REPLACE The SENATE
With DooRs into the future.
The Senate came into existence in 1867 when the Parliament of the United Kingdom passed the British North America Act 1867 (now called the Constitution Act, 1867), uniting the Province of Canada (which was separated into Quebec and Ontario) with Nova Scotia and New Brunswick into a single federation, the Dominion of Canada. The Canadian parliament was based on the Westminster system (that is, the model of the Parliament of the United Kingdom).-Wikipedia
https://sencanada.ca/en/senators/
The world is very different today than it was in 1867.
One major difference is the extraordinary degree of specialization among our working citizens compared to 1867. Information technology has transformed every human endeavour and made accessible mountains of data and facts. These information resources have demanded specialized skills and knowledge from our citizens and stakeholders in whatever line of work they find themselves. This demand emanates from the limits to individual human capacities to cope with this fathomless information resource.
The transformative impact of IT and the Digital Age
The products and services provided from the Information Technology sector have evolved in leapfrog fashion from the earliest days of Univac and IBM mainframe computers to today’s extraordinary capabilities. With that evolution, workplaces have changed dynamically and aggressively.
The organizational structures needed to plan and manage enterprise efforts have also changed accordingly. Former pyramid-shaped hierarchies have morphed from over 10 layers of management to structures that now resemble bottom-heavy hourglasses with fewer that 5 management layers. These transitions have all been enabled by successive IT revolutions in ‘user’ interfaces, network speeds, memory and storage capacities, and processing power.
In my last job as Director of Talent Supply Chain with an international systems integration consulting company, one automotive manufacturing customer (circa 2014-5) built their concept of the “factory of the future” using the latest “tech”. Their executives wanted to build diesel engines on a “lights-out, unmanned” assembly line using robots and other state-of-the-art technologies. They nearly succeeded. When completed, that plant reduced its manpower requirements from ~60 workers to 6 when compared to other comparable, less-automated plants at other sites in their global manufacturing operations. No doubt they will reach zero workers in their next attempt.
Now to the point of this essay: a “Senate of the future”
No, I am not proposing a lights-out, person-less Senate in case you’re wondering. However, the Canadian Senate is archaic and continues to operate as if the rapidly evolving Digital Information Age doesn’t exist. It’s structure, operating model and participants have not adapted to the times and it continues to lumber along in the equivalent of the Dark Ages.
How well-served are Canadians by these 105 Senators in the current Senate arrangement? What qualifies them for the job when, by-and-large, they each bring questionable qualifications to their jobs as national, legislative decision-makers?
If you look at their posted “Profiles”, you will find a preponderance of Senators who have come from employment histories in two types of organizations: corporate media corporations (like the CBC) that are taxpayer-subsidized and subject to extensive “regulatory capture” by the federal government policies; or public sector institutions and/or associated groups such as charities and other special interest groups. When most Senators have gained their past experience in similarly bureaucratic public institutions, how well do can they relate to and understand the values, interests, needs and priorities of average Canadians - truckers, for example?
The disconnect is obvious
Government workplaces are not exactly known for their productivity, customer service, or inventiveness. Their employees and managers experience no “market” competition for the services they provide and therefore, no sense of urgency to improve on their operations.
Unlike private sector workers and managers who understand the need to serve paying customers profitability, government workers and managers never experience the pressure to “adapt or die” that is the constant reality of private sector firms.
As an ardent Advocate for Less Government since the late 1970s and a lifelong private sector employment history, I certainly don’t feel well-represented by our 105 Senators!
Inspired by Switzerland and the Rule of Seven
I think it reasonable to expect our most senior government decision makers, such as Senators, to be productive and well-informed. I also expect that reasonable limits be placed on their authority along with realistic mechanisms for accountability. Can I make the assumption that this is what the majority of Canadians expect too?
In a prior essay, I describe the Rule of Seven. I learned this years ago from a Vice-President at American Express Canada who would not expand his systems development team beyond 7 members. He explained that team productivity always declines with every addition to the team beyond 7. I wish to apply this same Rule of Seven principle to a Digital Age Executive structure that should replace the archaic Senate.
Imagine 7 DooRs
What if only the following 7 Domains of Responsibility (DooR) were to exist to replace the current Senate structure:
Money: (includes banking, monetary policy, everything to do with financial assets and the medium of domestic and international exchanges)
Citizen Rights & Freedoms: (includes Property Rights plus the social provisions laid out in the Charter of Rights and Freedoms)
Defence: (includes armed forces, police services, courts, jails, etc; domestic and international; military and diplomatic affairs)
Travel: (includes all forms of domestic and international travel for personal, recreational, commercial and/or state purposes)
Businesses: (includes every size of business enterprise involved in domestic and/or international trade)
Institutions: (includes every form of tax-funded or tax-subsidized enterprise at any level of size, scope and/or level of legislated authority)
Environment: (includes our shared common interests in land, sea and air quality and safety. Distinctions between the public “commons” and private property must be clearly defined).
Now Imagine 7 Advisors per DooR - “ADooR”
None of the 7 Domain Leaders would be able to function effectively without support. Accordingly, a team of Advisors is required who possess expert levels of specialized skill and knowledge to support the decisions-making of DooR Leaders.
The functions of an Advisor to a DooR - an ADooR - is to mine data repositories, scour available information resources, and tap the sources of human expertise in order to properly explore all angles of an issue or new Bill under consideration. As such, these Advisors must be able to work with, and leverage, the latest in Digital Age technologies as their continue to evolve.
