An Enterprising Plan

by Paul Crookall

Michelle DiEmanuele is the Deputy Minister of Government Services and Associate Secretary of the Cabinet in Ontario. She has been given a challenging mandate: to take a public service that, according to Premier McGuinty, is "second to none, one that demonstrates each day an exemplary work ethic and unfaltering professionalism," and make it even better.

Her job is to knit together a decade of change to build a base from which to launch further improvement – kick started by a commitment in the October 2005 Throne Speech that: "The government will offer Ontarians the first public service money-back-guarantee."

“The new amalgamated ministry of government services is about bringing all the transformation levers together to allow us to make the Ontario public service better so that it makes a real difference in the lives of the people of Ontario. We have made great strides in making the public services simpler, faster, smarter, and more connected – my job is, in essence, to make sure we keep pace with rising public expectations and continue to be leaders in the delivery of modern public services.

"Second, it is about improving our ServiceOntario model. The fact is that internet and kiosk delivery, front-counter and call centre operations are enterprise-wide services. We are focusing on bringing what should be delivered together to offer integrated solutions to citizens.

"And third, it’s about building capacity. We have to get the big six right when it comes to people, meaning we have to be clear about our vision, have an inspirational leadership cadre, offer competitive pay, invest in training and development, create good career opportunities, and offer flexible work environments. If we get the big six right, we’re going to attract great people and keep great people.

"The other piece of capacity building is really having the policy discipline, the service discipline, and the project management discipline to be able to sustain services, drive change and deliver results today and in the future. That’s it in a nutshell."

With input from two reports – Denis Desautel’s report on managing IT (which he summarized in our October/November issue) and Judith Moses' exhaustive review of central agencies in the Ontario Public Service (OPS) – DiEmanuele concluded that while departments had been restructured, the apex of the enterprise had not been. Change needed to be integrated, not just layered on. There were duplicated accountabilities that created barriers to delivering on the government’s agenda. The OPS was in danger of stagnating as a result of administrative burden. There was duplication at the central agency level. The old model of driving change in the OPS through many points of leadership has been rejected in favour of an enterprise-wide model with integrated solutions and a clear focus for leadership.

There are four themes, DiEmanuele advises:
1.     Become a more modern government by taking an integrated, enterprise-wide approach to improving services, both internally and externally.
2.     Make the OPS a great place to work.
3.     Drive efficiencies in and drive out costs and poor administrative practices – making the OPS more affordable and efficient.
4.     Create a modern regulatory framework to protect consumers and facilitate economic growth.

We discussed her thoughts on tackling this agenda.

Leadership Style
"I'm results oriented with a clear eye on strategy, focused on collaboration and integration. I try to leverage opportunities and results, working more broadly than deeply – I leave that to the team of leaders around me. People are key so engagement and partnerships are fundamental."

Team Development
"First, assess if you have the right team. Find who the 'go to' people are. Work together to establish a strategy and then manage through 90-day plans, project manage, build a common understanding of deliverables, and celebrate successes every 90 days."

Keeping the Saw Sharp
"I have four key ways to keep learning, to become a better manager. First, our team has a management book club and I read voraciously, including books outside my field. Recent books include The World is Flat, The Tipping Point, Good to Great, Inside the Magic Kingdom, and, for the second time, Frankl's Man's Search for Meaning (because when I took this job people said it would just be too big to do). Second, I seek out people who I wouldn't normally come in contact with – for example, I recently spoke with the CEO of a large private sector corporation about how to drive revenue and motivate people during times of change and what we could learn from their experience. Third, I spend a minimum of one day a month on the front lines, visiting and listening to line staff and attending town hall meetings, so that I can get a sense of what people are thinking about and what actually is being translated down/across the organization. Fourth, I go back to school – both formally and informally; right now I am learning more about I&IT."

Ethics and Gomery
The OPS seems to have experienced fewer high-profile incidents, compared to the Sponsorship Scandal and excessive travel claims. What do you do to build integrity? Premier McGuinty has described Tony Dean, your head of the OPS, as "fearless in advice and loyal in implementation." Is that a key?

"We have built a non-partisan public service, with robust ethical guidelines. There is an important distinction between the roles of elected officials, the government and the civil service. Our audit environment is strong and I view our relationship with the Auditor General as complementary, not adversarial. There has been more rigour, accountability and oversight of expenditures for over a decade given the difficult fiscal environment. We have strong conflict of interest guidelines, a public service act and a modern controllership framework that all contribute to our accountability. Having said that, leadership is the essential element and our Secretary of the Cabinet and Deputy Minister colleagues provide this.”

Aging Workforce
"We are not in crisis when it comes to an aging workforce and retirement from our most senior ranks. The Auditor General warned us early that we faced a problem. We are creating a three-pronged approach to address this: 1) attract new professionals to the OPS; 2) strengthen our current feeder group from within; and, 3) manage talent more aggressively at all levels. We have had significant DM turnover and, over the past two decades, all DM appointments were primarily internal. We have expanded our search and have recently brought in two deputies from the broader public sector and three from the private sector, while at the same time promoting succession from within about 60% of the time.

