The ADM as a Cross-Silo Integrator

Assistant Deputy Ministers (ADMs) occupy one of the most complex and demanding roles in Canada’s federal public service. While Deputy Ministers (DMs) set strategic priorities and Directors General (DGs) ensure execution, ADMs are responsible for cross-silo alignment. They must ensure transformation initiatives not only succeed within their own branch but also integrate horizontally across the department and, increasingly, across the federal system.

In transformational contexts, ADMs are expected to:

• Champion reform across organizational boundaries.
• Mediate competing interests between branches.
• Translate Deputy Minister priorities into cross-branch collaboration.
• Model sponsorship through visibility and consistency.

We examine how ADMs can fulfill their sponsorship role by strengthening alignment across silos and ensuring transformation is not only initiated but embedded system-wide.

The ADM as a Cross-Silo Sponsor

Siloed structures are deeply entrenched in government organizations. While silos allow specialization, they often inhibit collaboration. ADMs are uniquely positioned to overcome these divisions by:

• Connecting Vision to Action: Translating DM-level direction into policies that multiple branches can implement collectively.
• Fostering Horizontal Governance: Coordinating transformation initiatives that span policy, operations, and service delivery.
• Building Sponsorship Coalitions: Working with peer ADMs to model joint ownership of reforms.

Research on public-sector transformation emphasizes the importance of middle-to-senior leadership alignment. Without cross-silo sponsorship at the ADM level, reforms risk fragmentation (Christensen & Lægreid, 2007).

Sponsorship Responsibilities of ADMs

ADMs carry specific sponsorship responsibilities that directly impact transformation success:

1. Articulating the Cross-Branch Why
   Unlike DGs, who focus on staff-level engagement, ADMs must explain why transformation requires horizontal collaboration. This means clarifying how shared outcomes benefit the department and citizens, not just individual branches.
2. Championing Integration
   ADMs ensure that branch-level strategies are not isolated. They must identify overlaps, remove duplication, and integrate initiatives across silos (O’Flynn, 2021).
3. Managing Political-Administrative Interfaces
   Because ADMs are closer to DMs than DGs, they often deal with politically sensitive aspects of transformation. They must balance responsiveness with realism, ensuring that political imperatives do not overwhelm operational feasibility.
4. Allocating Resources Across Silos
   Effective sponsorship requires resource-sharing. ADMs may need to negotiate with peers to pool budgets or staff to support cross-cutting priorities.

Urgency and Patience at the ADM Level

The ADM role highlights the paradox of urgency and patience:

• Urgency:
  • Demonstrating visible progress to maintain DM confidence.
  • Meeting politically driven timelines.
  • Avoiding reform drift caused by inter-branch competition.
• Patience:
  • Allowing branches to negotiate integration without imposing one-size-fits-all solutions.
  • Building trust between silos—an inherently slow process.
  • Accepting that cultural change requires repeated reinforcement.

ADMs must model a deliberate balance, showing urgency in direction while exercising patience in cross-silo collaboration.

Challenges Facing ADMs in Sponsorship

ADMs encounter persistent barriers to effective sponsorship:

• Silo Resistance: Branches may resist collaboration, perceiving it as a loss of autonomy.
• Competing Priorities: Different branches often face divergent mandates, making integration difficult.
• Limited Time: ADMs juggle multiple files, reducing the bandwidth for sustained sponsorship.
• Visibility Gap: Staff may perceive ADMs as distant if sponsorship is not demonstrated through presence and communication.

These challenges are amplified in transformational contexts, where reform often cuts across traditional boundaries (Savoie, 2008).

Practical Strategies for ADM Sponsorship

1. Coalition-Building with Peer ADMs

Transformation requires joint sponsorship. ADMs should form cross-branch coalitions, agreeing to shared messaging, timelines, and accountability.

2. Creating Shared Outcomes

Defining outcomes that matter across silos (e.g., citizen experience, service efficiency) creates common ground for collaboration.

3. Institutionalizing Collaboration

ADMs should establish governance mechanisms—steering committees, working groups, or transformation boards—that ensure reforms are coordinated across branches.

4. Visible Engagement Beyond the Branch

To be credible sponsors, ADMs must appear in cross-branch forums and communicate directly with staff outside their immediate portfolio.

5. Balancing Accountability with Empowerment

ADMs must hold DGs accountable for transformation implementation while empowering them to adapt within their contexts.

Case Example: ADM Sponsorship in Horizontal Digital Transformation

A department launched a digital service transformation requiring multiple branches—IT, policy, and service delivery—to collaborate.

The ADM of Service Delivery sponsored the initiative by:

• Coalition-Building: Partnering with IT and Policy ADMs to form a tri-ADM steering group.
• Creating Shared Outcomes: Framing success around “improving citizen experience” rather than branch-level metrics.
• Visible Engagement: Attending DG and Director-level meetings to reinforce commitment.

The result: silo resistance decreased, timelines were met, and cross-branch trust deepened. Staff reported seeing “for the first time” that senior leaders were aligned.

Risks of Weak ADM Sponsorship

Without strong ADM sponsorship:

• Branches revert to siloed approaches, undermining horizontal initiatives.
• Staff perceive mixed messages, leading to disengagement.
• DMs are forced to micromanage cross-silo alignment.
• Political imperatives are delayed or diluted, reducing trust in the department.

Research shows that lack of cross-silo sponsorship is a critical factor in failed government reforms (Christensen & Lægreid, 2007; Savoie, 2008).

External Support for ADMs

ADMs can strengthen their sponsorship role with:

• Leadership coaching to enhance cross-silo influence.
• Facilitated alignment sessions with peer ADMs to build trust and shared ownership.
• Analytical frameworks that map interdependencies across silos.

These supports allow ADMs to sustain sponsorship under pressure while fostering collaboration.

Conclusion: ADMs as Cross-Silo Sponsors

Assistant Deputy Ministers play an indispensable role in transformation. They connect DM vision to DG execution while ensuring collaboration across silos.

Through coalition-building, shared outcomes, visible presence, and resource-sharing, ADMs can transform sponsorship from a branch-centered function into a cross-departmental force.

In this way, ADMs are not only operational leaders but cross-silo architects of transformation—ensuring that reforms are coherent, sustainable, and citizen-focused.

What’s Next?

Institute X works with ADMs to strengthen their cross-silo sponsorship capacity—helping them build coalitions, integrate transformation across branches, and deliver results that last.

References

• Christensen, T., & Lægreid, P. (2007). The Whole-of-Government Approach to Public Sector Reform. Public Administration Review, 67(6), 1059–1066.
• Heifetz, R. A., Grashow, A., & Linsky, M. (2009). The Practice of Adaptive Leadership. Harvard Business Review Press.
• Kotter, J. (2012). Leading Change. Harvard Business Review Press.
• O’Flynn, J. (2021). Rethinking Public Service Reform: Managing in the Age of Collaboration. Routledge.
• Savoie, D. J. (2008). Court Government and the Collapse of Accountability in Canada and the United Kingdom. University of Toronto Press.