Page Comparison

Connected-Service interviews (Tess)

• “In the big picture transformation context I would like to see some of the structural issues I see with agile and specifically in the kind of hiring, procurement, job description space solved. I'm working on my little corner of the government trying to do what I can to put my best foot forward under the policy and legislative constraints that are around me. One of the reasons I took this meeting is because I'm hoping that from your vantage point, possibly those policy and legislative constraints can be changed.”

  • l

Existing research / staff insights

Experiments & Collaborations

Connected-Service interviews (Tess)

• “I don't love digital delivery separate from program area - it can be inefficient, less effective, isolating - hinders digital literacy of program area. I want to build cross-functional teams, where policy roles are mixed in with digital delivery and accountable - policy, service, and products are intertwined - policy has to be delivered. I want to see digital people embedded in program areas - where SMEs, policy, designers, developers all feel ownership, live and breathe the work, build cross-functional skills.”

• “And then you also have some SMEs and like program leads that you're working with again that get this project kind off the side of their desk just because they've been so involved or they're just more of the senior roles in the team, but haven't been through this type of process. And so it's new. So you're kind of educating them, bringing them along the way, been asking them to make certain decisions that sometimes maybe they're not comfortable with just because they're just not sure.”

Existing research / staff insights

Experiments & Collaborations

Connected-Service interviews (Tess)

• “So you know it, it's really recognizing that the world is not this "You're a cog in the machine and you're just doing this fixed job" concept. We need to get away from that to to really build the organization, and it's gonna change dynamically as people come and go and people grow and develop”

  • folks are leaning into agility, future-thinking, and realizing we need to operate differently to create sustainable conditions for digital talent to achieve outcomes & impact

  • folks are grappling with the tension between flexible org design models and encouraging staff to lean into new knowledge/skill/ability, within the PSA/BCGEU context — service opportunities: lean interim advice, explore systemic context?

• “I think it's tough for some people… I actually I'm pretty sure some people on the home team don't really see themselves in the modernized space”

  • staff perceptions that vendors historically get the “interesting, shiny & new” work and don’t have “skin in the game” re: long term implications of decision making and outcomes - this has impacted employees and organizations - engagement, turnover, etc.

  • folks are grappling with how to support valued staff in seeing their place in the modernization context - there can be fear, angst, turnover

    • with observations that agility isn’t for everyone, some folks thrive in uncertainty, others need more structure (valid - ties into inclusion and accessibility, this also could have more to do with implementation than agility itself - orgs early on the learning curve can be overly rigid/dogmatic about the practices, not always investing in the human side of change)

    • common example: Business Analysts re-skilling into Scrum Master, Product Owner, sometimes Service Design roles

      • to support re-skilling today, folks encourage attending meetings (identify interest, gain context), shadowing, low risk opportunities to gain experience, and training/education — service opportunity

• “I don't have the resources, and the people I work with are [digital practitioners] and they can tell me what topics they want covered, but they can't tell me how to do it, so I have reached out to the federal government and I have their curriculum writers assisting me with developing a program. I actually have Camosun College and Royal Roads that have offered services as well. But yeah, that that whole career ramping and the formalization of it is, is what I'm looking at doing now.”

  • The same dynamic is playing out in the Design community, folks are meeting with Emily Carr, UK Gov folk, etc. to try and figure out ways to grow and develop staff

  • folks are trying to build their own programs, partnering with external institutions, aren’t always aware of others storming on similar initiatives - would it be worthwhile to get all those humans in one room? share, prototype, support each other… domains are different, foundations similar?

• Growth-minded is a top quality folks seem to be looking for - intersects with “fit”

  • curiosity, openness and willingness to learn kept popping up across topics & conversations - sometimes as a pain point, or a perception that Jr. staff are more open to growth

  • Hypothesis to test: I’m curious if there is a change management layer missing in the transformation work, broadly, where the transformation is uncertain and stressful for some employees (depends on how it’s introduced & rolled out over time), and we maybe aren’t appreciating what a jarring change it can be for some BCPS folk, incl. the contradictions and workplace traumas: some folks have been discouraged or punished for stepping outside their job profile (and developed responses/strategies accordingly), now they’re being encouraged to be more flexible - we can’t blow past that /soapbox

• Connected-service thinking: how might we align/integrate our talent-development efforts with the new Performance Development Platform (PDP) for a sense of cohesion

  • this could be as simple as lean references to PDP in our advice, the new system was mentioned a few times in the context of helping staff grow and develop

What we know of & can learn from today:

• MoTI TELP

• NRIDS Jr. Full Stack Developer path

• CITZ Cybersecurity & Digital Trust Co-op program

• Design community efforts - ENV, GDX, DO/Lab, CITZ IMB

• CITZ - Service BC and Cybersecurity teams exploring development programs

  • feels like a safe bet that more program areas are grappling with the development topic - I see a good investment

• Vendors are indicating some friction and tradeoffs with mentorship built into contracts

  • BCPS staff can be defensive/resistant - can impact the transformation work, team dynamics, create distractions (change/people management gap?)

  • Vendor staff may not want to or be skilled in ‘teaching’

  • the act of being a “player” and “coach” at same time can be challenging and may be impacting outcomes - the transformation work on it’s own is often quite complex

  • More research/perspectives needed

Experiments & collaborations:

• Sam recently collaborated w/ MoTI - TELP: what did you learn? see? think?

  • development programs as an EDI strategy - creating equitable access to opportunity

• Sam collaborating with CITZ - Service BC this week

Connected-Service interviews (Tess)

• “I think that we've moved in the right direction, but much like our legacy systems, I think we suffer from legacy practices in the HR policy space and and I would say that we're getting better - I would put it as 25 to 30% better able to deliver on digital services than five years ago. So we're moving into the right direction, but it's kind of like with moves to the cloud, you have all this legacy crap sitting there and you know, you have to deal with it. You're trying to move everything you can over this way, but it is a journey like it does take that that time, and we often don't have the resources, money, people and stuff to really make that switch in one go.”

Existing research / staff insights

Experiments & Collaborations

Connected-Service interviews (Tess)

• people are using TAs as classification and time-to-hire workarounds: how might Shannon Salter’s recent announcement impact folks? This announcement came after my interviews, so I don’t have data here — service opportunity?

Existing research / staff insights

Experiments & Collaborations