Office of the President

Office of the President 3-1 University Hall www.ualberta.ca Tel: 780.492.3212 Edmonton, Alberta, Canada T6G 2J9 [email protected] Fax: 780.492.9265 Foreign Affairs and International Trade Canada Leadership Conference—Shaping the DFAIT of Tomorrow Keynote Address Transformational Leadership for a Century of Transformation November 28, 2008 Westin Ottawa Hotel Ottawa, ON I.V. Samarasekera, OC President and Vice-Chancellor It’s a great pleasure to be here today. Before I begin, I would like to thank Deputy Minister Len Edwards for the invitation to this conference and for giving me the opportunity to address the topic: Transformational Leadership for a Century of Transformation. I consider it a great honour and a great opportunity for us to think together about leadership; about Canadian leadership and the role it has played both at home and around the world; and about transformational leadership that is called for in so many organizations like yours and mine in response to the new global order. What is transformational leadership? How do we cultivate it in ourselves and in others? How do we bring about transformation in our organizations through such leadership? Leadership is a fascinating field of study—much has been written about it. But, we can also draw inspiration and instructive lessons from our own leaders, locally and nationally, At the University of Alberta, we take inspiration from Henry Marshall Tory, our founder and president for the first twenty years of our history. He, single-handedly, built the foundation of our university. He drove the first shovel into the muddy south bank of the North Saskatchewan River in Edmonton, launching the creation of the 37,000-student campus with 14,000 employees that is striving and thriving there today. Page 2 Henry Marshall Tory was not just an Albertan leader, but a national leader in post- secondary education. He was the founding father of UBC which shares a centenary with us; He became President of the National Research Council from the early 1920s until his retirement in 1935; And he came out of retirement in 1940s to establish Carleton University. Throughout his long career, he worked tirelessly, in both western and eastern Canada, to ensure the development of a national public post-secondary education system that would be for the “uplifting of the whole people.” Yes, Henry Marshall Tory was a leader. He displayed all the hall-marks of transformational leadership—leadership that has had remarkable staying power over the course of the last century. My challenge, when I arrived at the University of Alberta in 2005, was to build on Tory’s original vision of a great university, and to advance the efforts of all ten presidents who followed him. What kind of situation did I find in 2005 when I became president? There were some definite hurdles. The institution had not received any increases in operating funding since the painful budget cuts of the mid-1990s. Re-organization— mergers of departments and faculties; Retrenchment—reduction in faculty and staff positions; Repairs—in the form of deferred maintenance—had all contributed to low morale. I was warned not to raise expectations too much. The faculty and staff were weary of being asked repeatedly to “rethink priorities” and “restructure units” in order to do more with less. Sound familiar? Despite the prevailing mood on campus, I also found a number of positives. My predecessor, Rod Fraser, had laid a strong foundation on which I could build. Nearly 70% of our faculty had been replaced due to early retirement with very promising young faculty. Our students are the best in the country and the world, drawn from Alberta’s top public school system. We have outstanding long-serving staff and, above all, a very collegial culture. These are tremendous assets. Nevertheless the University of Alberta, located in Edmonton, had much work to do to position itself as a leading national university with a strong international presence. So, our task was to create an inspiring shared vision that resonated with internal and external audiences, and to take actions that attracted resources and people, raised morale and ambition, and elevated our national and international reputation. A tall order. Page 3 In response we launched Dare to Discover—A Vision for a Great University, outlining a remarkable trajectory for our future. To put it into action has demanded leadership at every level in the institution, buy-in from government and business, support from alumni and community, and above all, a commitment to measuring and demonstrating progress. Our long-term goal to become one of the “Top 20 public universities in the world by 2020” has galvanized the internal and external community, required disciplined investments, and necessitated clear measures of inputs and outcomes. So stay tuned—we are launched on a journey to greatness. Sometimes, though, even the most promising of visions can fizzle when the timing isn’t right. We’ve been extremely fortunate at the University of Alberta: we’ve been able to launch our new vision off the springboard of centenary celebrations and commemorations. The university’s 100th anniversary has provided a truly meaningful context in which to reflect upon where we’ve been and where we’d like to go. Suddenly, the request to rethink priorities no longer seems like just another request—instead, it has carried with it historical significance and an energetic desire to set the tone of the next century, not just the next five years. DFAIT’s Transformation Agenda comes at a similar moment in your history and if I can leave you with only one piece of advice today, I’d urge you to take advantage of this piece of good timing. Reflect upon and celebrate with other Canadians your stories of achievement and vision, and in those reflections and celebrations find the inspiration for transformation— transformation for the next century, not just the next few years of government. One of the surprises of our centenary year has been that a specially organized speaker series has deepened, profoundly, our reflection—one might even call it meditation—on the lessons of leadership. When we began planning for the centenary, in the spirit of our new daring vision, we said “what if we were to invite all of Canada’s living former Prime Ministers to our campus to celebrate our centenary?” Our motive was influenced by some of our academics in history, political science, and law who feel that, as a nation, Canada does not honour its past Prime Ministers enough, in contrast to other nations, especially you-know-who to the south. At first glance, it seemed impossible. The logistics. The time constraints. The cost. There were nay- sayers. Some timid. Some skeptical. Some politically concerned. So we did the Alberta thing and said: why not? Page 4 And lo and behold it came to be, with a little help from our friends who have worked with the current and six living past Prime Ministers—friends like Don Mazankowski, Anne McLellan, and Jim Edwards. As we arranged this series, we attracted a wonderful partner in CBC. Through their assistance it became affordable. And we recast it from a lecture to a conversation series entitled “Advancing Canada—Changing the World.” We wanted—and we wanted our students—to get to know the people behind the public faces, the personalities behind the historical roles. Thus far, we have hosted five of the six former prime ministers—the exception is Brian Mulroney—and they have all been surprisingly candid with audiences—giving us insightful first-hand lessons in leadership in a changing world. From their stories and the stories of Canadian leaders who are no longer alive, I am convinced that leadership is defined by five types of actions: Actions born of vision that transforms a nation or an organization; Actions that build consensus; Actions of judgment and principle, Actions of courage and audacity, Actions of oratory and communication. We have all heard the verse from the Book of Proverbs—“Where there is no Vision, People Perish.” Millennia later, vision, a clear vision, a resonant vision, an inspiring vision is a driving force for transformation. Think back to Trudeau’s “Just Society” Campaign of 1968—a vision that has since defined Canada. Even though the path that ended with the entrenchment of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms—the centerpiece of Trudeau’s vision of a just society—was long and tortuous, and even though it was not until 1982 that the Charter passed in the House of Commons, Trudeau’s vision of a “Just Society” tapped into the aspirations of Canadians for a new kind of Canada. In many ways, Trudeau built his vision of a “Just Society” on the foundations laid by his leader, Lester Pearson. Pearson brought in universal Medicare; established the Canada Pension Plan; introduced a national labour code, with a minimum wage; and last but not least, convinced the nation to adopt the Maple Leaf flag over tremendous and bitter opposition. Pearson accomplished all of this—and much, much more—with a vision for Canada and a sense of purpose that overcame the difficulties of leading two consecutive minority governments. Page 5 Sometimes a vision is born not only to respond to the needs of our time or of the future, but also to redress the past. Brian Mulroney envisioned reaching a final constitutional settlement to include Quebec—a goal that proved to be unachievable. Although there was significant consensus in support of his vision of Canada—a vision that included recognition of Quebec’s unique identity and aspirations—the journey to Meech Lake proved too difficult.

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