Originally posted at cpsrenewal.ca. I love this: That’s the concept art for a hypothetical public transit system described in a blog post by Elon Musk, Chairman of Tesla Motors. From http://www.teslamotors.com/blog/hyperloop: The Hyperloop (or something similar) is, in my opinion, the right solution for the specific case of high traffic city pairs that are lessRead… Read more »
Originally published at cpsrenewal.ca. While I didn’t intend it, this speaks to the current shutdown. Citizens don’t yet understand how much civil service accomplishes for our countries. Last week Bill Eggers from Deloitte was in Ottawa, explaining his view of The Solution Revolution: the idea that for-profit businesses and social enterprises will solve societal needsRead… Read more »
Originally posted on CPSRenewal.ca. Several observers of Canadian civil society have painted a portrait of increasing centralization of power, over at least the last half-decade. And perhaps it is a failure of imagination or thoroughness on my part, but I haven’t found anyone aiming to dispel that notion. I’m writing on the premise that itRead… Read more »
This post was originally published at CPSRenewal.ca. A year ago, I wrote a post about how and why good ideas face resistance (see: Renewal and Resistance). Today we still can’t swing a good idea without hitting a Clay Layer*, and I thought that it was about time to revisit it. The Clay Layer is thisRead… Read more »
This post was originally published at cpsrenewal.ca. Recently, a police officer in Halifax was asked by a pedestrian what they should do about a broken walk signal. The officer replied that they should call the municipality’s phone number, noting that it was illegal to cross the street without a walk signal. Facing an empty street,Read… Read more »
This post was original published at CPSrenewal.ca. I’ve been, perhaps ungracefully, transitioning from a conversation here about facelessness vs. authenticity (see: Embracing Authenticity Means Embracing Complexity) to an exploration of what a new professionalism looks like for the Canadian Public Service (see: Towards a New Professionalism in Government, Parts I and II). I stand byRead… Read more »
I have an interesting relationship with writing. I actually frequently feel unqualified, unsuited, or presumptuous in writing anything. In my head, every sentence I write starts with “I think,” or “I believe,” or “It appears to be the case that.” My fingers edit those parts out, for two reasons. One is that you, reader, canRead… Read more »
I was supposed to continue a previous thread about what is happening, right now, in Canadian Public Service [See:Moving Public Service Mountains, Part I]. Wasn’t on my mind tonight. I’ll get back to it. This long read was originally published on cpsrenewal.ca. Have you ever read Silent Spring, by Rachel Carson? It’s an amazing book,Read… Read more »
Originally posted at CPSRenewal.ca. I tried to answer a question I’ve been asking myself lately: Why does the idea of collaboration hold so much sway for me? Overhyped Old News I look forward to the day when we once again use the word collaboration to simply mean that we’re working with others on something. StrippedRead… Read more »
Yesterday, my colleague joked on Twitter that his son had agreed to make the family lunches as part of his allowance, but the bread, mustard, and cheese sandwich from day one wasn’t exactly up to snuff. I joked back that he should institute a sandwich accountability framework and make a portion of his son’s allowanceRead… Read more »