In this keynote presentation at the 2021 Pre-Arrival Virtual Conference I spoke about a future connected to our values and vision, which is not so much disruptive, but 'constructive innovation.' A future where newcomers are supported through our collaboration, using systems that help them, and us.
What does a seamless user experience and journey look like for newcomers to Canada? How can we ensure newcomers get what they need, when they need it, and in the format they want? We all want to be more collaborative. Support each other. Support newcomers. Technology can increasingly play a role in helping us do that. But what does it take to make effective use of the tools at our disposal? Uber created frictionless transportation, Amazon delivers your packages immediately and Netflix gives us content on demand – so what does this look like in the Settlement Sector?
Newcomers will increasingly want the type of frictionless customer experience they enjoy in other parts of their lives. But we know that human service is more complex, messier, and that the decisions newcomers make will impact the success of their settlement and inclusion.
You can also view the video with French translation/narration:
Presentation Transcript
(This was a new presentation, and experience for me, as a conference keynote. I wanted to stick to my time to ensure a good Q&A (and I think we did have one, watch to the end!), so I worked on a bit of a presentation script. That means I have a useful transcript for you here)
The future of settlement isn't just digital. It's collaborative and seamless.
I’m going to be a bit provocative and not everything I say will seem possible. But what we’re doing isn’t completely working, so we need to think outside the box a bit. I hope you travel with me on a journey to explore what could be and what we want the future of pre-arrival service to look like. Ultimately, what the experience for newcomers should be.
Presentation Structure
Structure of my meanderings. For each section, I’ll answer these questions:
Post questions at any time. Let’s not wait until the Q&A to get to your ideas and insights.
Innovation
While I’m not an expert on innovation I want to spend a few minutes talking about innovation, because it’s what I’m focused on today and I want you to hear where I ground myself in definitions and the idea of innovation.
These days we hear a lot about disruptive innovation. But I don’t think disruptive innovation is our way. Instead, let’s think about constructive innovation. I want to read you this definition and distinction between disruptive and constructive innovationhttps://www.linkedin.com/pulse/when-disruption-killed-galit-ariel/:
"...disruption is an inevitable outcome of innovation and that we need innovation to adhere to changing markets and consumer needs. HOWEVER, once 'disruptive innovation' becomes the core goal of platforms, industries and organisations, it tends to ignore and dismantle existing ecosystems with minimal regard to the outcome. Basically, it becomes an innovation tantrum masquerading as a process, harming the most vulnerable individuals and societies....
Disruption works when you have something to break. With all the broken industries and lives, perhaps it is time to embrace a 'constructive innovation' attitude. Let’s talk more about organic growth, ways to evolve industries and platforms in a more realistic way. It is time to solve hard problems, that benefits and is created by the many and not the few. I want a future where investors and creators use the term 'Return On Investment' beyond monetary value but with a societal ROI."
Can we help make systems in need better rather than dismantle them further or profit from their failure?
'Move fast and break things' is not always the solution for hard problems. This is not to say we should not be experimental. It's great in a small, controlled environment, but is not always the best way to handle complex situations and ecosystems.
Experts are people that actually have experience in a specific field. Learn and listen to them first. Put a bit more effort in HELPING AND SUPPORTING existing systems and knowledge hubs. Perhaps they are broken but sometimes fixing is better than dismantling them altogether.”
Ultimately, our innovation is what some call Community Innovation.
Spiral of power - We’re ultimately talking about community innovation. Perhaps you’ve heard the line “Nothing for us without us.” We start with the people we serve. Innovation can’t happen without the people it impacts.
Innovation is not just a destination, but a process. But not a linear process. It requires us to have the space, time, and resources to learn, build capacity, evaluate, change, test, etc.
And Community Innovation is inclusive, collaborative, and builds on our resources and assets. It doesn’t reject or dismiss us as not good enough, which disruptive innovation tends to.
Tamarack’s Community Community Change models shows us that Community Innovation is just one part of the puzzle. It’s about systems thinking, new forms of leadership, engaging our communities, or clients, in our systems change, identifying and amplifying what works, and building on it to create new approaches.
