Public Service

The public service is one of Roy Group’s most established practice areas. Public servants take an oath to lead us all, consistently and continually, in the direction of betterment. There is hardly a more worthy calling. In a time of acceleration and uncertainty, it’s more important than ever for the public service to work cohesively and supportively to take right action. Roy Group brings the right tools to make it happen.

People in the public service spend their days thinking about what forests mean 100 years from now, what health care will look like, what public safety means and more. The moment that earthquake happens, we’re not going to look to the private sector to figure out what to do. We expect the public service to be there, ready to guide with competence and foresight. They take on the wicked problems. The long-term problems. Roy Group takes them on right alongside.

Inviting Others To Step Into Leadership

You’re here to serve — that’s how you’ve chosen to apply your energies in this world.

As a leader, you recognize you can’t whistle a symphony. You’re here to help others raise their game, too, inviting other people to be a better version of themselves. The word team is an important one to the public service. Everything here happens in teams — and the work is constantly shifting, as are your teams’ compositions and functions. Change management is the number one concern for government in our modern times. How well you execute on your work is dependent on how well and quickly your people connect, focus on the goal, and share their best thinking. Roy Group helps with all of it.

Why Roy Group Chooses To Work With The Public Service

Good leadership is good leadership; it doesn’t matter whether it’s within a company or within a ministry. Public servants touch — and to a great extent, steer — the lives of millions of people over the long term. Our public servants are working on decisions and chess moves that are going to affect lives a month from now, and 20 years from now. We like people with that kind of foresight.

The difference between business and the public service is like the difference between field hockey and Quidditch. Business has to retain good clients, build a good team, have profitable margins, and deliver a positive impact. The public service is multidimensional: they must consider impact on communities, the economy and the environment; they have to keep the Minister onside as well as the constituency; there’s stakeholder after stakeholder to consider. People who lead well in the public service can lead ANYTHING.

DONNA HORN, ROY GROUP PRACTICE LEAD, PUBLIC SERVICE

Pain Points We Address

We need to maintain a positive focus.
Roy Group methodologies address disengagement, inertia and a lack of innovation among your team. Instead of feeling frustrated or hopeless when the wind shifts, your team will use their skills to dig deep and find the right tools to mobilize change.
New starts are a constant challenge.
New parties, new teams, new policies, new initiatives. Wise leaders who understand that an engaged culture makes things happen invite Roy Group to be part of any new start. We establish credibility, confidence, and a chemistry with any team, and act as a resource to that team throughout the lifecycle of that challenge.
The public questions our credibility.
Whether it’s people whose homes have burned down in a forest fire, relationships with First Peoples, conversations about pipelines or decisions around minimum wage, government is always under scrutiny. Roy Group grows your team’s leadership competencies, so you develop deep credibility with your stakeholders.
It’s hard to get the right people in to help us move forward.
Roy Group has a deep history with the BC Public Service, and as a result, our services are easy to procure.

Roy Group and Wildfire Management

Since 2017, Roy Group has worked closely with the BC Wildfire Service within the Ministry of Forests, Lands, Natural Resource Operations and Rural Development. In a pressurized, high-performance environment like Wildfire, culture is key.

Climate change waits for no one. Fire season grows longer; recovery time shortens; the world is watching to see how BC handles the challenge. Being a world-class fire service demands visionary leadership and unified action. Giving up is not an option — and continuous evolution toward higher capacity is the only way forward.

That’s where Roy Group enters the picture. We parachute in with the skills to tease out the stories and the habits that underpin your organizational culture. We listen. We pull no punches. We draw the stories out, and then, without judgment or bias, put together a leadership development plan so that culture can evolve to its most effective form.

“In order to instill confidence in all British Columbians during times of crisis,” says Ian Meier, executive director of the BC Wildfire Service, “BCWS needs strong, adaptable leadership. The Roy Group has been able to connect and pull out the leadership potential of our organization deploying methods that are impactful, and allowed all of us to chart how we want to be now and into the future.”

Not all bosses are leaders; not all leaders are bosses. They emerge from experience, from the choice to show up, and from the desire to learn and improve the lives of others. Leaders recognize and invite potential from the people around them. They are able to look beyond “the urgent” to improve individual and organizational resilience.

Effective leaders reflect, value diversity and continue to build their own competencies. Active listening, feedback loops, bridging and coaching are essential elements in the leader’s toolkit. Anyone who wants to increase their effectiveness seeks to continuously hone these and other skills. This is especially true in public service where relationships between agencies, with NGOs, with Indigenous peoples and with the wider public are so critical.

DOUG KONKIN, DEPUTY MINISTER (RET.),
BC MINISTRY OF FORESTS, LANDS AND NATURAL RESOURCE OPERATIONS

Are you inspired to develop more leaders on your team?
That’s what we’re here for. Give us a call.

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