A Vision Reset for Government Services in Ontario

 

Client / Government of Ontario, ServiceOntario
Industry Sector / Government Services
Services / Value Proposition Design

ServiceOntario is the Government of Ontario’s retail face for government services for individuals and businesses. It is part of an initiative created out of a desire to give Ontarians an easy, cost-effective way to access government services. The agency supports the delivery of multiple services, including drivers’ licences, health cards and business registrations.

 
 
 
 

Context

In 2014, ServiceOntario was in the process of reviewing its 5-year strategic plan to renew its focus on meeting the evolving needs and expectations of Ontario residents and businesses. This was considered a critically important process to help consolidate the agency’s role and mission to transform the delivery of government services.

The agency required assistance from an outside strategist to help it restate its vision statement prior to finalizing and communicating the strategy to internal employees and external government and para-governmental partners. Following a thorough tendering process, the team I led at Argyle Brand Counsel+Design was selected by the Ministry of Government & Consumer Services to deliver on this important strategic mandate. for the Ministry.

Objectives of the Vision

  • Articulate ServiceOntario’s role and aspiration for the future

  • Inspire employees and external partners

  • Drive coordinated action between them

  • Align with existing organizational values and key aspects of strategic plan

  • Guide the organization’s direction over next five to ten years 

Challenges of the Program

Develop a new vision statement that captures ServiceOntario’s new direction, mandate, goals and objectives, one that effectively speaks to many diverse audiences – internal and external, including government partners and the broader public. Additionally, the new vision had to:

  • Clearly and concisely articulate the transformative role and aspirations for the future

  • Inspire employees and drive coordinated action while also inspiring trust amongst external partners

  • Align with existing organizational values and elements of the strategic plan that had already been developed

  • Have lasting power to guide the agency over the next five to ten years

 
 
 
 

 Methodology

We developed a process to promote senior leadership engagement, inspired thinking, idea generation and to drive consensus on a new vision. 

The first of three workshops we held was focused on education and on the need to form a consensus and baseline agreement of the role of the vision and its importance within the strategic planning process for the agency.

 
 
 
 
 

The second workshop was a both a future projection and extrapolation exercise to imagine the impact the agency could have on the population of Ontario and the societal needs it could fulfill within and beyond its delivery of services mandate. This projection exercise was coupled with a “Force Field Analysis” that help identify the forces that were either hindering or enabling the vision of the organization to manifest, as well and 360° scan of the current perception and capabilities of the organization to identify the important gaps in both.

 
 
 
 

Armed with insights of the second workshop, we developed a number of targets and visioning territories each with upward of 15 potential vision statements for review and input by the broader team in the context of a third and final workshop.

We led and facilitated this third workshop with ServiceOntario’s senior executive team, and documented and reported on all previous discussions, all ideas generated and outcomes achieved, with the goal to reach a consensus on a recommended option by the end of the session.

We took the results of the third workshop back to our offices and drafted our final recommendations that we subsequently delivered and presented to the assembled Board of ServiceOntario.

 
 
 

TRANSFORM THE WAY IN WHICH
GOVERNMENT DELIVERS SERVICES

 

The result was an anonymously approved organizational Vision Statement that was: 

  • Purpose-driven or Impact-descriptive

  • Forward-looking

  • Idealistic yet realistic

  • Ambitious/challenging enough 

  • Worded in engaging language that reaches out and grabs people

  • Motivating and inspiring for individuals in government

 
Jean-Pierre Veilleux