ADooR Leadership
Each DooR Leader will direct his or her ADooR Team. The Leader will drive all needed investigative efforts by the Team which will have members who possess Subject Matter Experience that is highly pertinent to each DooR. In other words, the team of 7 will include experts who also possess a range of expertises and skills; this will be necessary to cover the broadest scope of perspectives on issues and/or Bills for which the DooR is responsible.
Example: the Money DooR and it’s team of Advisors.
As mentioned, every Door Leader will benefit from the support of 7 Advisors. Every Advisors will possess a distinct element of expertise and/or experience which to offer a unique perspective regarding an issue or Bill. Within the Money DooR, for example, Potentially 7 unique insights on Money matters will be represented. This will foster a very robust approach to problem-solving. It will also take into consideration the perspectives of a broad range of public stakeholder groups.
Possible candidate backgrounds for a Money ADooR:
Bank of Canada, Director Level
CEO of a Canadian corporation with international operations
CEO of a Canadian SME (small-to-medium enterprise) with predomination domestic operations
Economics professor with PhD in Economics
Economics Consultant from a Canadian Think Tank
Senior Journalist or Editor of a respected Economics publication
Someone who has served at least 5 years in one or more of a Defence, Travel or Institutions Domains of Responsibility.
Hiring an ADooR
The MONEY DooR example provided above outlined the kinds of career-derived expertise needed to competently address a highly complex topic like Money. Likewise, each DooR will require a varied type and range of Advisor inputs which will be needed to address its unique issues and Bill proposals.
I can suggest the kinds of work histories that may be suitable to form a strong and balanced ADooR Team. This would be best presented in a subsequent essay on this topic. (Note: I am a former Professional IT-Sector Recruiter with 36 years of seeking, identifying, interviewing and recommending suitably specialized candidates for hundreds of staffing requests from a broad range of large and small organizations. As such, I possess the experience to offer at least a first pass at suggesting the appropriate work histories and credentials for ADooR team members).
Hiring DooR Leaders
Ideally, a DooR Leader would be selected from one of the 7 ADooR Team members. Candidates to be considered should have served as an ADooR ‘with distinction’ for some minimal period (say 5 years). I suggest that the incumbent DooR Leader propose his/her 1st, 2nd and 3rd choice candidates from the Team.
The promotion of an ADooR to DooR Leader must be based on merit (ie past performance within the DooR team) and not solely on seniority. Subsequent interviews with each of the 3 shortlisted candidates could be conducted by a committee of 3 other DooR Leaders to evaluate all candidates and recommend the top choice for promotion.
Information Resources
To perform effectively, every ADooR must have broad and timely access to relevent information. Ideally, he or she will have security clearances for virtually unlimited access to public information.
Governments collect information. So do banks, insurance companies and a myriad of other enterprises. All levels of government normally collect massive amounts of information for the purposes of planning and managing public services. These data are a public asset, rightly belong to the citizens of Canada and represent information sources which can be very valuable for decision makers.
Statistics Canada is just one example of government-supplied information services, but there are many other sources. Highly experienced individuals will the needed to navigate those data and information sources - both formal and informal. For this reason, each ADooR will need a variety of skilled staff skilled at ‘digging’ for information.
Former investigative journalists, data analysts, statisticians and persons with comparable work histories may all be good sources from which to find and hire people who could contribute to the overall skills needed for investigative work. Each ADooR Team should have access to people with these skills either as employees or on a term contract basis.
I recommend that these NONE of these support workers belong to a labour union. The outside influences of labour organizers must not compromise or distract these employees from their import work. All information workers must be able to perform at the highest possible level in the interests of serving Canadian taxpayers well.
Scandal Avoidance - the politician’s friend.
Risk Management has emerged in the past decade as a vital professional discipline within all major organizations.
Utilizing the tools of the modern Digital Economy, these professionals seeks information that is vital to identifying and mitigating any and all risks to the organization.
In the ‘world of politics’, failures to avoid risks usually become public scandals and the politician’s worst nightmare.
In the interests of avoiding career-ending scandals, politicians may come to consider the DooR model as a form of “Political Risk Management”. It will serve to safeguard the presiding political establishment from scandalous ‘unintended consequences’ of making and approving poor legislative decisions.
To be continued….
There is much more to discuss about this DooR model. As a potential replacement for Canada’s Senate, it offers many advantages over the Senate to safeguard the interests of the Canadian people. It is my hope that this essay will trigger public discussion about the Senate and its replacement with the DooR model.
Some of the ideas expressed herein have been inspired from the best government features of the Republic of Switzerland. It is a two-tiered form of Direct Democracy that has served that country well for some 400 years. However, as much as I admire it’s decentralization of government authorities and taxation, I suspect that it too must be able to adapt to changing economic and social forces. The Digital Age processes and technologies are affecting us all globally and adaptability is an inescapable imperative for everyone.
Summary
This Senate replacement proposal offers significant advantages over the status quo. One such notable advantage is that it readily enables the kind of adaptability that is sorely needed in modern democracies as our world changes.
Canada’s public leaders will certainly be poorly equipped to shepherd us through the coming changes if they are inadequately empowered to do so. While this discussion has been about replacing the Senate with a superior Information Age replacement, the approach can also be adapted to provincial governments too.
Complacency and loyalty to “the old ways” can be risky. While much can be learned from history and tradition, nation states like Canada also risk remaining stuck in the past if the past has too much influence on shaping our future.
During this time of great uncertainty - politically, economically and socially - its in our collective and individual interests to ensure that our leaders have access to the wisdoms of the past, a timely and accurate understanding of the concerns and potential solutions for the present, and the well-informed voices of pragmatic visionaries for our future.
