Lessons from the Public Service

What I Have Learned From Two Decades in the Federal Public Service of Canada

I have had the privilege to serve Canadians for two decades as an employee of the federal Public Service. Starting as a junior policy analyst in 2000, I rose through the ranks to become an Executive, including two years serving as Chief of Staff to a Deputy Minister. I implemented and developed federal programs and worked tireless hours in research and policy analysis to support government decision-making. I led and attended hundreds of briefings to senior officials of the federal public service and engaged with a variety of stakeholders through outreach activities.

In short, I have seen the Public Service from many perspectives and sought to learn from each experience. From these twenty years, I have learned three important lessons.

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Lesson 1:

Briefing well is primordial, but oh so difficult.

Whether oral or in writing, there is an art to briefing and presenting. The key is to know who you are briefing and why. The person being briefed does not need to become an expert on the file. A helpful briefing will be interesting, concise and provide just enough information to help the person understand the issue. It will also explain why it is important to be discussing a said issue at a particular time.

An effective briefing will help a decision-maker to determine the next steps on an issue. It will engage the decision-maker in a precise conversation and bring to the forefront pertinent questions to move things forward. Counterproductive briefings, on the other hand, will cause confusion and lead the conversation off-course often ending in frustrating outcomes for both the presenter and the audience.

It takes restraint and courage to be an effective briefer. It is always easier to cover the whole file – this is what I have come to call the “dump and run” approach where the presenter downloads all the information to the decision-maker (for example, in the form of a 10-page memorandum or a 30-slide deck) and lets them figure out what is important and why. A solid briefer will have the courage and discernment to cut down the information to what is essential and most beneficial to guide the decision-maker. Whether presenting to superiors, stakeholders, colleagues or clients, I have come to understand that less is almost always more.

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Lesson 2:

Government is complicated, but there is a reason.

Government is a big complex machine with multiple layers of processes and protocols. Each action and decision that is taken in government is backed by an authority or a set of rules meant to explicitly describe what a public servant can or cannot do at any given time. Government is also a machine with several methods of tracking outcomes on those actions and decisions. Taken together, this means that at the end of the day, a public servant spends significant time in a maze of templates both filling them in and explaining to stakeholders why (and how) to fill them in. Rest assured, there is a reason behind the maze: checks and balances.

The public service is accountable to Canadians in the democratic system of this country. Essentially funded through taxpayer dollars, each decision must be executed in a way that respects this fact. Ensuring standardized decisions across the federal government requires a complex web of rules to guide how policies are developed and programs are administered. These are the checks and balances that exist to safeguard public funds and ensure that the public service remains aligned with the direction of the political leaders elected in a democratic country.

Now, is this frustrating at times? Certainly. Is it always the best use of time for public servants or for Canadians trying to access government programs? Not always. But without the checks and balances, there would be a risk to the accountability of the enormous machine that is the federal government. With time and experience, I have become an expert navigator through the maze and I approach the process with the zen required for a productive outcome.

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Lesson 3:

Innovation is key, but it means more work.

In all aspects of life, it can be tempting to fall into habits in the ways in which we handle situations and conduct our work. In a complex system like the government, for example, it can be easy to hide behind templates and processes in order to avoid creative solutions. However, it is important to develop and maintain a creative mind to ensure that our contributions are relevant and inspiring. The objective is not to do things differently for the sake of doing them differently. Rather, the intention should be to question how we are approaching challenges and to ask whether we are working in a way that truly benefits the clients that we are serving.

Being innovative means having the audacity to propose new methods by which to address a challenge. It means seeking out partners and persuading others of the value-added of the proposed approach. It is about being creative, about asking questions and about proposing unique solutions. It means making cold calls, being vulnerable in brainstorming and often stepping out of one’s comfort zone.

Innovation takes time to research options and identify viable new ways of working. It takes energy and perseverance to be innovative – more than what would be required with using historically trusted approaches. Although it is not the easiest route to take, I have learned that innovation inevitably leads to the most rewarding outcomes not only for clients but also for myself.

Briefing well. Understanding government. Seeking innovation.

These are the three important lessons that I carry with me into the next chapter of my career as a consultant. Grateful for two decades of experience from the vantage point of some of the best seats in the federal government house, I humbly walk into my new journey with the confidence of what I have learned and the excitement of what there is still to discover.