The 311 Podcast

Scaling Success in Healthcare IT for Alberta Health ServicesToday, my guest is Penny Rae.  Penny is the Chief Information Officer for Alberta Health Services.  AHS is the health delivery organization for the province of Alberta in Canada.  AHS is the largest health care delivery organization in North America. And with nearly 150,000 employees and contractors, it's one of the top five employers in all of Canada.  The IT department alone is 2,500 people. So the scale of Penny's operation is massive. Penny has spent the last few years leading a rollout of the EPIC health care management system as a wholesale replacement for hundreds of individual healthcare information management systems.  It's one of the largest IT projects in Canada. And in an industry where only 30% of IT projects like this reach success. Penny's approach is beating all the odds. You're going to hear Penny talk about culture and trust as the driver for success and her own philosophy about how to lead technical teams.  I hope you enjoy the conversation. --Resource Links:Greg Price story, Falling Through the Cracks [2017]Cynefin ModelSense and RespondWikipedia | Amazon | Kobo. | IndigoPenny Rae - National recognition for AHS Chief Information Officer (2018)AHS selected Epic Systems Corporation as the partner for Connect Care. (link to FAQ PDF)https://northern.co/311-podcastRecorded in May 2023This is a show about the people that make digital public service work. If you'd like to find out more, visit northern.co/311-podcast/ We're going to keep having conversations like this. If you've got ideas of guests we should speak to, send us an email to [email protected]. Northern LinkedIn

I am really excited today to be talking to Sophia Hoosein and Jessica McQueen, who are two people that I know and respect and who have agreed to come and talk to us about government organizations trying to make digital change. We're going to talk about power and how you get things done, and I'm just really excited. Thanks to Sophia and Jessica for the open and honest conversation about the actual experience of working in government. --This is a show about the people that make digital government work. If you'd like to find out more, visit yellowpencil.com. We're going to keep having conversations like this. If you've got ideas of guests we should speak to, send us an email to [email protected]. Government is about all of us. Let's keep making a better world. This has been the 311 podcast and I'm your host, Paul Bellows.-- LinksSophia Hoosein: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sophiahoosein/Jessica MacQueen: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jessicamacqueen/This is a show about the people that make digital public service work. If you'd like to find out more, visit northern.co/311-podcast/ We're going to keep having conversations like this. If you've got ideas of guests we should speak to, send us an email to [email protected]. Northern LinkedIn

This is The 311 podcast. I'm your host, Paul Bellows. This is a show about the people that make digital government work. If you'd like to find out more, visit yellowpencil.com. Today, my guest is Miki Stricker-Talbot. Miki is responsible for intrepreneurship and strategic design in the citizen services branch at the city of Edmonton.You may ask what intrepreneurship is and my answer is keep listening. That's what we'll be talking about. In addition to organizational design, kindness, privilege, and generally how to make change from within an organization rather than just top down. I know that our podcast theme is on digital government and the people who are making change. And while digital isn't part of Miki's purpose in the organization, I think that the mindset she brings to making change is what's necessary for any digital worker who is feeling frustrated and like they can't do their work in the right way. Like they don't have the right supports. Miki's work has been recognized globally and Apolitical recently named her as one of the 100 most influential people in government.  If you've come across, Miki's work on UNICORNS, that's an acronym that I'll let her unpack, then perhaps you've come to understand why the way she thinks and works is so important to pay attention to. In particular with digital work, government is on the same talent hunt as the rest of the startup and software world but without the salaries and profit sharing that the private sector can sometimes offer. I think it's more and more important to think about the kind of organizations that we're creating to operate our public trusts. We need government to be the first place that passionate and talented people think about spending some or all of their career.And if we have more people like Miki in positions of influence, then maybe we can make that come true. I loved having this conversation. Miki is a colleague, but also a friend. We had to edit out a few moments where we were just having fun, but I think you'll like what we left in. I hope you enjoy the conversation.---Thanks so much for listening. If you want to learn more about Miki's work and in particular, find her now infamous blog post on unicorns or read about unlearning, we'll have links in the show notes.Government is about all of us. Let's keep making a better world. This has been the 311 podcast and I'm your host, Paul Bellows.---LinksUnicorns: https://apolitical.co/solution-articles/en/saving-unicorns-making-government-less-lonely-for-the-trailblazersUnlearning: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UxBLlDOKfZYThis is a show about the people that make digital public service work. If you'd like to find out more, visit northern.co/311-podcast/ We're going to keep having conversations like this. If you've got ideas of guests we should speak to, send us an email to [email protected]. Northern LinkedIn

Today my guest is Lawrence Eta, Chief Technology Officer at the City of Toronto. Toronto is the fourth largest municipality in North America, behind Mexico city, New York city, and Los Angeles. Toronto is one of the most multicultural cities in the world. And it's the home of much of Canada's media and cultural community, as well as the headquarters of Canada's five largest banks.Toronto's population is about as diverse as it gets both culturally and economically, and the city faces unique, digital challenges and opportunities. As a result, when I first spoke to Lawrence about the podcast, he was direct on his goal. He wanted to talk about equity. I love that because what I love most about digitization is the ability to remove barriers to equity seeking groups, when we make that a priority, and it's definitely a priority for Lawrence.  I love his perspectives on how to invest in a more equitable world. I do need to call out a technology fail that I had during the call. Due to an operating system upgrade, one piece of my recording software became unlicensed. You'll hear the audio quality change about 10 minutes in because I was using the software in trial mode and didn't realize until it was too late. We've done our best to fix this and keep the quality as high as possible.Technology is never perfect, and humans less so. That's why I'm glad we have people like Lawrence Eta in positions of responsibility to keep watch and ensure that everyone's interests are in balance. Here's Lawrence Eta. This is a show about the people that make digital public service work. If you'd like to find out more, visit northern.co/311-podcast/ We're going to keep having conversations like this. If you've got ideas of guests we should speak to, send us an email to [email protected]. Northern LinkedIn