Why Open Data Matters

Current Conservative messaging emphasizes a million new jobs created since the recession; Canada's relative economic stability compared with other industrialized countries; and various tax cuts provided to "average" families since 2006.

Sinclair repeated those talking points when asked for comment on the report.

I came upon this Globe and Mail story via Twitter while at Podcamp; I was there to discuss the importance of Open Data.

The quote stood out to me, because it summed up the argument I'd been making rather neatly - that is, that civil servants were being made to serve partisan, not public interests.  I copied it and the link and put them in my calendar as a reminder to post about later.

Jordan Sinclair isn't a Minister's office spokesman, not a partisan - he's from the department.

So, it's later.  I went in to the story and looked for the quote.  It wasn't there.  In its place was this: 

A spokeswoman for Employment Minister Jason Kenney said the report reflect "the period of time under the previous Liberal government," from 1993 forward.  

The line about a public servant parroting partisan messaging was gone; in its place, a partisan attack directed at a previous government.

Did I read and copy the quote wrong?  That doesn't seem right, as after a Google search I still managed to find it over at the CBC website.  But I didn't read the CBC story until now - I got the quote from the G&M story and saved it in my calendar along with the hyperlink I pulled from the very same page - the very same page that doesn't feature that quote at present.

There are all kinds of creepy implications about this turn of events, but the one that should alarm us the most is that evidence and consequence are being ignored when they contradict partisan messaging.

At some point in the not-too-far-distant future, the consequences of ignoring the facts will come back to haunt us.  I don't know about you, but I'd much rather solve a problem before it emerges rather than wait and place blame after the fact.

Especially when I know what the truth is.  That makes me accountable, too.  It doesn't matter what self-serving shenanigens the partisan people are up to - if I know there's a problem and choose not to act, I own some of the blame.  So do we all.

So, yeah - Open Data.  

The peaceable revolution can't come fast enough.

What Canada's Political Parties Can Learn From Environics

 
 

I've been pitching variations on this theme to political people for years: train your staff, motivate your staff properly and when parting ways, keep the relationship going.  I keep hearing the same sorts of answers back:

 

   "Politics isn't stable - if you want stability, join the bureaucracy."

   "Staff are transient, so we don't want to invest too heavily in them."

   "Members are elected and it's not the role of Parties to tell them how to train/maintain staff."

   "This is politics. Everyone wants in, so individuals are disposable."

 

To recap, there's no point in training the people who support Legislators, advice legislation and interact with the public, the press and other elected officials because retention isn't the goal.

 

There is a remarkable opportunity right now - the training exists, there are models out there to copy and with the constant headline-grab due to the mistakes of staff who have only ever received political training, there's a pressing need for political parties to internalize the message of this article and the best practices of some Private Sector role models.

 

Oh - and those that do are going to find it a lot easier to motivate the best work from loyal team members, too, meaning better outcomes.  I'd think that's something Parties would be after, but what do I know.

 

Companies shift strategies to retain employees

 

When Deane Code arrived a year ago to start her job as a senior consultant at Environics Communications Inc. in Toronto, she found her new business cards waiting at her desk. She also knew what her new co-workers looked like and how to get to their offices, thanks to a “family tree” that arrived in the mail a few days earlier, with staff photos and a map of the office.

Companies must show a willingness to allow people who don’t have a job title of manager or executive or whatever to take on leadership roles, management professor Ed Lawler says. Getty Images

Stacey Marson had a similar welcome to her new job at LoyaltyOne, a customer insight and strategy firm. Before she started as a co-ordinator of business-to-business public relations and corporate marketing, she got a phone call from her new boss, and a package of information – including a book written by the company’s chief executive officer.

 

The cost of replacing mid-level employees is now estimated to be 1.5 times their annual salary – factoring in recruiting costs, hiring time and training. So it’s not surprising that employers are eager to make sure newcomers quickly learn their roles and feel comfortable with the company, increasing the chances of them becoming stable, long-term employees.

