Category: Government
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Involuntary buy-in: the truth about change
I know it’s received wisdom, even catechism that everyone in any organization can and should be bought in to change. I know this is essential to address resistance, often sounding like, “If they only knew better… we can help get them there by informing, educating…” I know within organizations we’re, “Not dealing with 5-year-olds,”…
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Unlocking Change: Embrace Forward & Backward Lookers
A recent experience crystalized for me an essential, binary nature of organizations: some people look forward, some backward. There ought to and will always be both in any given organization. That there might be all one kind or the other is unlikely. More probable is overrepresentation or, at the least, an unbalanced influence or control…
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Failing Productivity? What About All That Digital Transformation?
The Canadian character lends itself to millennialist productivity flagellation (e.g., recent Globe & Mail-only: Canada’s declining productivity streak adds to inflation problem, The productivity problem in Canada’s economy is really a marketing and sales problem, Canada has a productivity problem. The solution is training, not factories, one expert says, Canada’s productivity lag could be helped…
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ESG: A Moral and Survival Imperative
In a previous essay, I declared ESG to be a crock. The message was adorned with a lovely illustration intimating a poop emoji. I stand by it but believe an elaboration is required. Relatively fewer readers picked up on the defeated futility in the assessment than those who sincerely piled on to declare ESG a…
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What’s Next for Government Transformation?
Government and public administration transformation typically involve efforts to improve the efficiency, effectiveness, and responsiveness of government services and operations. Efforts usually aim to leverage technology and modernize administrative processes to better serve citizens. Often, it’s a generational effort to clear the accretion of process, policy, and regulatory barnacles. Recent Government Transformation Focus Areas…
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A Good Decarbonization Transition (2023)
The realist in me says that this transformation is and has been happening for a decade or more. Irrespective of any ecological and/or existential direness, which is debated hotly, the transition trajectory is probably consistent with other major transformations. We have, however, with specific focus on consumer products, especially those sexy things attached…
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“Fear” of Transformation Outcome is Powerful
Do people fear transformation? Some yes, some no; but by-and-large people do not fear transformation. They may, however, dread imagined outcomes of a transformation. Even if they understand the need. Transformation and change are inevitable in any organization. Whether due to market conditions, technological advances, or internal restructuring companies must adapt to remain…
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How Work Will Transform for Better or Worse…?
A big question mark hanging over the plans of executives, workers, commercial property managers, and hospitality venues/retail around business districts is: “What is the future of (office) work?”[1] We have some thoughts, mostly on the employee-driven side of change. This gets the most airtime—as though office workers suddenly have excess leverage. Maybe they…
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Transformation is not just a buzzword anymore
I’m often asked—told, really: “Transformation’s just a buzzword.” (You have to imagine the rising intonation and modifier before “buzzword” yourself.) Typically, it’s right after I disclose what I do to a middle ranking corporate or government manager. I have no choice but to say, “It certainly can be.” Digital transformation got us started… …
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Make Winners Out of Losers—Transformation Success Secret no. 3
By definition, a transformation is a fundamental change to the organization that disrupts the status quo. The bigger the change, the greater the farther from the status quo of “work.” For instance, since the promise of digital transformation is to digitally streamline what is laboriously analog, the (collateral) damage to jobs is easy to…
