David Johnston: "Trust" | Talks at Google

So. You. Recently published a book titled. Trusts usually. At this point you hold it up and available, available, on Amazon I'm sure. 20. Ways to build a better country of all the things you could pick to focus on why. Trust, well. The book is. Is. Dedicated, to children, who. Offer their trust instinctively. And with, full expectation, of fairness it's interesting the children we. Have five daughters and 14 grandchildren and I say all. The important things in life I've learned from my children, and I'm now relearning, from my grandchildren, and I it, sounds like it's jest it really isn't just. When. You see the, world through the lens of your children and grandchildren it, it, gives you a different perspective including. A long-term perspective the. Reason we wrote the trust book Steve has a bit of a history when. I was installed as governor-general in, October, 2010. The title, of my installation address, was a smart and caring nation a call to service with, three pillars, family. And children learning. And innovation, philanthropy. And volunteerism, and we began to pursue, projects. Outreach, activities, using the office of the Governor General for that purpose and established. The Rideau Hall foundation, in 2012 to, be the. Institutional. Focus. Of, those activities, and, I. Then. Concluded, that there's. No power in the job but you do have a platform, and you're, trying to reinforce fundamentals. Of fundamental, values of Canadians, and so. We, we tried to use the office, then as a bit of a bully pulpit and I. Began, writing. A little differently I'm a law professor so I've written a, whole lot of law books that are very dull and boring and we'll a page. Of them will put you to sleep at night if you have difficulty, sleeping but. I began to write books the first one was called the idea of Canada, letters, to a nation I'm a warning. Letter writer I'll tell you more about that if we have time but. It was people alive and some who were who, were deceased. That. I wouldn't be having conversations, with about the fundamental values in the country and, then Tom, Jenkins and I, decided. That we we, wanted to put a spotlight in innovation, so we. Had created the Governor General's Innovation, Awards to celebrate. Innovators, in Canada but we began. Collecting his stories for, a book and we thought 50 would be fine and we quickly got to 50 we said 150, for 150. Ahthe year and, we got to 297. The publisher says that's as far as you can go on that size, of a book so we stopped there but, who created a website. To. Post those stories, and others of, innovation. Including social innovation, and then, we did a children's, edition of that book which. We're, trying to place in every school in the country and Amy. Who's here with me and one, of her colleagues had been seconded from the Government of Canada running, the Innovation. Program in fact one, of the highlights of that is Canada innovation, Week which is the last 10, days in maybe, the third one this year, and. With those books then. Then, I come now to your question I became, increasingly concerned, about the. Erosion of trust particularly. Now public institutions, but. Beyond that I decided. That I would would. Write a book which initially. Began as, looking. At trust as a social. Characteristic. Of countries. The rule of law other institutions. Of government and so on and then. I realized that that really sprang, from how, organizations. And communities and neighborhoods worked in a country and then, I realized, that that sprang from how, each, of us as individuals become. Trustworthy. People and so, out of it has come 20, characteristics. That, follow that narrative beginning, with make yourself, a trustworthy, person then the next part of the, narrative of the arc is how, you build trust worthy, organizations.

Like The ones you serve here at Google or your neighborhood or your community or your church etc and then how you build a trustworthy country. It's. Certainly going to be a topic, for the next time. Let's. See it's in our country, so. In your Pia how bad is. It, well. I think the. I think Trust, is we've known it classically, certainly. Is seen in erosion and. Trust is a kind, of a funny word it's a very simple context. Very. Simple. Concept, it. Is reliability. Its fairness, its honesty, and. It's that's the noun and the verb is the willingness to put your trust in something and that's why we began with that statement. About children, who instinctively, placed. Their trust, and, have, an expectation, of fairness and, I guess as I watched the. World. Particularly. In the last seven years as, Gigi I saw. A continual, erosion, of that Adelman, does a survey, worldwide, for, dozens for about ten 20 years now and they've, marked a steady deterioration in, trust and a. Canada two, years ago for the first time became a distrust, err nation that, is less. Than 50% of, our, population trusted. Their governments. Their. Nongovernmental organizations. In the media and, in fact business, to. Act in trust really weighs the, good news for, you in this audience from the Adelman survey. Is that, of, those four sectors, government. That is public institutions, nongovernmental. Organizations. Media, and business, it's. Business leaders who have the highest degree of trust of those four used, to be the lowest it's now the highest and, I think there's an expectation, in. That. Somewhat. Distrusting, populace, that business. Leaders will. Lead, the. Effort to rebuild trust in our institutions. It's. Very interesting we obviously talk about these kind of issues and our relationships, all, of the time I both as a company, and as. Canadians, largely. Operating here so. How do we how, do we stabilize. This how do we revive trust and how do we get going as Canadians well, I think we try to understand. Why. It is eroding, if, you accept that it is and then. Very, fundamentally, it's we live in an age of disruption, and when you have high degrees of disruption. As you read history the moorings of traditional, practices tend, to come loose and there's, a degree of uncertainty and, uneasiness, and I think the three big factors that. Have. Been so. Dramatically. Changing, for us would be would. Be the the technological. Disruption, that we've seen where. In fact the pace of change is a trajectory, like that, it's increasing, an acceleration. In our, ability, to adjust, to it the human capacity justice. Operating like that so we have that gap of, change. Coming. Faster, than we. Seem to be able to manage in traditional. Ways that. Creates an Asian is the the second thing I would say is the the, rising inequalities, of wealth around the world but particularly in the developed societies, where. You have. Expectation. Levels that are very very different and a sense, of of despair. Or a sense of grievance in. Those. Populations, that feel left out in that process and, the third thing that I think has been very disruptive, for us is, perhaps. The coming to the end of the Western consensus. In international, matters that. Prevailed from World War Two on. Be. It international, trade be at peace and security matters but be a dealing with conflict, we. Have more displaced, persons in the world today than we've ever had with the conflicts etc, and if, you think of right, after World War two the. Marshall Plan was, the us-led, initiative, to put Germany and Japan back on their feet rarely, in history of you've seen a situation where, the the Conqueror. Would, say having, conquered we now will do everything within our power to. Help you rebuild a, civil society, World. War one ended in just the opposite way and it led to World War two maybe we learn from that but, out of that became the International, Monetary Fund the Bretton Woods Agreement revived. United, Nations and a. Consensus. On international. Trade is a good thing globalization. Will be a good thing that, that has been a factor that's eroded so we. We. We. Face that and I used the expression it's, an 18th century precedent, expression that trust comes in and foot, and goes out on horseback and Mark, Carney has rephrased, that trust comes in and foot in goes, out in a Ferrari, I'm just think of those metaphors it's, quick, to destroy and, it's.

