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The government says it will start testing prototypes of replacements for the Phoenix pay system very soon. But have the essential lessons been learned?

Phoenix is simply the biggest and most obvious example of a wider management and leadership malaise that has been growing for decades within the federal public service.

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When I began my career as a scientist in government in 1973, my director general, Dr. Larry Morley, was a leading scientist in his own right, as was the deputy director general, Lee Godby. Future leaders, including those from minority groups, were grown within the organization from among scientists and engineers either in the organization, or in the field, who had an interest in management. These potential managers were given the opportunity to acquire the “generalist” skills a manager needed.

When I later worked on secondment at Statistics Canada, the head of the research division was a statistician, Dr. Ivan Fellegi. He asked good, tough and fair questions when I proposed a new program and he could do this because he knew the business of his organization. He went on to lead Statistics Canada for some 23 years. Why was Statistics Canada run so well for so many years? The people who ran it knew their business.