Don't Forget About the Plumbing (with Honey Dacanay)

Let's Think Digital

How do we get stuff done? If there’s a broader theme for this season of the podcast, it’s that. How do we get unstuck from the mud that we seem to be in, and get on with actually realizing our digital ambitions in government?

It would be easy to chase the next big digital technology. But this episode we're talking about why need to pay attention to the "plumbing." We have to think about the underlying infrastructure and the need to make upfront investments to identify and fix the deep structural problems in government that prevent us from achieving the ambitious vision of what a modern government should look like. It’s the unsexy, behind the scenes things that really holds us back.

Joining us this week to talk about this is Honey Dacanay. She is the Director-General of Policy and Performance at the Office of the Government of Canada’s Chief Information Officer at Treasury Board Secretariat. She joined the federal government in 2019 taking on roles initially in the Canada School of Public Service and then Service Canada, bringing her experience from serving in the Province of Ontario where she was one of the co-founders of the Ontario Digital Service. She’s also a Professor of Practice at McMaster University where she teaches about digital government in their Master of Public Policy in a Digital Society program. And in 2019 Honey was named one of Apolitical’s 100 Most influential people in Digital Government.

Watch on Youtube

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=txKiN8I72K0

Chapters

00:04 Introduction and Welcome

02:45 Honey Dacanay

04:31 The Need for Upfront Investment in Digital Teams

18:33 Teaching the Next Generation of Leaders

20:36 The Importance of Public Administration in Digital Transformation

29:55 Closing Remarks and Reflections