Slow To build step by step but, I guess through the book Steve we tried, to write some of the prescriptions, of how you rebuild trust, step, by step be, it in your own life in, your organization's that you lead or. Or, in a country and. We. Can go into those in some more detail in order. Well. I'm afraid there's a lot of analogs there that apply to large, corporations I was once told when I came to this company it was a wasn't, a large corporation. And I think, that's true to some extent although I think we received very much as a very large organization and, I think that's fair if, you were to put yourself in the seat of an organization such as ours or another. How. Do you rear, the. Earn trust again or we're in trust. How. Would you advise the CEO to, form. Their organization, and move forward. Well. First of all I guess you have to know who you are and where you're at I was, just telling a story over. Lunch with your colleagues that I'll tell tonight because I'm speaking at, a gathering at the York Club and Mike Wilson some. Of you remember as a Minister. Of Finance a guy I am, are an awful lot its hosting and, it'll be on trust and Mike was at Canada's ambassador, of the United States and. I said, Mike we needed you there in Washington in, the last year and renegotiating. The canada-us. Free-trade. Agreement, this, story is applicable, it's some I'm. Allegedly. It's the transcript, of. Recorded. Messages, that. Took place off the coast of Newfoundland several, decades ago and it. Begins with voice 1, attention. You, are heading towards a collision. Recommend. You alter course 45, degrees west, 45. Degrees east. Voice. 2, you. Are heading towards a collision. Recommend. You alter. Course 45, degrees west, voice. 1, in. A, half a mile at your current speed you. Will be in a serious collision, change, course now. Voice. - I am the USS, Eisenhower aircraft. Carrier the US Navy with, a hundred planes aboard, with three, destroyers and four cruisers and about, 2,500. Military personnel. You, change course now voice. 1 I am a lighthouse your move. I. Think. If you lead an organization, I, think. You act out some of these things that I've spoken about listen. First. Draw, from all of the or, sation to. Share. The plan as, widely as possible give, people, ownership. Of it. Ensure. That you are an inclusive, organization. Not. Simply a diverse organization but, an inclusive organization diversity. Is just a statement of fact you, can check the boxes, of what number. Females. What number of males you have what visible minorities you have what, cultural groups you have that's. Just a statistic. Inclusivity. Of course is an action and in. The Deloitte study on diversity. Inclusion they call a paper from from. Optics. To outcomes how do you move from optics checking, the boxes to outcomes, inclusivity. Where people actually are engaged with one another and they, use the metaphor of a dance it's. One thing to be invited, to the. Dance it's. Another thing to be invited to dance coming. To the dance and sitting on the sidelines, I guess you're there, but. So, what, but getting on the dance floor you've become inclusive and, I like to take that metaphor, even further from optics, to outcomes, to ownership, and this, is the message for the leader of the organization and. The. Time I was at Rideau Hall one. Of the functions that governor-general is to receive the letters of credential, letters, of credence of, incoming, ambassadors, and they're not allowed to function until they've presented those letters and accepted, and we.

