Case Study: How the City of Maple Ridge Leveraged DIAL to Foster Innovation and Collaboration
The Challenge
The City of Maple Ridge is navigating its renaissance through cultural and digital transformation. As the city works to align both operational and strategic initiatives with broader organizational goals, it encounters challenges typical of public institutions: managing decentralized data, ensuring cohesive strategic and operational planning and delivery, and enhancing customer service while fostering a people-first culture. Key challenges included:
- Decentralized Data Management: The city managed data across various departments independently, which made it difficult to generate holistic insights and drive data-driven decision-making.
- Strategic and Operational Planning Alignment: While the city had robust strategic goals, there was a recognized need to better connect both strategic corporate initiatives and departmental workplans with these broader objectives to ensure cohesive progress.
- Customer-Centric Focus: Understanding and improving the customer journey was a priority. However, without standardized approaches to analyzing customer interactions at various points of the journey, and regularly measuring customer satisfaction, the city faced difficulties in developing corporate-wide processes and standards that would result in consistent and high-quality experiences for its citizens.
- Cultural and Process Transformation: There was an ongoing effort to encourage a culture of people first, innovation, and collaboration across departments. The city aimed to break down silos and improve internal processes to better serve its citizens.
To address these challenges, the City of Maple Ridge sought a solution that would equip its leaders with the necessary skills to drive digital transformation and foster a more integrated organizational culture.
About the City
The City of Maple Ridge, recognized as one of BC’s Top Employers in 2024, is a progressive municipality located within Metro Vancouver. Committed to fostering a people-first culture, the city emphasizes lifelong learning, employee development, and cross-departmental collaboration.
By encouraging innovation and breaking down silos, Maple Ridge empowers its employees to contribute ideas and make decisions that enhance community services. This dedication to organizational improvement and employee engagement has positioned the city at the forefront of cultural and digital transformation initiatives.
The Solution: Digital Transformation Leadership Program
EXPERIENCE AND OUTCOMES
In their pursuit of organizational improvement, Zvi Lifshiz, Director of Strategic Development, Communications & Public Engagement, and Michelle Lewis, Executive Director of Human Resources, along with five other leaders in the organization, enrolled in the Digital Transformation Leadership (DTL) program at SFU Beedie School of Business. The program was selected for its focus on practical tools and frameworks that could directly address the city’s needs.
Zvi’s Experience
Zvi entered the DTL program with a clear understanding of the strategic challenges facing the City of Maple Ridge. Throughout the program, he was able to refine his approach to strategy management and data integration. The introduction of frameworks like the OKR (Objectives and Key Results) system helped him align the city’s diverse projects with its overarching strategic goals.
Implementing this system required a cultural shift within the organization, moving from a siloed approach to a more integrated one. Zvi also applied lessons from the program to initiate a customer service strategy, which included customer journey mapping. This approach will allow him and his team to identify pain points and set standards for service delivery, laying the groundwork for future technological implementations, such as CRM systems.
“The DTL program provided the City of Maple Ridge leaders with the tools and frameworks needed to align our diverse projects with the city’s strategic goals. It helped us shift from a siloed approach to a more integrated and strategic way of working.”
Zvi Lifshiz, Director of Strategic Development, Communications & Public Engagement
How the DTL Program Met Their Needs:
- Strategic Alignment: Zvi leveraged insights from the DTL program to help the city integrate and streamline its strategic planning, business planning, and outcomes reporting processes. This enabled more cohesive strategic planning and implementation, as the city began to strengthen connections both vertically and horizontally across corporate-level initiatives, departmental work plans, and broader organizational goals.
- Customer-Centric Improvements: Michelle utilized the program’s focus on customer experience to develop strategies that better understood and addressed citizen needs. The program provided her with the tools to implement more structured approaches to service delivery, which are now being integrated across various departments.
- Fostering Collaboration: Both leaders found the program’s emphasis on collaboration and cross-functional teamwork valuable. The cohort-based learning model demonstrated the benefits of breaking down silos, which inspired them to foster a culture of continuous improvement and teamwork within the city.
EXPERIENCE AND OUTCOMES
Michelle’s Experience
Michelle also found the program’s emphasis on change management particularly valuable. She worked to ensure that every new initiative was supported by robust communication and collaboration efforts, helping staff navigate the complexities of digital transformation with confidence.
“The cohort-based learning model of the program was instrumental in shaping the City of Maple Ridge’s approach to collaboration and continuous improvement. It has already started to show results within our teams, driving a culture of innovation and engagement.”
Michelle Lewis, Executive Director of Human Resources
ORGANIZATIONAL IMPACT
The impact of the Digital Transformation Leadership program extended beyond Zvi and Michelle’s individual experiences. By participating as a diverse group of leaders from the same organization, they were able to collectively develop a shared understanding of digital transformation levels, operational vs. customer service benefits, and more. This diversity of perspectives enriched their experience and allowed them to actively share and implement their learnings across the organization, fostering a culture of learning and collaboration across the city. The ripple effect of their participation in the program was felt throughout the organization as more departments began to adopt the new frameworks and strategies they introduced.
One of the most significant outcomes was the shift in how the city approached strategic planning and delivery of strategic outcomes. The introduction of the OKR system, customer journey mapping, and continuous improvement methodologies marked a departure from previous practices and set the stage for a more integrated, outcomes-focused, and data-driven approach to governance. These changes are paving the way for long-term transformation, positioning the City of Maple Ridge to better meet the needs of its citizens and respond to future challenges.
Through their participation in the Digital Transformation Leadership program, Zvi Lifshiz and Michelle Lewis have initiated meaningful changes within the City of Maple Ridge. The program equipped them with the tools and insights needed to drive strategic alignment, enhance customer service, and foster a culture of collaboration and continuous improvement. As these initiatives continue to take root, the long-term impact on the city’s operations and its ability to serve its community will become increasingly evident.