Ultimately, innovation requires collaboration.
Innovation is generally defined as developing something genuinely new. In our sector, we do that, but we also do a lot of iterating - refining what works to make it work even better.
Today I want to talk about creating something genuinely new in settlement services. It’s an idea. It’s half baked, which just means it’s not complete. Because of where we’re at with technology today, it’s a plausible future for pre-arrival and other settlement services.
To do that I’m going to talk about processes, funding, collaboration, technology, knowledge sharing, professional development. Everything’s on the table.
Let’s start with what we mean by collaboration and what it can do for us.
Collaboration
What. What’s going on?
In the pre-conference survey you indicated that you want:
So What? What does it mean for us, for newcomers? What are the implications?
You have a partner portal. It’s not about the technology, is it? And that’s what I mean when I say that technology is no longer the barrier.
Information-sharing, collaboration, knowledge mobilization, professional development all take time. Everyone needs a focused approach to innovation. It takes time.
Now What? What should we do now? Who can do what with what we know?
The Portal is just the tool. What’s needed is process, time, space, and resources for collaboration. To do this we need new tools and approaches to our thinking. Collaboration by design. It’s a shift in how we work together. Currently referred to as design thinking. If you’ve been around for as long as I have, it’s popular education, community development. Or, as Tamarack puts it, Community Change.
The mindset for this means looking at new ways of doing things.
I’d like to introduce the foresight approach. Simply put, through this process we identify our preferred future, build toward it, recognizing that it can change along the way.
The objective of foresight is to explore plausible, alternative futures and identify the challenges and opportunities that may emerge. Foresight helps us understand the forces shaping a system, how the system could evolve and what surprises could arise. This analysis provides a valuable context for the development of policies and strategies that are robust across a range of plausible futures. It also provides a solid foundation for vision-building.
Importantly, it is a tool that the federal government is using. Here are the core elements of their approach:
Foresight is a thinking tool. Foresight invites us and our funder to work together as a team to imagine alternative futures. The goal of imagining alternative futures is to paint pictures of the future with enough detail to provoke conversations but not enough detail to create the illusion of a crystal ball.
Preliminary Step: Frame the problem. A broad framing of the issue helps to identify the surprises that will disrupt the system. The way you frame the problem may change as you learn more about the multiple pathways through which drivers could impact the system. But we start with a broad idea of the challenge or goal.
Step 1: Surface current assumptions. Identify the current, commonly held assumptions about the issue or problem. These are the core assumptions that are shaping public policy and public dialogue on the issue. These assumptions are collected at the outset through interviews and research and then put aside, to be tested for robustness later in the process.
Step 2: Scan for weak signals. Scanning identifies changes in the sector and external environments that could have significant implications for the system in which it is embedded. This can involve literature reviews and interviews, which try to surface and probe the mental models of people who have knowledge of the system. The idea is to step outside our own sector and learn and be inspired. Insightful scanning is the foundation of effective foresight.
Step 3: Map the system. Everyone involved creates a picture of their mental model of the system. Then, together, a group system map is created that includes the elements where participants think significant change is possible.
Step 4: Select change drivers. All the insights from the scanning phase are reviewed, and those that appear to have a significant, disruptive impact on at least one of the elements in the system map are chosen as change drivers for the scenario exercise. The idea is to explore how the chosen drivers and insights could interact with each other to add new information about how the system could evolve.
Step 5: Develop scenarios. For each scenario, we explore strategically useful futures. At this point we can see what the system could look like under the given conditions. These scenarios offer a vivid snapshot of the key system elements for each future.
Step 6: Test assumptions and identify challenges. Guided visualization is used to immerse participants in each scenario. Participants are asked to identify challenges and opportunities for which current policies and institutions are not prepared. Finally the current assumptions (from step 1) are tested against each scenario for their robustness. Weak assumptions are revised to be more robust.
In many ways I’m using a foresight approach with you today, minus Step 6. I want to propose a future scenario for you.