Have About 200 ambassadors, so we would they served three or four years so we'd have forever. 60 or 70 a year we'd. Always have at least one ceremony, once a month to receive them early and then I spent a little one-on-one time, with each of them and I say to each of them come, to our winter diplomat, party it's really Canadian, so, on February we. Would have all the diplomats in the city come to Rideau Hall and we have an outdoor skating rink we believe it's the oldest one in North America and I want to tell you thanks to a three hundred thousand dollar grant. That the. Foundation. Managed to get that we now have skating four and a half months a year we've got a refrigeration. Plant that really works you can make ice at ten degrees below zero and odd so, we get these people on the skating rink and we get them on sleigh rides if there's enough snow etc and then they come in and there's a buffet dinner it's, a B Tom the French, québécois cuisine, and. There's, a, square. Dance fiddling, group from mantle walking and they, teach these people how to square dance in, French and in English and play the spoons and so on and so, you get these people out on the dance floor and square dance is not kind, of a nice soft. Waltz, it's everybody, in action and you're bumping into one another and I'll tell you do they ever feel inclusive. And I cannot tell you what, a joy I would get about seeing some of the dispatches, that would go home from those diplomats, of a winter evening in, Canada and boy, did I ever feel inclusive, so that's kind of a long story but but, that's that's. I think how you go about it I'll just tell one more story though because, it illustrates, so much about leadership it's the story of Vimy Ridge how many of you know about the Battle of Vimy Ridge sure it, was World War one it was Easter. Weekend in April and the. Canadians took Vimy Ridge an, area, of the plains of northern France that had been battle over for about a year and a half with over. Three hundred thousand, French three hundred thousand English and an, equivalent number of Germans killed in a matter, of few square miles and. The. Canadian, group was then commanded by Lord Bing who became Governor. General of Canada from. 1930. 1919. 24 1925. To 1930 I think and the. Commander. That versed Canadian Corps was Sir Arthur Currie Canadian, later became principal McGill University, and. So. Hagan. Faust the generals, from the French and the English. Allies. Ordered. Bing to to. Try. To take Vimy Ridge he, said I will but not now he said we must delay it for a month because Currie, and I have spoken about this and we, need a month to prepare a point one point. Two they. Gave the battle plan for. This battle to every member, of the. Canadian, Corps army including, the privates of course, at headquarters they, were appalled, you're. Giving privates, the battle plan they'll, probably lose at the local tavern and the Germans will have it etc etc everyone. And. Then they. The. Canadians, of course were non conscripts, they're all volunteers and many of them were farm boys from Saskatchewan, in places like that and you know a thing or two about life, there and they, were a near reverence sort they had to work pretty hard at learning how to salute and using titles etc but there ended thinkers, and, the reason they had the battle-plan was when. The sergeant and the platoon was injured or killed the. Corporal had to take over and if the Corporal would easier to build a private, had to take over they had to be able to take responsibility they, had to own the plan. The. Next thing they did is Andrew McNaughton was a young professor, from the Gil, who. Was a scientist, who was assigned to Arthur. Curry's headquarters. And. They. Were three, really, bright scientists. From Cambridge University assigned. To Douglas Hague's the English headquarters, they, weren't being used because they were the English, and French were fighting 19th, century war fur cavalry. And in Truman tanks were not much used in airplanes not at all but, these Cambridge. Guys with McNaughton, says we're going to use airplanes, for surveillance point. One point. Two is we're going to use two principles, of physics and mathematics, to, have a pinpoint. Sighting. Of where the German guns are placed so, they used the fact, that sound, travels, slower, than light and so. They would measure the light from a flashing gun, to. When the shell landed and they, measured the sound from, that gun, to. When it, occurred and triangulate. To get the precise location, of the guns and then, they developed, through very precise, mathematics. What we call a. Barrage. Creeping, barrage creeping, barrage the custom, from, the 19th century warfare, is the guns blast, the devil out of the enemy trenches all through the night and that, just before dawn they stopped and then, the infantry rushes, in will by the time the, infantry, gets to the enemy, trenches they were back in their trenches and they're waiting for them so, what McNaughton.

And Currie, and Bing did is the. Guns would fire right. Into the morning for, a five-minute, period then. They would stop and immediately, the infantry, would follow right on for. A half, a kilometer or so and then, they would stop and the guns would fire again for another say two minutes and then, the infantry would go forward for another half kilometre on and on the creeping barrage and it only worked because of, very good. Sighting of the guns but very precise mathematics. Of timing. When the guns were firing and when they stopped and when the men were charging. And. That. Actually. One, Demi rich in three days of very bitter fighting which, had not been won before there, are four or five different lessons. There all of which have to do with how you lead an organization, and what, happened shortly after that is being, a stepped aside and, persuaded. The Allies that curry, should, be in command of all of the Canadian troops and that was the first time the, Canadians, marched under their own leadership and that was the Reedy beginning of the Canadian military long. Story, but. If you want to figure out how you lead an organization, you. Know you could do worse than sitting down and reading about Vimy Ridge and some of these lessons are. Interesting. So as we as we look at some of these twenty ways of. Addressing trust. We've talked I, think just now. About. Sharing the plan which I very much like I think, shares some real cultural elements. To how we try to do things. Maybe. Not not quite a dramatic fashion. Can. You talk. A bit about something, that's a really meaningful to us right now which is and you mentioned in your book which is about listening. We've. Been trying to do a bit of listening ourselves, lately and internally. And externally as, well and, do. You think that as, a society perhaps, we've stopped. Listening, and. How does that you, know I think that's one of those disruptors, chain disruptive.

