Module 4

Issues
Management

Accelerator Short Course:

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Woman with gray hair wearing a light blue shirt and earbuds, standing indoors with a bookshelf in the background.

  • Trish Mandewo is an experienced entrepreneur, board professional, politician and author. She has a varied background stemming from her education in Microbiology, Embryology and her love for governance. She has won several awards including being named top 25 Canadian Immigrant.

    She is the Founder and CEO of Synergy Executive & Boards Consulting Group. The company supports the advancement of Black, Indigenous and Visible minority subject matter experts and senior-level executives seeking to take their voices and expertise to the boardroom, c-suite and other decision-making tables.

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    Trish was elected to the Coquitlam City Council in 2018. As a local government elected official, she serves as vice chair for the Economic Development Committee; chair of Cultural Services Advisory Committee; chair of Union of BC Municipalities Indigenous Relations Committee and director on the Metro Vancouver Electoral Area A Committee. In addition, she served on the Lower Mainland Local Government Association executive for two years. Outside of politics, Trish has served on more than 15 boards and currently sits on the Women’s Enterprise Center Board and the Black Opportunity Fund Governance Committee.

    As a thoughtful leader Trish shares her knowledge through mentoring, speaking, writing and business consulting. Her expertise is in board development, governance policy and procedures development, strategic planning with an EDI lens, stakeholder engagement, project management, governance relations and multi-sectoral relationship building.


  • Lynda Tarras is an Executive and Leadership Coach and a graduate of the Executive and Professional Coaching Program at the University of Texas at Dallas, Naveen Jindal School of Management.

    Lynda was previously the Deputy Minister and Head of British Columbia’s Public Service Agency, responsible for HR leadership to 30,000 people working across all ministries and dozens of agencies, boards and commissions. Over a five year period beginning in 2009, she transformed the HR service delivery model to align with leading practice, increasing overall customer satisfaction by 19% and employee engagement by 10 points, while realizing a 30% reduction in the cost of transactional services.

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    Lynda began her career in Public Service with the Correctional Service of Canada moving to the BC Ministry of Attorney General in 1989. She held various Assistant Deputy Minister roles from 2003 to 2009. Throughout her career in Public Service, Lynda has been a change agent. She’s led large organizational design projects, developed change strategies for major business and systems implementations, negotiated multi-million dollar contracts, facilitated the development and implementation of corporate HR and business strategies that resulted in a new corporate culture and national recognition, supported the public response to a number of high profile and sensitive issues and advised and coached business leaders from front line managers through to executives and politicians.

    https://www.tarrascoachingconsulting.com/

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  • Wayne G. Wouters is a Strategic and Policy Advisor with McCarthy Tétrault LLP. Before joining the private sector, Mr. Wouters was the Clerk of the Privy Council, Secretary to the Cabinet, and Head of the Public Service. Appointed by Prime Minister Harper, Mr. Wouters served from July 1, 2009 until October 3, 2014, at which time he retired from the Public Service of Canada. From 1997 to 2004, Mr. Wouters served as the Deputy Minister of Fisheries and Oceans Canada, Human Resources and Skills Development Canada and Labour Canada. From December 2004 to June 30, 2009, Mr. Wouters was Secretary of the Treasury Board.

    In 2012, Mr. Wouters received an Honorary Doctorate of Law from the University of Saskatchewan and in 2016 he received an Honorary Doctorate of Law from the University of Manitoba. In 2014, Mr. Wouters was inducted as a Member of the Privy Council by the Prime Minister. Mr. Wouters was recently made an Officer of the Order of Canada.

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    Mr. Wouters has been a committed and longstanding volunteer, chairing the Government of Canada Charitable Workplace Campaign in 2004 and the City of Ottawa United Way Campaign in 2007. In 2013, Mr. Wouters received the André Mailhot Award for lifetime achievement, United Way Canada’s highest distinction. He currently sits on the United Way Worldwide Board of Trustees.

Module length: 90 min

Study time: 3 hr

Issues Management requires public servants to manage issues that may not become public, up, down and sideways within the bureaucracy. It requires a network of contacts and a way of sharing information within the unit that ensures the desired culture is being created to ensure engagement.

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Core concepts

Communicating complex issues succinctly

Condensing a complex story into a series of bullets.

Managing issues alongside BAU

Managing issues while continuing with the regular business of government.

Working with central comms teams

The expectations of central communications offices.

Giving politicians everything they need and nothing they don’t need

What a politician needs from the bureaucracy when dealing with tricky, time-bound, high-risk, media-sensitive issues.

Crises response strategies

Strategies to respond to a major crisis such as an environmental disaster or a pandemic.