Lac Carling's "secret formula" is all about connecting diverse
people and ideas to shape and deliver a vision for the future of
government in Canada. This year, the formula was applied to the
Congress itself at a panel session designed to envision what Lac
Carling might become over the next decade. One of Lac Carling's
strengths has always been its ability to evolve and grow, the
panelists told participants, but success in the past does not
guarantee future success. While Lac Carling has become the place to
come for ideas about service transformation, it must continue to
provide leadership to stay at the forefront of change. Therefore,
they said, it is important to take a hard look at what works about
Lac Carling, what doesn't and what will be important to keep it
relevant over the next decade.
The first step in getting from "here" to "there" is to know
where you want to end up. And the panelists presented some
compelling and deliberately controversial pictures of Lac Carling
2016.
The vision they outlined would see the Congress become more
inclusive, more strategic, more influential and more collaborative.
Most importantly, it would guide and lead change through building
the relationships and partnerships needed to make this happen.
Lac Carling's organic and non-hierarchical nature already
encourages interactions and relationships between participants; it
has overcome many traditional barriers to collaboration between
levels of government and with the private sector. But it is now
time to move beyond this type of ad hoc cooperation to facilitate
more broadly based systemic change, the panelists said. Future Lac
Carlings should therefore provide leadership around how to
transcend barriers to collaboration in more structured ways. Thus,
one of the top priorities should be exploring and promoting
sustainable collaborations between governments and between
governments and industry.
It has always been a premise of Lac Carling that more
partnerships would be made possible by sharing ideas and
experiences. Yet, relative to other countries, Canadians are still
not strong in developing public sector partnerships. In fact, there
are few instances of governments actually forming partnerships to
develop programs. All too often, innovative projects, with
demonstrated success, do not go beyond their home departments.
There are many reasons such partnerships are challenging:
Constitutions, geography, language and politics. But in addition,
partnering is a difficult job, one that easily discourages
proponents and is readily abandoned. Therefore, future Lac Carlings
should make it a priority to unlock the secrets of partnering. For
example, they could showcase the best examples of public sector
collaboration in all fields, not just service delivery. As well,
they could look at what's not happening and why.
The next 10 Congresses should aggressively take down the walls
that impede strong partnerships and effective collaboration because
Canada must become a leader in both service and governance
innovation.
Today's governments are being challenged to provide more
just-in-time services and to be more relevant and nimble. To do
this, they will need to learn how to effectively develop and use
partnerships to multiply their rates of innovation, experimentation
and implementation. Lac Carling is the ideal laboratory for doing
this. Future Lac Carlings should therefore take on the task of
leading governments into a new phase of dynamic and fruitful
partnerships between governments at all levels and with the private
sector.
In the short term, the panel agreed, there is still much to do
to deliver seamless, integrated, inter-jurisdictional service
delivery and service transformation. Lac Carling should not abandon
the topic of service transformation in the future, but should look
at several new aspects of it.
First, Lac Carling could be a means of helping governments get
better at leveraging and learning from the private sector in this
area.
Second, it should help develop information management (IM)
capabilities so a single view of the customer can be created.
Effective IM is critical to the future success of service
transformation because it is at the root of the ability to share
information across channels and jurisdictions.
Third, Lac Carling should begin to explore more flexible
approaches to innovation in service delivery and how to build and
sustain the culture needed for service transformation, illustrating
ways to champion, demonstrate, inculcate and reward the new
attitudes required at every level.
Fourth, the Congress could examine how to incorporate and use
citizen engagement to keep transformation efforts focused and on
track. Other related topics that could be addressed in the future
include: providing global service delivery to Canadian citizens
around the world and improving how governments buy IT services.
As governments become more citizen-centred, participation in Lac
Carling needs to be broadened; the Congress was in danger of
becoming a "congress of the converted." To address this risk,
future Congresses should consider including more small and rural
communities, aboriginal groups, municipal service delivery
representatives, politicians, the media and the public. Other new
participants could include front line government workers at the
forefront of service delivery; industry leaders who have applied
networked strategies to create programs, and scholars who can
address the organizational behaviour issues associated with
collaboration in the Congress' deliberations. Furthermore,
delegates must work harder to make their entire organizations a
part of the event or "we will be condemned to push the rock up hill
with little understanding and support in our home
jurisdictions."
The increased participation of political leaders in future Lac
Carlings is especially important, said the panelists. The Congress
should seek to raise the level and number of politicians who
participate in its sessions. More participation from outside Canada
would be a good way to get at other successful perspectives, e.g.,
Denmark is a world leader in e-health. Most importantly, future Lac
Carlings must attract leaders and feature topics and speakers that
will appeal to them.
In addition to expanding participation, it is also time to take
Lac Carling's message farther afield, many panelists said. This can
best be done by enhancing its existing constellation of
relationships and adding to it. Lac Carling could have a strong
outreach component at other events where its message could be
delivered and input gathered, such as the annual meeting of the
Federation of Canadian Municipalities. While some individual
initiatives are already present at these events, the Lac Carling
message would be stronger if this participation were coordinated
and branded. In short, Lac Carling needs to become a movement, not
simply a once-a-year event. Finally, several panelists suggested
that Lac Carling expand its partnerships to academia and within the
private sector in order to learn from their ideas and
experiences.
If participation is to be expanded in this way, the format and
location of Lac Carling will need to be examined. Technologies such
as web-casting and video-conferencing would facilitate more
localized participation. Two Lac Carlings might be needed - one
tactical and one strategic. Regardless, to ensure ongoing success,
future Lac Carlings should continue to be a showcase for both
practical achievements and strategic ideas.
In the longer term, the Congress needs to take a broader view
because governments are not just about service delivery. The next
great challenge will be how governments can enhance and increase
citizen participation in determining the kind of society they want.
Engaging citizens and ensuring that their participation is broadly
based and representative of all should be a key topic for future
Lac Carlings. Since the joint councils have taken on much of the
project work that was done at earlier meetings, future Lac Carlings
should become more about strategic thought leadership. In
particular, the Congress could tackle topics in three broad
areas:
Health, education and safety
The next generation of governance and e-democracy
Public-private infrastructure and how it can be leveraged to
achieve innovation.
Future speakers also need to challenge participants to think
more broadly and remind them of issues like the role of cities, the
environment and international issues.
Lac Carling has a story to tell and it must use a variety of
channels to tell it. For example, high profile speakers will
attract the media and their participation could be very influential
in spreading Lac Carling's message. Doing this well will be a
challenge however. The Congress will have to attack more topical
issues and provide the right "spin" on them in order to get and
keep the media's attention.
The past 10 Lac Carlings have sown seeds in all these areas,
said the panel. Future Congresses must nurture these seedlings in
order to achieve real results. Getting from "here" to "there" will
be possible if Lac Carling continues to provide the leadership and
the milieu needed to make true change happen.
Heather A. Smith (hsmith@business.queensu.ca)
has chronicled the Lac Carling Congress for 10 years.
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