Changes We have become less listeners, and, more, data gatherers, and we have been much more instantaneous, I think in our reactions, we're a more instantaneous, society, aren't we. It just takes longer in the old days for things, to get there and I think we have to recall t'v eight the act of listening my, grandmother, used to say God gave you two eyes and two ears and one mouth for a reason, use, them proportionately. But. The, beauty of listening first is you are you are showing respect, to, the other person or persons in the group, you're. Establishing, a bond of trust, and. Bear in mind is. A Stephen Covey book called the speed of trust and his, equation, as trust equals speed plus cost the. More trust you have built up within an organization, or between your organization another. The. Less costly, it is to do transactions. In the faster they occur you, and I shake hands, a handshake huh and we know that that, was, pretty fast and didn't cost us very much and we've got a deal and on we get so. You build that trust by. Listening what, you're also doing is you're encouraging, everybody. In the group to own the issue not, just your instructions. And you follow them up but you own it the. Story I tell about that is when, I assume. The office that rideau, hall the, person that runs it is called the secretary to the office of the Governor General, we Canadians are great for titles and most the. Leading public servant is called the clerk of the Privy Council, and the person that ran the office government generals the secretary, the, office any event the, person who held that office retard, and we, had a competition, and, the guy we chose was Stephen Wallace who's it consummately, monitored marvelous public servant and when. I came into the office I said where's the strategic, plan where's the plan of operation for the next five years there wasn't one I said sure there's one no other wasn't one look in the archives because I'm not the first new sheriff in town. There is it we couldn't, find something that was called as like a strategic, plan I said well we'll do one so, the, assignment I gave to the four or five shortlist, candidates for the job is just, give me the outlines of a strategic, plan and Stephen, did something that was beautiful, just marvelous, so. I said okay, great, how long will it take you two to, craft, and implement this strategic. Plan he says well he says I can do it over the weekend as a matter of fact but, he said I wouldn't do that if I were you and I said why not he said you want to engage every one of the hundred and fifty people in the organization, so we took three months and that's what he did and it, was marvelous, because everyone on that organization owned the. Direction of the operation, for the next five years and and, and, and leave that and. So. That's a part of listening and it's it's again like up. Comes the, optics to outcomes it's, it's not just producing a strategic, plan it's. A strategic plan, that must demonstrate that you've actually listened, and if you want those 150, people to own it they, have to find their voice in it somewhere and so some of the things in the strategic plan I wouldn't, have thought of and we're good some, of the things I didn't think we're good but, we tried them and by, and large they worked out well but. You get a sense of ownership that, is so, incredible.

And I say leadership is recognizing, your tone dependence on the people around you that was being in Korean Vimy Ridge the people around them but, the job of leader it's not just to jump in front of the parade and lead it and say look at me I've got a great team where we go the, job a leader is to create an environment where. Each person, has. A sense of ownership of, the mission. Division and is. Operating. At the very, maximum. Of their talents, and guess what happens, when, you operate, at the maximum, of your talents your, bandwidth, expands. You become more talented, and learn how to become more talented and, it all begins with listening first I could. Quote another book, about. Sir William Osler and I won't at this moment but if I have another time. Ulster. His book principles I. Love. Books my grandchildren, call me grandpa book he. Was the he, started, his career at McGill and then. The US and then he held the Regis chair of medicine at Oxford died, in 1919. And his, principles, and practices, of medicine his texts went through about 42, editions over a hundred years Canada's. Most influential, physician, but, embedded. In it was listen to your patient, don't, come in and read the charts listen, to your patient, one, you're building a trust with that patient -, they're, getting behind the, particular, symptoms, of the illness and three, you're establishing, a relationship were together, you, can provide healing. I'm. Gonna have to rush to get a question or there's gonna thirst are comments, so. We can fifty-five second paragraph. So. You. Know as an organization, we've as, a broader, nation we've grown a lot and we, work hard internally, to, foster. And build trust we. Tried to listen we, try to affect change. But. Some of the things your book really resonate with me, particularly. This. Concept, that you alluded to oh just already about depending on one another and, I, think this is core to our culture in many. Ways. And. Certainly I believe it's. It's fundamental, to ability, to lead. Can. You tell us a bit more about, that about how, it affects organization. Well if you if, you depend on one another you, know when you have the, suggestion, box put, in your suggestions, hell we improve things don't, do that if you're not really going to make it work if, it's just window, dressing people, get cynical about that pretty fast and they don't see. Anything happening and. Also you. Want to give credit that the leader is the last one to take any credit I often say you can accomplish anything in the world provided.

