Leading Change Effectively in Government undergoes a change

In order to meet changing taxpayer expectations by delivering higher service levels at lower cost to Canadians, today’s public-sector manager must have the skill-set to lead change.

That is the goal of Schulich ExecEd’s three-day program, Leading Change Effectively in Government, which recently welcomed J.P. Gedeon as its new facilitator.

A nationally-recognized thought-leader and practitioner in transformational leadership and cultural design, Gedeon shows how innovation-promoting team facilitation techniques foster cutting-edge thinking. Over the past 20 years, he has held executive positions in the private, public, academic and association sectors, having developed many of the mainline education and credentialing programs available in the sector today.

In his first session as the new program facilitator, Gedeon won over his audience decisively, judging by the enthusiastic comments from participants.

“JP was a great facilitator. Very engaging, lots of opportunities to participate and reflect.”

“Really appreciate and value the CD model as a new way of approaching leadership and affecting leading change” said one participant. Another described their most memorable takeaway as, “how to more effectively focus on relationships and personal development rather than on the tasks.” One colleague put it succinctly as, “the power of love to change staff and organizational culture.”

“Great course, and I learned a lot. Much more applicable to my work environment and preferred management style than other programs I have taken recently. This program material will remain on my desk, not in a drawer.”

“The program was not what I expected it to be – in a good way! It was deeply thought provoking. JP brought energy to the program and had insight that was backed by theory.” Another participant added, “simply excellent. Very thought provoking. Cutting edge and relevant. True to life and implementable. JP was quite honestly the best facilitator I have encountered! Well Done!”

One aspect of the public sector that most participants appreciated learning more about was working in a unionized environment and understanding collective agreements and the need to manage – and still innovate – within them. This aspect of the program stuck a chord with nearly all participants.

“The program content is very valuable and relevant to improve labour relations in a unionized environment,” said one participant, who also recommended more content on women in the public sector work force, a key issue in this era of change.

“The approach to leadership is significantly more productive and less confrontational than traditional performance-assessment strategies. It can be particularly helpful to improving labor relations in a unionized environment.”

With any executive education program, the real measure of learning success is participants’ belief that change can happen. And one participant clearly got them message, saying “I truly believed this workshop will form the building blocks of change in our organization.”

Leading Change Effectively in Government is offered again in November. To register and get more information, visit the program web pages.