We’re looking at a technology scenario, and I think the Foresight process maps nicely to government of Canada Digital Design Standards:
It also aligns with IRCC’s current funding vision under the CORE Principles.
These approaches tend to occur informally in our sector. But think of the missed opportunity to share a systems approach and learn formally across the sector together?
Next, I want to walk you through what is an aspirational, but I hope practical future scenario for our sector. I’m mapping my future scenario to existing federal government approaches because I want to be realistic about the direction and ensure it’s aligned with those approaches in order to be practical, not just pie in the sky. I’ll talk about:
And then pull it all together.
Collaboration for client-centricity
What. What’s going on?:
We tend to focus on what works for us and what our funding guidelines are. The rhetoric and aspiration of a completely client centric service exists in the sector, but there are challenges. What makes the most sense and creates the best experience for newcomers tends to be done at the service and organizational level.
So What? What does it mean for us, for newcomers? What are the implications?
This is great. But it creates inconsistencies. In part based on organization capacity, funding, and in-house experience. We don’t end up with shared resources related to evaluating the newcomer journey, their experience in settlement, our place in it, and where we might have greater impact. Capacity in this area is fragmented, at best. It isn’t systemic.
The immigration journey, information and system navigation is overwhelming for newcomers. We know this.
Newcomers may not know what they don’t know. We know earlier interventions can make a difference in someone’s successful settlement and integration. It’s why pre-arrival services exist, right? Even when offered beneficial services or programs, people often don’t take advantage of them. Clients don’t hear about the services, or don’t think they need them. We know this is a challenge both with pre-arrival and in-Canada services.
If we don’t reach people with timely information:
Now What? What should we do now? Who can do what with what we know?
What we need to start talking about is how our entire service system puts newcomers in the centre and builds from there. Not just at the individual organizational or service level, but at a systems level. You may notice some similarities with the language of foresight and the digital design standards.
Human Centred Design puts the user in the middle. Their experience is what matters. And everything contributes to it. Us, the technologies we use, the way we structure our organizations, how we design our services and interventions.
And when we operationalize this priority, we build with them from the very beginning to ensure that what we’re building is centred on them.
Collaborating together to put newcomers at the centre of our services and efforts is essential to better service experience and therefore better settlement and inclusion experience for newcomers.
Innovation, collaboration, and putting newcomers at the centre are the foundation for the next parts of my presentation. I want to provide a vision for the future of collaboration in the context of collaborating on technology, then content, and then marketing and outreach.
Collaboration on technology
What. What’s going on?
Everyone is doing an intake. It’s hard to hand off to in-Canada service providers. We’re innovating on technology everywhere. Here are just a few examples.
So What? What does it mean for us, for newcomers? What are the implications?
The innovation around technology is fragmented. We don’t know what we don’t know. We sometimes don’t even know what our colleagues are working on and how it might benefit us. For the Technology Task Group we spoke with pre-arrival service providers, frontline and management. You are the perfect control group for our work. You were digital before the sector was forced to go digital by the pandemic. And yet, when we asked how your organizations consulted with you to understand how to shift services online, many indicated that they were not consulted. We haven’t learned from you. That’s a missed opportunity.
There are other challenges when it comes to technology in your work.
Currently, there is duplication in the intake processes (asking for client information multiple times). Duplication of data entry uses too much staff time. Clients are asked for the same data over and over again. You have over 500 domestic organizations to refer to. Many in-Canada service providers don’t understand what you do, how you do it, and how you can work together for a seamless settlement service experience for newcomers. Some don’t respond to your warm hand offs. There are challenges.
Now What? What should we do now? Who can do what with what we know?
Everyone is focused on digital experiences. Why not us? Let’s create a seamless digital settlement experience for newcomers.
Client-centred
Effective use of resources.
I’d like to suggest something bigger, building on a centred newcomer experience, borrowing from the idea behind Digital Experience Platforms.
Stay with me here.
One portal for clients to enter. One intake. It doesn't matter which of you ends up serving them, ultimately, just that they seamlessly access the services they need.
Instead of multiple service portals managed by individual agencies, one shared space intake, assessment, and client data to be used for referrals and warm hand-offs to other agencies.
