Hi folks,
>I'm hoping you can help me here. I live in Toronto, and our provincial
>government has just announced massive changes to the structure of
>municipal government here - amalgamating 6 cities into one, downloading
>responsibility for welfare and many other social programs to the municipal
>level from the provincial, and uploading education to the provincial
>level, to name 3 - and all of this to be implemented within a one month
>time period. It strikes me that this is a huge amount of change being
>force-fed rather quickly, with little time for input or debate. I'd like
>to address this at the public hearings. Here's what I would like, if
>anyone can help me, in no particular order of importance:
>
>1. experiences you have had in a business context with effective
>implementation of change initiatives
Response: I feel that this question is not relevant to the issue. The
provincial and municipal governments are governments - not businesses. I
do not expect my government to operate as a business, and I don't want it
to operate that way. Certainly there a re useful ideas that can be shared
between business and government, but I strongly disagree with those people
who say that govt. should be run like a business. Some current cabinet
ministers have made reference to using the business model - this is one of
the reasons that I have no confidence in the current Ontario Government.
>2. suggestions of current literature on how to institute change
>effectively within organizations
Response: Again, your question is not to the point. This is not change
within an organization. Ontario is not an organization, or a company, or a
business. It is a large complex, political entity. Change in this context
is a complex process. I have the i mplression that neither you nor Mike
Harris or his cronies understand that complexity. As a matter of fact, I
see no evidence that the cabinet understand any complexities.
>3. psychological reference material related to human reactions to
>forced change, and how to mitigate those
Response: Well, I suppose the cabinet could loosen the Health purse
strings and distribute Valium to all citizens of the province. Seriously,
though, we are dealing here with more than psychological reactions. Our
problem is not that we are paranoid, bu t that many people are concerned
that there appears to be very little logic in some of the changes being
made.
>4. examples of effective leadership in bringing about change
Response: There unfortunately are very few of these anywhere in Canada at
the present time. We are seeing a lot of change in Ontario without the
benefit of effective leadership. We are seeing very little change in
Ottawa, where we need some, and no lead ership to give us hope.
>5. anything else you think may apply and be helpful
Response: I don't have a problem with the idea of a single level of
government for Metro Toronto. (I lived there for many years, and worked
for Metro for 8 years, so I have some knowledge of the situation.) But I
have no faith in this government to create this new city effectively.
>I ask this list because this particular government espouses business
>common sense,
Mike Harris has given common sense a bad name.
>and yet IMO cuts across effective business practices all the time.
To reiterate my earlier point, it does not make sense to expect government
to follow business practices.
Those who continually preach that govt. should be run like a business
should stop and think about the fact that Canada is continuing to fall
below its potential in terms of productivity among developed nations.
Those productivity results are 90% determine d by business. They are
setting very low standards for our government.
Brock Vodden
brock.vodden@odyssey.on.ca
--Brock Vodden <brock.vodden@mur.odyssey.on.ca>
Learning-org -- An Internet Dialog on Learning Organizations For info: <rkarash@karash.com> -or- <http://world.std.com/~lo/>