You Insist on never taking any credit for it but, also the first one to take responsibility, I mean responsibility. That's. An. Important, feature of depending, on the people around you that you share the credit widely, and you should because. If you've done this inclusivity. Right, if you, shared the strategic, plan right people, own it it, belongs to them and so when things go well, they. Should feel pretty. Good if you get the credit on the other hand when things go wrong you, as the leader and have the responsibility now your, team will probably come along and say we did, a big mistake how to repair it but but, it's it's it's two different approaches. To the thing again, to come back to retool halt it's, interesting when. When. Stephen came, and began with this strategic, plan we had about a 50 percent response. Rate to the annual. Survey, that the government Canada would do of, staff. In a particular, section of satisfaction. Job development. Etc. And. By, and large the results were sort of average, over. The five years of his leadership. We. Had dramatic, improvements, in the participation, in that survey and dramatic, improvements, in the. Positive. And quality responses so much so that, in. The last year, that, I was there and Stephen was there with me the OECD, published. Its annual rankings, of the performance, of public servants around the world through 33 OECD, countries Canada, was number one and. One. Of the, surveys. Of top. Employers, at. Just, shortly, after that for, the Ottawa region showed our. Office as top employer for the region so Stephen and I sent a note to, all of the people, saying you. Probably are aware of the OECD, study you are part of the leading, professionals. Public, service group. Of, these 33 countries pretty, good and by, the way. You've. Just been named part. Of the top employer in the region you're the creme, de de creme and that you know is in a sense sharing credit with everyone there it, was pretty good for the morale in the organization. We. Met in the context, of community building. Wild. Lark and. Not. Surprisingly, you talk about this importance, in, the book but, can you tell us why. There. Used to I. Used. To give, a speech called what's, in the water in Waterloo, and it was a slide presentation and, the first slide showed, the Grand River flowing through the community pretty nice to have a river goes by and, we. Live just we live just west of Heidelberg, on a farm in Mennonite country so our neighbors are all horse and buggy people and they, were absolutely lovely people you couldn't imagine better neighbors and we. Would be invited to, go on barn raising exercises. I think a couple times it was a fun barn, burned down or something burned down and we were. So honored. To be included in the community to go on the Saturday to clean. Up the debris and begin to rebuild the barn etcetera and so. The. Second, slide is. Actually an overhead aerial. Photo of a barn, raising with, Mennonites rebuilding. Or building a brand new barn and men. Women boys girls are, all there helping with their contribution, of time, and their contribution, of also. The wood and the different materials, and so. That's the second slide the third slide is the second slide in the first slide is the barn raising in the water, it's, that barn raising concept, that, collaborative, concept, that, is so, much a feature, of this community, and barn, raising as a metaphor, of how, we collaborate and why do we do that we, do it because we're, trying to make life not only good for ourselves and our family, but our neighbors and the, most fundamental, principle, of all of the ones in the trust book is the golden rule treat, your neighbors as you would have yourself, treated, and, and I think that that. Notion. Of making. Life better for everyone in your community, is. A very important, feature of any healthy community the, you can almost measure, the health of the community by the degree, of collaboration there, is and how, well the golden rules practice, it's, very interesting I was at a economics, conference, about three or four years ago and I was speaking on guess on innovation, and.

Robert. Shiller the Nobel Prize economist. From Yale he does the Shiller case housing. Index for example, was. Was speaking and I stayed. On beyond. My, contribution. I was supposed to be I guess back in the office but I want to stay on because, I wanted hear Robert Shiller the Nobel Prize winner in behavioral, economics son and to, my enormous, in, his half-hour address he didn't speak about economics, at all he, spoke about the golden rule and. He said that if, you look at all of the great religions of the world they, all have the golden rule at their heart Express different ways but but at their heart and then he said something that I often quote to my business friends he says Adam. Smith would be considered, the father of modern capitalism, in, his book The Wealth of Nations in. 1773. Is, considered, kind of the Bible or the early Bible, for for, the, modern capitalistic, market based society people. Forget that Adam Smith was not the professor, of economics, at Glasgow, University he. Was the professor, of moral theory, and is, even more important, book than the wealth, of nations was, the, theory. Of moral sentiment, and the invisible. Hand which. We have interpreted, to guide the. Marketplace, to produce a harmonious outcome, for, everyone, seeking, private, profit, was, not an invisible hand that permitted, that market. Free market, to operate. Smoothly, the. Invisible, hand was the moral framework, that. Oversaw. And held together the markets, which from time to time needed, regulation. People. In a free market can move into cartels, pretty easily if you give them a chance to conspire together and on, and on that's contained, in the wealth of nations as, well but, it's a part that people don't read very much but, that invisible, hand of course was was, something that was based on the Golden Rule and so, to. Come back to your question Steve. Why. Do you want a community, to function, in a collaborative, way because. You want it to be a good place to live in you, want to be a place where people have a chance to develop their talents to the fool and where, their lives are safe and secure etc, and you want to have vigorous, competitive. Enterprise that. Is constantly, innovating, and and. Trying to make not only its products, and services better but the whole community better and, that. Got us at lunch on to my tale, of why we need a tertiary. Teaching. Hospital here in this community. We're. Still working and, why and why, all of you have such a contribution, to make to the, leadership of community projects, like that and so many other things we have a something. Called the sovereigns medal and volunteerism, another. Story I'm going on too much but, it, was the caring Canadian award that, was offered by the Governor General it was started by Romeo LeBlanc well me it was an Akkadian from Nova, Scotia very modest. Background. Took. The one year course to become a school teacher then journalist and member party then became governor-general and, he, thought one, of the most priceless, features. Of Canadian, society was, volunteers, people. Who just meant. Their time and their talent, to help others you can't put it you can't put a price on it you just look at the volunteers you know and. What a difference they make so he said you, know we recognize our great Order. Of Canada people, and Peter. For bravery and military merit and so on but. We should recognize those, unsung heroes who started the caring Canadian award and when he went to different towns he would they, would confer. This carrying Canadian ward then. It got caught in budget cuts about 15, years ago and it disappeared, so when we came talking, about the smart and caring nation we said we we should be putting a focus on these volunteers, not because they were looking for attention but, to encourage others to see how important volunteerism, so, we revived it and then in, discussions, with Her Majesty we asked, if it could be a, queen, sanctioned, order, so it's now called the sovereigns medal and volunteerism and through the foundation, we've developed, an endowment so it can never be hurt by budget cuts so, we gave a thousand, out in last year I was there and our, plan was to go to ten thousand and you say ten thousands a lot of certificates.