Warm, secure hand-offs within this portal to in-Canada SPOs - including intake and assessment, and all other client information & data - handoffs are based on the best known landing intention of the client, as detailed as possible, which newcomers can update on the portal as it becomes more specific ("I'm staying with my cousins." Great, enter their postal code. Service referrals could be automatic. The client indicates which service provider to send their information to. Connections made, service begins.)
211 data built into this system - Settlement.Org, Chalmers, Arrival Advisor, O2O Chatbot as examples - no need to maintain a contact database, can bring in as little or as much 211 data as you want - I.e. can only have settlement agencies, or include other types of service providers.
A one-touch point centralized client registration, eligibility determination, and information sharing-mechanism. No duplication of similar intake processes.
Pre-arrival clients complete one registration form for all IRCC funded pre-arrival programs they are eligible for. The registration page is mobile-friendly and available 24/7, so newcomers can access it anytime.
Other service providers can easily access information such as what pre-arrival program/s the client already registered to, therefore reducing duplications in cross-referrals and easing the amount of work by program staff, which contributes to a more responsive and coordinated service delivery for clients.
I’d like to suggest creating not just an intake and referral portal for Needs Assessment and Asset Referrals. But extending it to a content portal for Information & Orientation as well. And that means content.
Collaborating on Content
What. What’s going on?
Right now everyone creates their own content. Dozens of unique articles about your first days, resumes, how to find a job, open a bank account, etc.
So What? What does it mean for us, for newcomers? What are the implications?
Inefficient, potential for inaccuracies, inconsistencies, as well as out of date information.
Now What? What should we do now? Who can do what with what we know?
Responsive to need
Effective use of resources
Create Once, Publish Everywhere
A focus of Information and Orientation should be less on technology than on how accurate and authoritative information is shared through the various digital projects. Currently, most digital projects create their own I&O content.
Once you have one portal it is possible to extend it to have a useful repository of content, created and shared/made available for use and augmenting by any partner.
With its vast network of funded settlement agencies, it is worth IRCC exploring how the core, consistent, and common information needs of newcomers might be met through the creation of centralized, authoritative, accurate, maintained, expanded, and updated repositories of information. Doing this would require a combined technology approach marrying Government of Canada priorities around technology interoperability, Information Management, Cloud services, Open Source Software, and possibly AI.
The use of information repositories means digital projects can focus on leveraging their unique technologies and projects to provide access to information, orientation, and referral in new and novel ways.
Some projects already exist that use this approach such as PeaceGeeks, Immigrant Services Calgary, Ample Labs, and their content and technical partners. IRCC may wish to consider making its Orientation to Canada and Living in Canada products more widely available as a raw data source for settlement information, build on them with the sector through sites like Settlement.Org, projects like Orientation 2 Ontario, and require that funded agencies use a complete, authoritative, up to date, and robust central repository as the foundation for their information and orientation products.
What’s important here is that you can still build on this information. The content portal is just the baseline of useful content. You would want to localize the information to make it relevant in a specific community. You want it to be personalized as much as possible for your clients. You could use this information on your website, apps, chatbots, etc.
And you want it to come to the newcomer in the way they want to access and consume it.
But gone should be the days of dozens of different “how to find a job” articles, form email responses, instant messaging form responses, webinars. Now, templates that are jointly created that can be customized by individual service providers (especially for local conditions) and utilized. Each of them can suggest edits, share their customizations, build on each other’s work. Collaborate and complete, not compete. Focus on win (you) /win (peers & partners)/win (clients)
You’ve already invested and are investing in your unique platforms. This doesn’t mean that stops. It means creating a collaborative content platform that all SPOs have access to. Now, they too can build them out across their entire organization for the warm hand-off and seamless use of technology by everyone who serves clients. You won’t lose anything. You’ve leapfrogged the sector in terms of your technology integration. We can learn from you now.
What we’re starting to talk about is collaborating to build an interoperable digital experience platform that centres the newcomer, not the service provider. Create once, publish everywhere.
