Challenges for Federal Departments in the 21st Century

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Building a 21st Century Federal Department
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Leading institutions are adapting and evolving to
meet the challenges of the 21st century

• focus on results.......
• Measuring success by results....
• focus on people building talent..
• replacing hierarchical approaches...
• with flexible management approaches
• using multidisciplinary work teams
• creating partnerships and alliances
• building an information infrastructure.
• (with suite of tools)

to deliver what clients demand not effort to
leverage knowledge by developing people instead
of defining positions to foster innovation,
creativity and adaptability, to harness talents
of many to solve complex problems, and to
maximize opportunity to ensure clear, integrated
information for sound decision-making, and for
people in virtual work teams to have the right
information to get results
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...and fundamentally changing their work culture
and values...

• People working in 21st century organizations
• Have a deep sense of shared purpose and support
  for organizational goals and workplace cultural
  values
• Operate within flexible interpretations of roles
• Have many opportunities for input
• Find it normal to deal with constantly-evolving
  initiatives and diverse ideas
• Are accustomed to working in synergistic,
  cross-functional work teams
• Are valued for current performance, not tenure
• Believe that advancement will be because of their
  ability to build knowledge

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The federal government is changing, and has made
progress, especially in how policy is developed

• Policy
• focusing on priorities of Canadians
• horizontal policy planning across departments
• departmental planning and reporting now aimed at
  results for citizens
• commitment to partnership with other governments
  and citizens
• more use of horizontal teams to develop policy
  strategies, special projects within departments
• Service Delivery
• more integrated and citizen-centred approach
• Management
• Human Resources
• Management Accountability Framework

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But if change is only incremental, it leaves
government caught between old and new
approaches...
High-level, horizontal policy approaches are
overlaid on traditional departments

• Departments organized by function and not
  priority
• HR System manages positions and jobs,
  not people
• People not involved or engaged in management
  plans and priorities
• Management traditional hierarchical organization
  of departments
• Budgets still aligned to traditional activities,
  not to priorities for
  results

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People have to be at the centre to empower the
public service to deliver results for citizens
Must move from Disconnected Elements
To Integration, with Common Purpose Principles

• DEPARTMENTS delivering
• Best Advice to Government
• Best Engagement of Partners
• Best Service to Canadians

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AAFC used teams to build a new policy vision...
Teams work smarter and faster than normal
processes, and can better capture all ideas

• Task Teams
• Formed for a specific purpose
• No hierarchy or leader
• Recommend approaches and actions
• More than 250 AAFC employees involved in building
  vision, business plan, and other initiatives

Task teams integrate top down vision and bottom
up ideas
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...resulting in a citizen-focused, national
action plan for agriculture
A national policy framework to brand Canada the
world leader in agriculture Integrated
framework with common, national goals Public
reporting by governments on progress Partnership
among governments, the sector and Canadian
citizens

• This policy architecture is delivering program
  results on priorities
• food safety and quality
• environment
• innovation renewal
• business risk management
• international issues

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A key management step was for branch heads to
share work and responsibility for departmental
results

• Accountability Accords
• Branch heads collaborated to examine the value
  chain within AAFC that leads to departmental
  outcomes
• Work is organized horizontally and with shared
  accountability
• Allows for management of department-wide
  priorities

• Accords are published and posted on AAFC intranet
  

Relationship-Driven Collaboration for
outcomes-based results e.g. what does Policy
require from Trade, Research, etc. to deliver
departmental outcomes?
This work set the stage for department-wide
teamwork involving every employee
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AAFC could then shift from branch-based hierarchy
to department-wide, horizontal work teams...
AAFC is a science-based department science is
the foundation for three horizontal teams
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Science is now focusing on citizen-centred,
national priorities and is well positioned for
the future
From To

• Resources
• Crops
• Animals
• Food

• Environmental Health
• Sustainable Production Systems
• Food Safety and Quality
• Bio-Products and Bio-Processing

Research over the full spectrum of the agri-food
value chain supports the Agricultural Policy
Framework

• Science part of risk management, policy and
  trade agenda
• Resources managed horizontally in direct support
  of priorities
• New interdepartmental linkages and science
  cooperation
• Focus is on emerging issues/priorities

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At the same time, AAFC moved to consolidate all
corporate functions to support and sustain the
team approach

• people - not positions generic job descriptions
• competencies, learning plans for every employee,
  team learning sessions

Human Resources

• consolidating hundreds of systems into an
  integrated information base across country

Information Systems

• Integrating communications activities with policy
  development
• increased focus on two-way communications with
  all employees

Communications
Assets

• Singular assets management system

• mapping spending to outcomes by re-coding
  departmental budget process to teams (results)
  instead of branches

Finances
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And every person in the department is now part of
the new team-based management system...
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We now have all elements of our management
framework in place

• A clear, citizen-focused policy agenda
• Organizational structure that reflects priorities
• A team-based governance and working structure
• A results-based, department-wide planning
  framework
• Clear and specific risk management measures
• A financial structure reflecting work and which
  can be aggregated by outcomes
• A human resources structure based on competencies
• A clear tracking/monitoring process
• Clear accountabilities
• Decision Support

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Our planning framework is highly integrated, and
has clear accountabilities for measures, risks,
etc.

• All teams complete a Team Accountability Plan
  (TAP)
• Based on the TAP, all work defined by Outcome
  Projects
• Inputs (people, money, assets, etc.) defined to
  deliver outcome project results

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AAFCs planning process has clear links between
strategic and operational planning, and results
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Department-wide planning system is our input
frame
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Decision Support is the final element in AAFCs
transformation

• Generating integrated data and information to
  forecast, monitor, adjust and report
• RESULTS
• Outcomes
• Outcome Projects
• Risks
• Milestones Performance Indicators
• RESOURCES
• People
• Financial
• Assets (mid 2004)
• in an accurate, integrated and structured manner

Decision Support is the alignment of corporate
data (People, Finance, Assets) with business
data (activities, Outcome Projects, Results)
processes systems that store generate
this data with interactive, user-friendly
software (Business Intelligence tool, BI) into
an integrated approach to support decision-making
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Our management planning architecture is the
basis for generating required information/data
for Decision Support
Information/data generated using Outcome project
activities as lowest unit of measure -
consistent with governance, planning resource
allocation models adopted for delivery of APF
Governance
Planning
Resources
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The granularity of information permits an
unprecedented view of the departments business
Multi-dimensional views

• Strategic Planning
• Performance monitoring
• Forecasting
• Policy decisions
• Resource allocation re-allocation
• Reporting

Executive Management Information
Integrated information for
Integrated information for

• Operational planning
• Program Delivery and monitoring
• Resource forecasting management
• Performance monitoring reporting

OP
OP
OP
OP
Operational Information
Corporate processes generating OP activity level
data
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It facilitates timely decisions at all levels as
well as capability for informed resource
reallocation
Typical questions Decision Support allows AAFC to
answer