 

Many companies are paying more attention to the ways they can make new hires feel confident, from providing seminars that help them understand an organization’s structure and their place in it, to pairing them with mentors who can take them for coffee and answer informal questions.

 

LoyaltyOne, which employs 1,500 staff mainly in Toronto and Mississauga, introduced its program for employee orientation (“onboarding” in human resources jargon) two years ago. It comprises eight 60- to 90-minute small-group seminars, with additional online elements, and covers everything from benefits to marketing to customer care.

 

The program is designed to be completed over about six months. Employees sign up online and fit the monthly seminars around their regular work schedules.

 

Diane Dowsett, LoyaltyOne’s assistant vice-president of talent management and the driving force behind the program, said the format evolved after surveying staff and finding they wanted face-to-face interaction, shorter sessions rather than half-day events, and scheduling flexibility.

 

The company used to offer orientation in a two-day “boot camp,” but Ms. Dowsett said spreading the information out over a few months makes it easier to absorb.

 

“Joining a company is like learning to speak a new language: In the beginning, the words wash over you and you understand one in five, but over time if you have repeated exposure and people willing to make the effort, you become fluent pretty fast,” she noted.

 

At Home Depot Inc., employee orientation is propelled by the company’s focus on the store level. Store employees receive two days of orientation (in person and online) as well as 35 to 40 hours of training about specific products in their department. And head office staff are required to put in 24 hours at a store in their first three months, including at least a four-hour shift in the first 30 days.

“Everything we do at Home Depot is around supporting store associates because they are front line with the customers,” said Kim Forgues, vice-president of human resources, noting that the practice came about as a way to connect support staff with the stores.

 

“It really gave me an understanding of what’s happening in the stores and how I can help people in the stores provide the best customer service,” said Erika Botond, a manager of public relations and communications for Home Depot, who was hired about a year ago and completed her training in the paint department.

 

New hires value the opportunity to interact with their colleagues. At Environics and Home Depot, a buddy system pairs new and established employees. Environics also hands out a quiz that forces new employees to interact with co-workers across the company to answer questions such as “Which Environics employee met Taylor Swift backstage at a concert?”

 

Employees also want to hear from their managers. At LoyaltyOne, such feedback prompted Ms. Dowsett to incorporate a “graduation” session about the company’s vision and culture, led by the CEO. “People love the fact they get access to the CEO and all of our business leaders so quickly and so it’s a really good opportunity for them to foster engagement,” she said.

 

“Employees come in and do their job for eight hours without being able to see the bigger picture of what they’re looking toward,” LoyaltyOne’s Ms. Marson noted, adding that the orientation program “creates a united work force going forward to the same goals.”

 

Another thing new employees seek is feedback and a bit of personal attention. “I circle back with all new hires, whether or not they’re on my team, four to six weeks after they start,” said Josh Cobden, senior vice-president at Environics.

 

Mr. Cobden, who was hired 16 years ago, recalls a time when the company – which now has 120 employees and offices in Toronto, Montreal, Ottawa and Washington – was small enough for the whole staff to take new hires out to lunch.

 

Given the expense of hiring and training a new employee, companies are finding that paying close attention to a newcomer right from the start pays off with an engaged, long-term staff member.

At Home Depot, for example, Ms. Forgues notes that a 90-day “check-in” with new employees resulted in a 15-per-cent decrease in turnover in the past year.

 

“The type of people we hire are high performers, who put pressure on themselves to demonstrate that hiring them was the right decision,” Mr. Cobden noted. “But what they don’t know is that we put as much pressure on ourselves to prove that joining us was the right decision.”

Can Andrew Coyne Save Canada?

Absolutely the best paragraph I have read this month:

"Of course, the very hopelessness of the Liberals’ situation ought to be liberating. If your adversary wins no matter what you do, you might as well ignore him and just do what you like. More to the point, far too much significance is attached to these sorts of ads generally. The idea that it was Conservative advertising that destroyed the otherwise brilliant political careers of Stéphane Dion and Michael Ignatieff, and not, say, their own failings as leaders or the platforms on which they campaigned, is a pleasing fiction. It pleases Tory strategists to believe it, because it confirms them in their self-image as master manipulators of public opinion. It pleases their targets to believe it, because it absolves them of their own responsibility for their defeat. And it pleases the press, because it validates our cynicism about politics, and the indispensable services we provide the public as their interpreters."