If I haven’t lost you yet, here’s where it all comes together. And I think you’ll like this part.
Once technology for intake and referral collaboration, and content collaboration are figured out, marketing should be next and should be easier using this seamless digital experience platform.
Collaborating on marketing and outreach to clients
What. What’s going on?
So What? What does it mean for us, for newcomers? What are the implications?
This collaboration is great! But, there’s fragmentation. You’re frustrated that you’re not reaching the people who could benefit from your services.
Let’s think of a new approach.
Marketing is hard when your target audience is spread out widely, etc. It’s harder when they’re overseas, in multiple countries, each with their own unique marketing nuances.
I could show you social media statistics and trends from the source countries you serve. Here’s a quick peak at useful data.
We could talk about ethnic media. We could talk about paid social campaigns, even TV ads and billboards on the ground in major cities. And this is all interesting information, right?
Yes, you should work on your messaging. And once you have a common portal the message is simple: “this is what settlement services can do for you before you leave your country.” Yes, you should understand the information practices of newcomers - unique campaigns for each country, type of client, etc.
But your target audience is clear. You literally know exactly who to target and how to reach them. Well, IRCC does.
It’s a marketers dream! You know and have the direct contact information for 100% of your target audience. Well, IRCC does.
Now What? What should we do now? Who can do what with what we know?
Client centred
Effective use of resources
Outcomes driven
Responsive to need
Remember, the goal is to get each newcomer exactly what they need.
This starts with IRCC, one campaign - not individual agency campaigns. This is on IRCC to implement. But we can do it collaboratively. Remember our collaborative foresight mindset.
But let’s get radical. We have the shared portal. We have a shared content approach. We’ve crafted a unique digital services experience for newcomers - JUST ENROLL THEM IN PRE-ARRIVAL SERVICES AUTOMATICALLY (which they can opt out of). Auto-enroll them into the common pre-arrival portal. IRCC informs them as part of the application process they’ll be enrolled. Yes, they can opt out. Yes, there may be some issues with application contacts being immigration consultants and lawyers who may not pass along the information or sell their own pre-arrival services to their clients. But you’ll probably do better than reaching 7-12% of your potential audience that the 2018 evaluation indicated is the current reach!
This is an idea that some at IRCC are already aware of, but we may not be across the sector. In 2018 three ideas were provided to IRCC by U of T business students as part of a Nudge Challenge - Increasing the uptake of settlement services among newcomers.
Those interventions, mostly technology based for a pre-arrival audience, resulted in tools and behavioural persuasion techniques from psychology, cognitive science, and other social sciences to increase the likelihood of uptake of the tools, information, and interventions, ultimately leading to greater access of settlement services.
I want to show you one. It starts with an overview of the client journey, then identifies points in the client journey where information and interventions could occur to nudge newcomers towards accessing services.
A roadmap, if that's what you call it, right? Like we, you know, 12 months before landing, this is what you need to do are maybe this is what Yeah, and then these are the services available for you to meet those needs. Okay. You only have like six months, and then three months, and then a month before landing. Information is provided based on the point in time and readiness of the client.
What’s missing from these models is that they still have a distinction between pre-arrival and in-Canada services. I’d like to suggest we break ourselves out of that box. Like I said, I want to talk today about something genuinely new.
Let’s talk about the seamless digital settlement experience.
Let’s reconceptualize what pre-arrival is from the newcomer viewpoint, with newcomers at the centre. It’s not agencies delivering programs and services. It’s a service designed to “provide selected Permanent Residents with accurate, relevant information and supports, so that they can make informed decisions about their new life in Canada and begin the integration process - including preparation for employment before arrival.”
All of these pieces come together to create a service experience for newcomers that gets them the information they need in the format they want, when they need it.
The key thing that I want to suggest is that, ultimately, if we’re going to be newcomer centric, in that not too distant future we're not going to have this distinction between pre arrival, and in Canada services. We are simply going to have settlement services. And if we build a common portal that everybody ultimately has access to, the seamlessness becomes complete where pre-arrival, and in-Canada services are no longer separated, but they're part of the service continuum. And they're simply the way we provide settlement services to newcomers. That's perhaps a long way out. And that perhaps is not the current vision. But as we look at future visions, shouldn't that be one of them?
