Context

In 2019, a Canadian public sector service delivery organization partnered with an innovation-focused government team and engaged Openfield to address a systemic challenge: how to sustain agile delivery once teams moved out of a collaborative, high-trust innovation environment and back into a more traditional public sector structure.

The gap between these two operating realities created risk. On one side was a model characterized by strong executive sponsorship, continuous coaching, and integrated team-based collaboration. On the other was a more conventional environment shaped by hierarchy, policy, process, and established approval structures. Without intervention, teams risked losing momentum, alignment, and the ability to sustain iterative ways of working over time.

The objective was to design and activate a systemic change strategy that would enable the organization to evolve into a modern, service-centred, iterative delivery environment, while also creating the conditions to scale those practices more broadly across government.

Approach

Openfield applied its Change Platform methodology, integrating strategic navigation, relationship building, narrative regeneration, coaching, and organizational design to guide the transformation. The work unfolded through a three-stage cascading approach, designed to move from localized agile improvements toward broader systemic change.

Improve the status quo

The first stage focused on strengthening the foundational conditions for agile adoption. This included creating shared working environments between innovation teams and home teams, improving executive sponsorship and onboarding processes, and introducing narrative tools that helped staff connect their day-to-day work to the larger story of change.

These efforts helped bridge the gap between the innovation environment and the organization’s operating structures, increasing the likelihood that new practices could be sustained once teams transitioned back into regular operations.

Coalition of the willing

The second stage expanded the effort beyond individual teams to create a more coherent cross-organizational approach to digital delivery. Iterative principles were embedded into mandates, governance structures, and operating expectations. Greater alignment was built across divisions to reduce duplication, increase consistency, and create stronger shared ownership of the transformation.

Executive leaders were engaged as active sponsors and advocates of change, while new capacity-building programs and shared learning mechanisms enabled teams to exchange insights and scale effective practices. This stage helped shift the work from isolated transformation activity to a coordinated movement.

Art of the possible

The final stage focused on moving from improvement to transformation at the system level. This included advancing governance shifts that could embed iterative delivery into funding, planning, and approval processes; evolving investment approaches to better support adaptive practices; and strengthening shared infrastructure to reduce duplication and enable collaboration.

Leadership capacity was also strengthened so that senior leaders could continue to champion iterative, citizen-centred approaches over time. Across all three stages, Openfield treated governance, change management, leadership, and operational delivery as interconnected parts of a living system, requiring continuous learning, adaptation, and human-centred support.

Outcomes

Over time, the work contributed to:

• Bridging the cultural divide between an innovation environment and day-to-day organizational operations, enabling more sustainable iterative practices

• Strengthening executive leadership’s ability to actively sponsor and reinforce new ways of working

• Establishing the foundations of a more sustainable digital delivery ecosystem within the organization

• Better aligning technology and delivery investments with citizen-centred outcomes

• Informing broader government thinking around digital strategy, governance, and service transformation

• Creating an ongoing basis for cross-organizational coalition building, governance evolution, and capacity development to sustain long-term change