Theme 5:   Putting People First

La Relève is about renewal throughout the Public Service of Canada and an awful lot is happening. Every department, every region and indeed a good number of functional groups are implementing really practical plans of action. What they're trying to do is renew the workplace. The key to action is effective leadership.

I don't think you'll find a better example of leadership in action than we've had last year during three natural disasters. Thousands of public servants worked day and night to help Canadians through the hardships.

One of the paradoxes of the public service is that the better it does its job the more invisible it is and sometimes the more it's taken for granted. You trust the weights and measures are accurate. You trust that the food and drugs that you consume are safe. You trust that the transportation you use is safe.

We don't make widgets, we manage knowledge, that's what government people, public sector people do and when you are managing knowledge your number one tool is learning.

Learning is harder for some than others - to say I'm going to let go of this power, I'm going to share this power with my employees, with my colleagues and I'm going to assume that that's going to work better.

Managers and senior people have got to learn to carry a larger vision at the same time they've got to learn how to tap the intelligence, the raw intelligence of their people.

I think that one of the developments in the public service over the last few years is a greater tendency to see ourselves as a public service, the whole is more than the sum of its parts.

I want people to stop thinking that solutions in organizations cost thousands of dollars and needs somebody from out there. I believe the real change happens at a much more fundamental level. The only response to real change is - is it working for me, does it change my life, does it make me more effective, does it get the job done all of those old fashioned questions - common sense.

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