Читать книгу Digital Government Excellence - Siim Sikkut - Страница 58

Bringing Olivia Neal from Government Digital Service (GDS) in the UK early on as our Executive Director for Digital Change to lead the people side of our work and a bunch of special initiatives. She had run the digital service standard work in GDS. She had no staff when she started, and she ended up having a team of fifty to sixty people running a lot of government programs when she was done. She added so much in a number of ways.

First, I find that Canadians are often insular, only looking at ourselves and not liking to compare ourselves internationally. It means that we are not always in tune with what is going on in digital government or technology around the world. Olivia brought that view with her instantly. She also was not part of the group thinking going on, coming from outside and even from another culture. I cannot imagine the challenge she must have faced with pushback. The way she handled it; I learned a lot from her. Bringing her on early also showed that we could attract the best talent from around the world, as she came from GDS.

I got her onboard because Olivia had been looking to come to Canada, and I heard through the grapevine she was talking to a whole bunch of different groups in GC. I told her that she could have the most impact with us. Also, the other groups were kind of dithering, as the typical government hiring takes time. I made it my number one priority to get her letter of offer done fast. In office, people were wondering why was the deputy minister focusing on her so much? Well, because she can unlock ten things for us. These things will unlock the next ten more macro things. That is why it was worth my time. Also, I believe in managing people with respect and did not want to leave her hanging or stuck in the government hiring land.

In addition, there were the managers or directors in the team who helped to take the vision forward and execute. Let us face it: the day-to-day work was down to them and not me.