Former Clerk of the House of Commons (1987-2001)
March 2010
In the mid nineteen-nineties, as Clerk of the House of Commons, I retained the services of Bradford Bachinski Limited, for a major management restructuring and organization-wide culture makeover exercise.
The House of Commons is one of two legislative chambers in Canada’s Parliament, the other being the Senate. The Clerk of the House is the head of the administration and procedural staff, and is the most senior non-elected official.
The transformation initiative occurred in the context of a government-wide fiscal deficit reduction program that called for massive staff reductions in the Public Service of Canada.
At the time of this fiscal restraint exercise, the House of Commons was composed of 301 elected members, supported by administration of some 1500 people ranging from professionals to blue collar workers represented by 5 registered unions. While there was a generous early departure incentive program on offer, the House of Commons maintained a no-layoff policy and only voluntary departures were accepted. Any employee declared surplus and not opting for the departure package was to be redeployed, and retrained if necessary.
Bradford Bachinski Limited was the designated outside consulting firm; Anne Bachinski and John-Peter Bradford were the principal consultants. They reported directly to me, provided me with strategic advice and worked intimately with the transition and senior management teams charged with re-profiling the organization. Their challenge was to assist in the management restructuring and its attendant re-engineering, rationalizing and re-organizing of business processes in the politically sensitive environment of the House.
Their mandate was to constantly challenge the management cadre, to identify managers and positions that were to be eliminated or re-aligned, to focus ways and means to end certain service and product lines, and redesign others and, with new technology, to invent new ones and reinvent old ones.
The end result was a much different and leaner House of Commons. A new model with four lines of business was developed for the entire organization.
The consultants worked with the restructured management cadre throughout the implementation phase and were critical drivers in combining the resultant business processes and aligning the new reporting relationships. Simultaneously, they were also tasked to coach specific individuals, resisters as well as collaborators.
The senior and overall management contingent was reduced significantly. Staff was cut by 25%, the annual budget by 12%. New information technology was introduced and financed in part from these savings. People celebrated the new business model and the organization was invigorated. On the labor relations side, there was not a single formal grievance nor was a single departure contested.
The management and employees of the House of Commons were proud of their accomplishment, but it would not have been the success story it became without the input, the commitment and expertise of Bradford Bachinski Limited. I have no hesitation in recommending Bradford Bachinski Limited to any organization seeking to transform and modernize itself.