What if the Liberals didn't blame the Tories for their defeats, but took ownership of their own endeavours?  "Yeah, Harper has attack ads or whatever, but he's kind of a side bar.  We didn't engage the people in the best manner.  It's all on us and we owe it to the people to do better."

What if the Tories didn't pass the blame for everything, including robocalls, to someone else?  "Look, we don't like this.  The calls seem to have been made by people who favour us; we need to do a better job of telling people this is not the Conservative way, we win on our own merits.  We're going to prove this in actions, deeds and most importantly, transparency."

What if voters took it upon themselves to set the standard they want politicians to follow?  "I'm concerned about what's happening in Canadian politics so I'm going to get informed, I'm going to ensure my family and friends are informed.  Attack ads work because they appeal to uninformed emotion - I'm going to put myself beyond that."

There is nothing more powerful, more liberating than ownership.  True ownership isn't external; it's internal.  Self-ownership means you take back control of who you are and what you represent from whoever else might try to define you by simply doing it yourself, constantly and consciously.  It also means taking responsibility for the impact your actions or inaction, level of knowledge or ignorance, has on others.

The only thing keeping us from making a better world for each other is our consciousness of content, context and consequence.

The Knowledge Economy, Healthcare, Human Capital and the Occupational Mental Health Solution

Two of the biggest issues currently facing jurisdictions around the world are a tightening of the economy and the rising pressure being put on our healthcare system, which translates into ever-mounting healthcare costs.  I believe that both of these issues are deeply linked to our transition to a knowledge economy where cognitive ability is in greater demand than physical ability – and therefore, is linked to mental health.

Just as safety equipment and labour laws were developed in response to the new challenges of the industrial revolution, I believe we have a social need for new accommodations in response to this conscious revolution.  These accommodations will stem from a new public perspective on what constitutes mental health.

We tend to differentiate between mental health, thought of in terms of mental illness and cognitive ability, the suite of skills that involves tasks like problem-solving, time-management, multi-tasking and innovation.  Yet we recognize that both stem from our brains.  The brain is part of our body and therefore subject to environmental stress factors that can lead to physical illness.  Just as poorly-adapted workplaces can expose a body to unnecessary physical risks, the same holds true for our mental health.

The number one cause of workplace absenteeism is mental illness.  Every day, 500,000 Canadians are absent from work due to mental health problems.  In Canada, the resulting direct and indirect economic impact, including days absent from work, has been placed in the range of $51 billion by the Canadian Mental Health Association (CMHA).  This cost is compounded by the “offset effect” where individuals will seek treatment or advice, including expensive diagnostic tests, for the physical effects (back pain, cardiac discomfort, etc) of what eventually is determined to be a mental condition.

While Employee Assistance Programs (EAPs) are of great help to those suffering from mental health challenges, they are reactive.  A proactive approach is needed.  The solution for reducing this drain on economic productivity and strain on healthcare budgets is to proactively accommodate mental health/cognitive ability in the workplace.  Just as occupational health and safety led to the development of a safety equipment industry, proactive “mental fitness” can create new business opportunities.

Here are a quick few examples of how: kinesiologists, physical therapists and occupational therapists can expand their services to include assessing the “cognitive workspace”; employee training programs can include cognitive exercises and accommodation tools; gyms can add individual mental health assessments and training to their offerings by adding psychologists to their teams.  All these initiatives bring proactive mental health care to the people, helping to keep them out of the healthcare system.

With the right knowledge and proactive accommodations, we can avoid unnecessary mental stress and maximize cognitive capacity and productivity.  Given that our strained economy now depends on mental ability for growth, this isn’t just a matter of good social policy – its good business.