The Digital-Age Requires a Principles-Based Approach
Submitted by Dan Murphy on June 07, 2018 - 10:34 AM
Agile enablement is required in the Digital Age to replace top down, command, control mirco-management, and the weight of excessive oversight. As the "administrative arm" of the Treasury Board, I believe TBS needs to move the GC toward an servant leadership / enablement style of management. To this end, "rules" and "directives" are illogical. The management style in the digital age is based on a set of principles of behavior. Because this is less prescriptive, it enables compliant downstream decision-making which frees constraints. I believe policy should be more "principles" based. We all should understand principles and values - they are broader in their scope. For example, when you say "be honest", to your kids, it covers a lot of territory, is simple to understand, non-prescriptive, provides guidelines for them to act, and is difficult to game.