Experiments, sandboxes, and pushing back against the waterfall

Arrival and networking [1:00pm]
While folks clear security, we take our places and meet people in person who we've collaborated with online.

Experiments, sandboxes, and salmon ladders [1:30pm]
Speaker: Alistair Croll
Every journey begins with a single step. And it's possible to get transformation started even when you don't have a mandate. Create sandboxes, running experiments and oversharing the results, and building "upstream ladders" to help learnings at the edge flow upstream to policymakers and legislators, are all great ways to build a digital-first culture. But doing so means overcoming technology fears, while ensuring that you don't run afoul of ethical and legal risks.
As Adam Weishaupt said in The Revolution will be Televised, “It’s up to us. No one is coming to help us. If we don’t make the effort, no one else will." Remember why you're a leader; if you're not here to lead, find someone who will.

Technical ‘Enough’ - Leading digital teams without a technical background [1:50pm]  
Speaker: Dorothy Eng, Mireille Ayotte
So you’ve got your digital transformation mandate, but you’re not a digital subject matter expert. Now what?
Across all levels of government, talented leaders are tasked with delivering increasingly digital products, programs, and services. Despite deep departmental subject matter expertise, there is often a digital knowledge gap that can sometimes hold back the most dedicated teams and executives from delivering the desirable solutions everyone is hoping for. 
From knowing if you’re tackling the right problem statement, to identifying value for your users, and narrowing down a project’s scope - great executives don’t necessarily need to “talk tech” if they’re armed with the right mindset and frameworks to set their teams up for success. 
At Code for Canada, we’re here to help. Our approach allows you to structure your team and contracts for modern software development—such as agile development— which reduces risk and increases flexibility and speed. In this workshop, our Executive Director, Dorothy Eng will walk you through when and how to engage your stakeholders, organize your project requirements, and craft a brief (or RFP) that will empower your team and set everyone up for success. Lastly, we’ll cover how to evaluate if an external partner or vendor is right for you.

Guided networking [2:35pm]        
We'll break into groups to grab a coffee and connect with other members of the cohort and faculty.

Hiring and managing an inclusive workforce [3:15pm]
Speaker: Eyra Abraham
In 2022, 5.6% of public servant employees identified themselves as people with disabilities. In 2021, it was reported as 5.3%. The goal is to hit a barrier-free environment by 2040. To achieve this, the number of public servants with disabilities needs to reflect the current Canadian population or at least hit 9% of the workforce as identified with disabilities to deliver quality product or services effectively. That’s 5,000 new employees with disabilities by 2025.

Hiring, retention, and upward mobility will be critical to achieve these goals. How well are executives at implementing the accessibility strategies and practices, and what behaviours lead to success or failure to reach these goals?

Unpacking the barriers to digital transformation in the public service [3:55pm]  Speaker: Ryan Androsoff
Modern approaches to digital delivery - typified by agile and user centered product management approaches - often run headfirst into the management practices and policies of government organizations that were designed to operate under a very different set of assumptions. The old management consulting adage is that “culture eats strategy for breakfast”. While this is true, we believe there are two bigger fish out there and that incentives eat culture and structures eat everything else. At Think Digital we call this our “Pac-Man model” of organizational change (see:  https://thinkdigital.ca/pacman-model-for-rethinking-gov/).

In this session, we will use the Pac-Man model as a starting point to help you unpack what some of the real-world challenges leaders face in applying modern digital ways of working in a government context. Think Digital CEO & Founder Ryan Androsoff will be your guide to explore the challenges of digital-era leadership and share some of the insights on this question that he has gained from his work training government executives on digital leadership skills over the past five years through the Digital Executive Leadership Program that he runs with the Institute on Governance.

Closing remarks [4:40pm]  
Speaker: Alistair Croll
As we wrap up our first day together, Alistair reflects on the event so far and offers a glimpse of tomorrow's content.