The Story

The Department of Aging Canadians (DAC) of the Federal Government had recently decided to train 1100 of its line agents in Risk Management. This initiative was aimed at ensuring that clients of the Department got involved in decisions in which they were involved as stakeholders; it was also aimed at encouraging departmental employees to improve their consultation with clients and their documentation of decisions. The DAC had a total of 7,300 full time equivalents, dealing with the needs of the aging population.

The 1100 employees were trained over an 24 month period, in a five-step Risk-Based Decision model that was internationally recognized. Fairly early in the training, organizers began to receive the feedback that the model was too complex; that line staff would never use it; that decisions were intuitive anyway; that their supervisors weren’t interested in receiving the documentation on their decisions; and that opposition was building to the use of the process. In fact, several course participants had gone off and begun developing an alternative and competing process. This was troublesome for senior management, because they intended that everyone use the same process founded on the nationally recognized standard; they were seeking solutions to their emerging and growing problem.