Well They're 40 thousand communities in this country every. One of those have volunteers. It should be recognized, and why do you do that you, do that to encourage that volunteer, spirit in the community and to cherish it in to promoted. As much as you can. Well. We could go on and I have many more questions but perhaps we should open it up to. Any, questions. That people might want to bring there's. A microphone, up here please yeah. Well I was never asked of course. I was. Not asked to probe Parliament, but in fact the. Powers, of prorogue, in which is postponing, Parliament forbid or dissolving, which is. To. Stop Parliament and have a have a new election those. Are powers within the, office. Of governor-general but. You, take advice from the elected form of government and. The elected form of government is the Prime Minister and the cabinet etc. So, it would be only. In the most exceptional, cases would, you exercise. That theoretical. Power of. Refusing. Our quest to perot-gore dissolve, and, I could go into a, bit of length of what there, was truly truly exceptional, cases, would be but even if they if if, you were in an exceptional, case you'd. Look for something, other than an outright refusal, of the advice you were given you'd, look for a delay you'd look for a public explanation you'd, look for a statement of reasons why, and. If it was something that was you thought was unconstitutional. You probably would consider a court reference and, why do I say that it's because, the. Governor-general's the representative, the Queen and that's an unelected, institution. Of government we, believe in democracy where you elect your rulers and therefore one. Must be careful I think even. Where a power exists. In theory, in the unelected form, of government to, exercise that power because to do so means. That you are setting, yourself up as. Equally. Powerful and more powerful, than the elected government and that goes back to a lord Elgon in 1837. Where. He. Signed. Into law the Lower Canada rebellion. Losses, bill, which. Was passed by a popular, majority, but the family compact the Senate of the day said, don't sign that exercise, your powers. So. The last. There's. A referendum reaction to going on in British Columbia right now at the provincial level it's it'll be the third one I think, I'm. Not sure. This. Was a part. Of the platform of the current government and it appears, that the reform they were looking for isn't going to happen what, I would say is that the. Interesting thing about our form, of government is that was not born, revolution. It was born out of evolution. 0.12. It's. Not perfect, but it's pretty satisfactory, and there's, been a genius I think of Canadians, who are people of compromise, to avoid extremes, and define forms, the government that work and. As. We look at this question be it forms, of proportional, representation or, something else my. Guesses will approach it in the same way of. Looking, at the alternatives and, evolving, step by step now. Some may say that's too slow you know get some wise folks together in a room and draw something up and get on with it but people. Often, ask me you know we. Have you have in Canada constitutional. Monarchy with. A hereditary monarch, over there in the United Kingdom it. Happens you outgrown, that aren't, you Canadians my, answer to is it works, well and I happen, to think it's a good system of government others, would, have their reviews and that's that's all being Canadian but, I say that if you looked around the world and you said identify, eight or ten countries who, have pretty satisfactory, governments, that by and large satisfy. The. Desires of their people. That. That. You would find on that list. Probably. Sweden. Norway. Denmark. The. United Kingdom Netherlands, New Zealand Australia, Canada what's, common, to those eight or nine countries they're all constitutional. Monarchies with. Pretty thriving, democracies, and in, our case it's evolved over a thousand years and. It served us reasonably, well so, I guess that would be my answer to any change in our government. Do. It carefully, and thoughtfully and, do it with broad consensus, and avoid. Instant. And very, polarized, things like, the brexit referendum, in the United Kingdom I guess my view is that. That. Is an unfortunate path, for our friends in the UK others. Will have different views and, by and large I'm not a great believer in referenda, for, for. Fundamental change, because, referenda, are single, issue matters, they, are often very emotional. They, divide families they, have not gone through the digestion. Process, that we have we with political. Part. Parties. With, platforms, with. Second. Views of things including a Senate etc, and. If you're going to make pretty fundamental, changes you want to proceed with some degree of care I.