If that all seems intimidating, don’t worry, it’s already been done in other sectors. Here’s an example of an experience through pregnancy to 5 years old. BabyCenter.ca. And this is a technology that has been around for at least 14 years, because I used it in 2007 when my first child was born.
You enter your expected due date and start getting weekly emails about things to know, expect, and understand about your pregnancy. There’s an app or get information by email.
When your child is born, update your delivery date (it’s never the prediction, right?) and start getting weekly emails about your child’s development. It connects you to information, but also a repository of articles by health, pregnancy and parenting experts. And insights from other parents (OK, mainly moms).
It didn’t replace our midwives, paediatrician, advice from in-laws, other mommy groups online, in person connections with other new parents, etc. But it gave us what we needed when we needed it. Often with surprising accuracy. Why? Because it is a bit of a linear experience, kind of like immigration and settlement. We know some things will happen in a certain order. We know newcomers need some information at specific times. And we know the challenges they’ll face at certain times. You can’t predict everyone’s path completely, but we can help them come to know what they may not know and serve them on their unique situation.
Creating a seamless digital experience isn’t really a new concept, it’s something we should explore together.
The big Now What of Collaboration?!?
Ultimately it comes back to the newcomer experience. It is no longer about the technology. The technology is possible. The Newcomer Digital Experience Platform requires us pulls all of these elements together in systems collaboration:
The vision is to create a Settlement Digital Experience Platform for settlement services with seamless intake, referral to other services, content personalized for newcomers based on the data we have about them.
Content is co-created and shareable to any partner or sector platform or technology that has access from outside the platform.
Pre-arrival newcomers are auto-enrolled with information sent to them on a regular basis for a set period of time.
We are removing the line between pre-arrival and in-Canada services for newcomers. For them, there are only settlement services.
Yes, the vision is complex. And it is only one vision. What if we all worked together on creating an even better vision?
What does it take to make that happen?
Three I’s of Immigrant Integration
I like to quote Maytree’s Alan Broadbent who has referred to the “Three I’s of Immigrant Integration:” intentionality, instruments, and investments. Intentionality is about “intending to create success” here defined as seamless settlement. Instruments refer to “creating the effective mechanisms to give those intentions traction.” The digital experience platform. And investments encompass “financial investment” to “drive success,” but also energy investment from “political leaders...and all of us,”.
I think those Three I’s also apply to the work we’re doing when we look at sector capacity.
We’re looking to answer the question: How do we intend to create a successful and equitable pre-arrival service delivery model in the sector? IRCC is being intentional about crafting a future vision of digital and hybrid/blended service delivery with the Settlement Sector & Technology Task Group. Pre-arrival is an important component of that vision. We’re also taking a look at some of the instruments to make that happen. The practical mechanisms, models, and approaches to bring our intentions to light. We’ll also be recommending some of the ways to make this happen (which, of course, includes suggestions about investments in the sector).
These “Three I’s” are crucial to the success of an innovative, tech-enabled, forward-thinking settlement sector.
It’s useful to note that the federal government is already thinking along these lines. As are other levels of government. While perhaps previously behind when it comes to technology, they are already on this path.
Canada’s Digital Government priorities are laid out on the Government of Canada website. These should be mirrored within IRCC as well. The site outlines current modern and emerging technologies on the government radar:
If you’re an organization that has already moved forward in the digital and collaborative space, interoperability means that you don’t have to abandon what you’ve already built, but incorporate it into a common information and service platform. It means everyone moving to being client-centric and creating excellent client experiences, not just in mindset and service delivery, but harnessing technology to do so.
The entire sector went digital about a year ago. You were digital for long before that. I think pre-arrival service providers are uniquely positioned to lead our sector, to convene this conversation, and build something entirely new with the sector, IRCC, and provincial and regional partners.
Thanks for listening, I hope you found something useful here today!
Let’s discuss!
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