform for bold policies and better leaders, to explore how our country can turn the tide of tenuous digital adoption and reclaim a top spot on the world stage. Hear the latest insights on Canada’s global ranking today, and tell us where the nation needs to go next to build greater trust and digital resilience in public institutions. In this session, you will help design 5 action tracks that need attention in the next 50 weeks.
The three legged stool [3:05pm]
Speaker: Alex Benay
Details coming soon
Closing remarks: The importance of social proof, and how to start a movement [3:45pm]
Speaker: Alistair Croll
You're not alone. Real, widespread, systemic change is needed, and government departments are intertwined. Sharing with peers helps you build business cases, and demonstrate that you're part of a broader movement of executives fundamentally rethinking how they work.
As we wrap up the inaugural Executive Cohort, host Alistair Croll suggests ways to stay connected, share stories, and find support.