Have. A question about volunteerism, so. We basically have two models in this country most countries for. Some people public good one of them is volunteerism, another is the professional, civil service both of their strong, points and weak points of this service, every. Citizen has a right to things you don't have to ask someone you don't have to you, don't have to have. Somebody pity on you or. Decide that you are worthy you just get it and for volunteerism of course you can drop, it a much broader range, of people I'm just wondering how you feel the balance between those two you know, I would, not see them as either/or I'd see them both hands for. A very practical reason the needs are so great that I think you need to get at them from different ways and some, people would say you know if, you're pushing, volunteerism, all the time it's, because, you're believe. In small government and, you don't want public, services etc I think. The world is more complex, than that and. We. Should be constantly redefining. What it is we expect of governments and what, amount of taxes were prepared to pay to. Have those services provided, and in the Canadian, case contrasted. With some other societies. We have a pretty good faith, in government of public services, and we tend to be more collective. People. Than an individualistic, people, and I think that's colored how we've made these choices, but, at the same time by. And large volunteerism, thrives, in this country and, I think it's thrives because we're essentially. Apart. From our First Nations people who have pretty good volunteer arrangements. Themselves, we're, a nation of immigrants and each. Wave of immigrants has come to this country it usually, has come from a very difficult background, they've come from from, despair, from war from, poverty from hunger my, case my Scottish ancestors, were kicked off the land because sheep were more important than people and they settled in Northern Ireland displacing. Poor Catholic, farmers. So Protestant, were there and then ran, out of potatoes and came to Canada, always. With the determination, of the life shall be better for our children and. That. Has, not just been for our children it's been for our community, and, a sense of barn-raising that is part of the Canadian spirit and that's what a volunteer, is in common and so I think you want both of those engines, functioning, really well with. Any luck, interacting. With one another not duplicating, one another but, I wouldn't, be, suppressing, one or the other because you. Think innately. That, one shouldn't happen. I I, was wondering, what you thought about transparency, and Trust. Its. There is not if there's distrust, of institutions if. You're transparent, that gives them evidence. To.

Further Their distrust well. In. The initial instance that's correct, you know give, that all the secrets out etc but. At some point those secrets, are either going to get out or the thing is going to be some so distrustful, doesn't work so to. Me the only answer is transparency. And the beauty of transparency. Is once. You've laid the problem owed and, the the errors then you get on the more difficult task of rebuilding rebuilding. The trust I. Began. Well thinking, about this actually when I was a young law professor, and I was research council to the Ontario. Securities Commission we were rewriting. The, economic, regulation, for the markets, and transparency. Openness, full. Disclosure, were the kind of watchwords to. Build trust in the market so you could trust the markets to make your investments, etc, that we could see the markets as reasonable. Measures, of value etc and, by, and large that system, works pretty well in Canada but it's based on the, notion of trust and transparency the, other thing I would say is where something. Wrong has, gone on then. I think you should be fully transparent, in. Dealing with it so we have a chapter in the book about apology. The importance of apology, and, we. Begin by saying no book on trust. In Canada, could, be written without speaking. Of the First Nations situation, in the residential schools and so. That chapter is almost entirely, devoted to the apology, for. The first name for their residential, schools, the. One, of the few places the book were quote at length one Prime, Minister Harper's apology, in the House of Commons in 2011, and Prime, Minister Trudeau's further. Reconciliation. Statement in 2016. I think, and. You have to you have to make the apology, full, complete, transparent. Not carving. It up and then. You get on with, the steps of rebuilding trust the reconciliation so, transparency. Is the first step but there others after it. It's. Almost every one of us here in this room are probably post-secondary. Educated. One, of the core skills we'd learned at university and that was critical thinking and, part. Of trust at least for me is about being less challenged. Challenge. The people yeah you can think critically about what there's it's, not blind trust it's a form trust and so it. Seems that like there is a fundamental. Degradation. And critical thinking in, our society, today yeah, what's your opinion of how critical thinking and Trust fit together and whether well, I think it's always been the most important, ingredient, and the question why has been the most important, it goes back to Plato and Socrates. And. It's especially important. Now critical. Thinking in asking, the right questions, because we have an ocean of data and for. The first time teachers, are not the fount of knowledge. Yet. We have to learn how to go from data to, information to. Knowledge to wisdom and we, do that through informed. Questions especially. When all the data is there just. Have to know the search paths and the questions, to bring it together. I'm. A teacher and. Tom. Friedman's, book thanks, for being late talks about this age of disruption, and the very phenomenon, you've spoken about the trust. Can be eroded, in we, get information in different ways so. He says what's the answer the answer is the 3 R's go back to teach reading and writing and rithmetic well but, then he said we must also teach. The four C's and they, are creativity. Communication. Collaboration and, coding, we. Talked about this in the book on innovation, that Tom and I wrote and I. Believe. In the first three I didn't believe in the fourth coding, but Thomas swung me along not, because I want every kid to be a coder but I think it's instructive to learn enough, about how, you code to see that that's a new way of thinking it's a new curiosity. Path and, as you understand, that system, it helps you to see the benefits, that come from using code but, thinking in different ways the, final thing I would say is. That for. Me those four C's are helpful but there's a C that's even more important and that's curiosity. What. You want to do is enhance, the curiosity. And so. We're. Five. Daughters began international, exchanges, at 12 and was. The best thing that could have happened to their formation or their development. As we say in French through. International. Exposure exposure. To different cultures and, exposure to poverty, four, things happen to them one their, curiosity, became enhanced, they had always, been kids and asked why but, the wise were more penetrating, wise, secondly. They became more tolerant not tolerant a sense of you're different from me that's okay nobody gets hurt but, why are you different and what is your background and so on and truly interest in you thirdly their, judgment, became better they were quick to spot bigotry, they wanted to hear another side of the story they wanted to triangulate, to get the proper measure of things but, fourthly, they became more empathetic, not just sympathetic, but empathetic, they, could walk, on the other person's, shoes and so, I guess that's the kind of formation.

