Navigating Today's Modern Public Service

Description

The new Clerk of the Privy Council (Head of the Canadian Public Service), Michael Sabia, has said that the public service ‘has an indispensable role to play in ensuring we seize [the] opportunity’ to advance Canada's interests in a rapidly changing world. The three words that he has asked public servants to keep in mind as they adjust to today’s world are: focus, simplify and accountability.

In this course we will do a deep dive into the drivers of public service change, what the experience of public sector reforms have been both in Canada and internationally, and how an evolving vision of the public service is likely to impact your workplace and your career in the future.

Learning Objectives:

• Assess the strengths and weaknesses of today’s public service and the implications for policy development, service and program delivery
• Understand why public service change is critical to ensuring that you and the organization remain productive and relevant
• Explore different approaches to public service reform and their impact both on public service culture and on how ministers and public servants work together
• Develop strategies for navigating this changing public service environment

Who should take this course:

• Officers and mid-level leaders
• Anyone who has taken our How Government Works course and is looking to explore these topics further

Duration

• 3 hours, including brief breaks to maintain engagement and facilitate learning absorption.

Special Offers

Take advantage of these exclusive discounts available when registering for IOG courses:

1. Group Course Discount: Register 3 or more colleagues together for the same course and receive 10% off your total registration fee.  
   Learning together builds team capacity—and helps you save on training costs.
2. Individual Bundle Discount: Register as an individual for 3 or more courses at the same time and save 10% on your total registration fee.
   Advance your professional development while maximizing value.

Facilitators

Toby Fyfe is a seasoned senior executive with experience in both the public and not-for-profit sectors. As a senior federal government executive, he led teams at the Privy Council Office and Treasury Board of Canada Secretariat as well as in line organizations such as Consumer of Corporate Affairs Canada, the Canada Information Office and the Office of the Commissioner of Official Languages. He was President and CEO of the Institute on Governance for five years after serving as the Vice-President Learning.

As a management consultant he has worked with a number of public sector organizations to improve performance, including the RCMP where he worked on the design and implementation of a continuous improvement and transformation initiative. Before joining the federal government, he was a CBC Radio news and current affairs producer for seventeen years.

He is a Senior Fellow and Adjunct Professor at the Queens University School of Policy Studies (SPS) and an Adjunct Professor at Carleton University’s School of Public Policy and Administration (SPPA).