Explorez tous les épisodes du podcast The Public Practice

In this episode, Jake Hirsch-Allen, Director of Partnerships and Advocacy at the Dais, shares his journey from summer jobs in Canadian embassies to working at the intersection of government, technology, and the social sector - where he now helps leaders navigate the challenges and opportunities of artificial intelligence.

The conversation explores what it takes to build the cross-sector networks increasingly needed to tackle complex challenges, why our pursuit of efficiency and organizational harmony may sometimes come at the expense of productive friction, and why the secret weapon in any technology adoption strategy isn't the technology at all - it's people.

We also dig into the importance of adult education and experiential learning: building state capacity in a period of rapid technological change requires us to get much better at helping people learn, experiment, and put new knowledge into practice.

In this second interview of Season 3, Dorothy Eng, CEO of Code for Canada, shares her journey from materials engineering to the really tough user feedback at a dinner party that pushed her into civic tech.

The conversation covers the importance of user-centred design, why you should expose executives and teams to user feedback early and often, the challenges of organizational transformation, and the role of leadership in building digital capacity within government. There’s also the obligatory nod to procurement and NASA.

The first interview of Season 3. Sarah Doyle reflects on her journey into the public sector and the insights gained across government, IIPP, and MaRS. The conversation explores what mission-oriented government looks like beyond the theory: how public institutions build the capacity to work across silos, collaborate with actors outside government, and operate in fast-moving, interconnected environments. Topics include concrete examples of mission-oriented approaches that have taken root, what helps them succeed, what continues to get in the way, and the role of storytelling as a core public sector capability that shapes what governments see as possible.