That I would be seeing and how we, function. In a resilient, way to, this new age that we don't have blind trust we have informed trust and that we work constantly to enhancing. Our informed. Nature. So, first. Off as a, Waterloo, alumni we. First. -. Thank you. So. My question is about digital. Trust so we have created this this, world, as an environment, where we have digitized. And scaled. Up social. Interaction, in the form of social media that every every interaction that you create in, a social setting you can now make any digital social sorry but one thing that we haven't been able to digitize, and you can see that this has been. You know state actors and. Is. The idea of digital trust, how do we create how do I know that when I engage on, social media, that, the you, know that the information that's being given to me is trustworthy how do I move to the other end of the computer and as. A, company, I think we. Have an, interest. In thinking. About how do we solve this general problem of trust in the digital age we, don't have you know we, have communities, that are small but we are trying to build platforms. That can connect. So. My, question to you is like how, do we build trust in a digital realm and how to establish as. Organization. Digital. Well. I think you begin, with just, what you've done today get up and said we think we have an issue and. Who. Better to get at that issue than people that think about it a lot and have the tools and to. Develop the rules of the world to service and be point one point. Two is again, in Tom Friedman's, book thanks, for being late he he. Deals, with this issue and, he refers to one. Of the two or three people that have been great mentors with him, and. This individual, says we're in in, a kind of the the second round I guess of a 15 run boxing. Match or the second inning of a nine inning ballgame the. First inning, was that, the wonderful, remarkable. Technological development. That took three centuries for the printing press to reach a majority the population, of Western Europe took, the internet between 1995. And 2005. Less than a decade to reach a majority of the world's population that in itself is a remarkable. Technological, accomplishment. But, he said eating - or round - is developing. The rules of the road with, these, dramatically. New and different tools that. Have great, potential, for good but also have potential for harm and I. Guess. As the internet come on came along some of us rather, view let this market be as free as it possibly can, be so that you don't stifle innovation and. Then you say. Maybe. There are some rules but. The rules I think would be best developed, from within these, industries. From people like. Yourselves who understand. Not, only current, practices, but the practices, to come. Rather, than government's, doing the whole job and of course ideally, what, you will have is the, thoughtful. People in the industry. Identifying. The problems now and the problems that are come and solutions. And where government, is necessary to have government Act but but it's not it's. The government with the big stick and they'll come along and do the hitting and meanwhile. The. Wrong so they the unfortunate. Practices, continue. To grow and grow and people develop a distrust. Of the ability, of the of the, the people managing those enterprises to come up with the rules of the road you. Know every, every, period, in history has these big disruptions, and it takes takes. Thoughtfulness, to learn how to rejigger. And the changes are enormous but, you think of the printing press in Western Europe that was resisted, for the longest, time because. The Catholic Church controlled. Religion. And the most important, thing in the Middle Ages to anyone, in Western Europe was the relationship, with God but that was managed, by a bureaucracy. With. A priest Bishop. Cardinal and polt and in a language that people didn't understand and, you certainly, wouldn't want to have, them understand. What. The what the Bible said or why you have the, sacrament of Holy Communion you do it a Latin it's all and and. Mystery, and what, what. Happened. With the invention of the printing press it wasn't invented in Western Europe it was actually invented in South Korea about thousand. Years before but it didn't, didn't. Develop there was, people began to read that truth for their own for themselves. And they disintermediated. So they didn't need a priest and a bishop a cardinal and they just make magnificent, cathedrals, and what happened from that of course was.

Not Only did people learn about the religion, they felt important, but, they then realized, how important education was. And that, was the breakdown of serfdom the, rise of the cities in Europe the Industrial Revolution the. Democratic, institutions of parliament so on and Europe. Left the head of, Islam. India, and China which was more advanced civilizations. Until about 1600. 1700 so. Long, story short to say yeah I think we will need some rules the road and you are the people who are best designed to do just, a few months ago I was speaking here on tech for good at the tech, conference and, we'll have a repeat. Of that in a year when it's the next conference day me in. June good, so that that tech for good speech was just about what, we're talking about now. You. You.

2019-02-06 16:36

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