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Author: Policy Horizons Canada

Policy Horizons Canada, also referred to as Horizons, is an organization within the federal public service that conducts strategic foresight on cross-cutting issues that informs public servants today about the possible public policy implications over the next 10-15 years.

Canada Beyond 150: The Armchair Discussion Series!

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From the Design Team

Over the course on the last ten months, the Canada Beyond 150 initiative convened a Canada-wide group of new public servants working in various capacities to participate in a professional development program designed to support leadership, and skills development, as well as drive culture shift across the public service.

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5 Things We Heard at Our Final Canada Beyond 150 Meeting

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From the Design Team

Canada Beyond 150 was a training program designed to help early-career public servants learn new ways of developing policy through increased engagement and collaboration with stakeholders.

Last week was our last official meeting with our Canada Beyond 150 participants, where they presented their policy interventions to managers and stakeholders. On the final day, they had the opportunity to talk about their journey and their ideas with the Clerk of the Privy Council and fifteen Deputy Ministers.

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Three Things We’ve Learned From Stakeholder Engagement

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From the Design Team

Over the past 10 months, Canada Beyond 150 participants have worked on 2 goals:

  1. Experimenting with new ways to develop policy;
  2. Learning to co-create and engage with a diverse spectrum of partners during early stages of policy development.

This will bring a positive cultural shift in the public service, and forward-looking insights into some of the most pressing issues facing the Canadian public policy environment.

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Foresight vs Forecast

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From the Design Team

If you’ve heard of Policy Horizons, you’ve probably heard that we’re a government think tank focused on strategic foresight. We call our experts futurists because they explore a wide range of possible futures – nothing to do with tea leaves ;). They study facts and events called “weak signals”, indicators of possible change that could potentially disrupt our current systems.

So what is foresight? How does it differ from forecasting?!

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“The Legacy of canada@150”

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Observer Thoughts

We recently sat down with canada@150 alumni Mark Matz Executive Director of Oceans Protection Plan Operations at Transport Canada. In the podcast he speaks to his former experience as Privy Council Office’s Project lead of canada@150.

In the podcast he speaks to how canada@150 in its conception back in 2007 was a leadership development program that sought to explore different ways of collaborating, working together and approaching policy problems. In the interview he highlights how canada@150 inspired a technological component to collaboration in the Public Service. He also highlights policy horizon’s instrumental role in piloting foresight as a key tool for policy development.

Transcript available below:

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“Artificial Intelligence is Canada’s Game”

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Observer Thoughts

We recently sat down with canada@150 alumni Michael Karlin. In the podcast, he speaks to the foresight tools he learned in canada@150 and how it shaped the work that he does today looking at Artificial Intelligence and the Automation of work for Treasury Board of Canada Secretariat’s Chief Information Officer Branch, where he specializes in Digital Service Policy and Strategy.

In the interview he takes listeners into the future of work. He provokes listeners to think about the importance of foresight in designing policy that can ensure the political class is able to “run the ship far into the future”.

Transcript available below:

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Live blog from Winnipeg: What’s keeping everyone up at night

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From the Design Team

Once the intention was set, the conversation turned to focus on policy. Policy, according to Stuart Forestell, one of Canada Beyond 150’s project team designers, is the answer to the question: “what should we do?”.

The room was presented with a scenario concerning an individual with some challenges. The story was designed to help guide the discussion in a focused manner on the traditional and emerging policy tools that can be used or considered. We talked about what can be done, how a shift can be communicated to individuals, businesses, and lawmakers, and what the possible consequences may be.

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Live blog from Winnipeg’s mid-project working meeting: Setting the intention

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From the Design Team
“As you are learning, we are learning too.”

This was one of the first things the Canada Beyond 150 group heard this morning; a fitting description of the program and the journey so far.

This morning, the discussion was around the pivot point: the shift from foresight and the ideas of many possibilities, into the complex world of concrete considerations, recommendations, and applications.

Given everything heard, learned, taught, and examined over the last few months, what can now be applied to the work participants are doing in their service to Canadians at their respective departments?

What lies ahead is a positive vision of a fully engaged workplace, helped by the knowledge and experience gained by each participant. It’s the time to engage, have conversations, ask, learn, listen and have fun.

Next Stop: Winnipeg

Posted on by Policy Horizons Canada
From the Design Team

Our participants have set a course for Winnipeg, Manitoba, where they will hold an important work meeting where the teams will start to explore policy challenges and their possible solutions. The participants will also take advantage of this meeting to share their analysis of the theme they studied.

Why Winnipeg?

As Doug Collins said, to change a team you need to change its comfort zone! A comfort zone is like a bubble, a universe that is familiar to us. It’s safe, but it stops at the unknown. It’s important to push the limits in order to grow. The decision to hold the mid-project meeting in Winnipeg was deliberate—first of all, we wanted our participants to meet outside of the National Capital Region, get out of their comfort zone or “bubble” and get comfortable with the unknown to help their professional development.

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Welcome to New Participants from a canada@150 Alumni – Jodi LeBlanc

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Observer Thoughts

Nine years ago, Jodi LeBlanc was fixing computers and working for the IT Division of Veterans Affairs Canada when she was selected for Canada Beyond 150’s previous initiative, canada@150. At that point in her career, she admits, she didn’t fully understand how government worked as a whole system of interconnected departments, crown corporations and functional communities. Applying to canada@150  would change that.

“It transformed how I looked at the Government of Canada. I was connected to 150 engaged colleagues from across Canada. The experience strengthened my network and reinforced the importance of collaborating across regional and departmental boundaries. The sky is the limit of what you can do when you work with a passion for the Public Service.”

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