“We have created a talent management map. We are gathering better information about our needs and about our top 1,700 senior managers so that we can make better decisions. Our Executive Development Committee meets for two hours each week to review and assess our talent. Our youth and new professional strategy is bringing in people in their thirties and mid-career, with ten years experience. And TOPS – tomorrow's OPS – is a self-identified network focused on linking and learning for leadership for new professionals. As well, we are investing in learning and development for our current staff and will expand our talent management program over the next few years.”

Recruiting
"We need to be in the market continuously so we don't have a problem with the retirement wave. In the past a typical hire took somewhere between three to six months. We would start with a vacancy, post it, screen applicants, interview the short list for an hour each, check references, and then hire. We need to get better at recruiting. So far we have cut the time down to 58 days in a pilot we are running. But over a career, a person will have several jobs – so we need to recruit for the organization, not just the job."

Challenges
"There are two key professional challenges with this job. The first is staying focused and disciplined against our plan; the second is making sure we are driving our vision deep into the organization, all the while fostering innovation and managing risk.

"Personally, the challenges are time management, and separating my work and personal life so that I can keep work/life balance. We take mini-vacations and cocoon on weekends as a family in between longer time outs. The pace of change today is phenomenal and you need to be disciplined to work in this environment – this is an area I have paid more attention to as a way of meeting the challenges ahead."

ICT
"There is a need to lay the proper foundation for enterprise-wide information and communications technology. For example, one department had two different email systems in two buildings. Our approach is to get the basics right and drive costs down by driving good management and efficiencies in.”

Quarterly Plans
At a recent Canadian Comprehensive Audit Foundation seminar Senator Hugh Segal proposed government agencies be compelled to complete quarterly reports, much like the private sector. This would help in project management and transparency. DiEmanuele is already there. She has introduced 90-day plans and managing to the plan. She finds it helps to stay focused and disciplined, results oriented.

"Each Monday morning, I have a conference call with our top 24 executives to determine needs and set priorities for the week. We set 90-day plans to deliver against, and each quarter I report to the DMs, 'Here's what we've done for you, have we got it right?' We have to keep the lines of communication open and get their feedback on our plan – they are our customers, too, as we deliver much on their behalf. We also have regular results meetings to report on our progress to the Minister and Secretary of the Cabinet – this is where we try to clear the path of unnecessary process."

Policy vs. Operations
Despite two degrees in political science, DiEmanuele has worked on both sides of the policy-operations divide. I asked what she thought of the assertion that there were too many policy wonks in government.

"Vic Pakalnis, chair of the Provincial Interministerial Council, advised me early in my career to get out into the field. I did. I'm operations. My view is that senior civil servants should have a complete background – project management, policy, operations, central agency, service agency, big and small.

"Ministers do not typically resign because the department got the policy wrong. It matters how public policy works on the ground. My advice to policy people – spend 18 months in operations. My advice to operations – try to figure out how to satisfy 15 different stakeholder groups."

Managers
"All roads lead to managers. Give them more time to spend with their people by removing the burdens of public administration. Get them thinking about their role. Managers are the translators, the connectors, and the face of leadership in any organization."

Innovation
"Great ideas need managers to translate them to the front line, then understand and translate back up the line what staff need to do the job. We have a new $3.2M innovation fund to implement ideas staff bring forward, using a peer review process."

Young Professionals
"Our summer student program was designed 30 years ago and has not been adjusted since. Young professionals see government as hierarchical, with tedious work, and a long climb to the top. We need to change this perception so we’ve created a youth and new professionals secretariat to ensure we engage new employees early. We can compete with other sectors given the variety of jobs we have to offer and our work environment.

“Key Success Factors:
o     Have the courage to make the tough decisions, rather than a fear of making decisions. Have the courage to push back.
o     Engage with others to find the best solutions.
o     Realize what all exit interviews confirm – people don't leave jobs, they leave bad managers.
o     Like people.
o     Learn continuously – don’t be bound by boundaries and don’t be afraid to say you were wrong.
o     Have a sense of where you can touch and smell the organization; it is not all about the data.
o     Have a good antenna around risk and listen to those who are interacting with customers or citizens.
o     Be resilient, resourceful and accountable.”

Combining a love of people with a love of good management, an infectious smile and a 90-day plan in her briefcase, DiEmanuele's ministry is on a transformational journey.




Michelle DiEmanuele has a B.A. from St. Jerome's College and an M.A. from the University of Toronto, both in political science. She rose quickly to become an ADM with the Ontario Public Service and was recognized as one of Canada’s “top 40 under 40" who were making a difference. She left government for four years, became a VP at Brookfield Properties and then at CIBC, returning as DM of the Centre for Leadership/Human Resource Management in April 2004. In June 2005 she was appointed DM of the new Ministry of Government Services, which includes her former department, Service Ontario, and the IT function. She is also Secretary to the Management Board of Cabinet and an Associate Secretary of the Cabinet. Visit www.mgs.gov.on.ca for more on the ministry.