David Zussman is the author of Off and Running. Off and Running sets the stage for successful transitions by describing the best practices from Canadian federal government transitions from 1984 to the present day. Zussman goes step-by-step through the transition process from the pre-election stage to transition planning all the way to implementation and consolidation of the new government.
How did you become involved in your area of research?
I had been a federal public servant in the 1970’s and took a leave of absence to become a policy advisor to Jean Chrétien in the early 1980’s before returning to academia at the University of Ottawa in 1984. When he became leader of the Liberal Party in 1990, he asked me to lead the transition team for his government before the 1993 federal election.
So my research interest in government transitions is a result of having lived the experience of working for the leader of a political party during the period leading up to and including the 1993 election and again repeating the same exercise in 1997. I have also advised a number of provincial and foreign governments on transition planning.
What inspired you to write this book?
Having thought a lot about transitions and their centrality to good government, I was surprised to learn that there was very little written by academics and by practitioners about the topic. I decided to write a book about transitions when it became apparent that I would be able to gather information and materials about a number of recent Canadian federal transitions. Multiple sources of information allowed for some comparative analysis and a discussion about styles of governing.
How did you become interested in the subject?
I became interested in the topic through my earlier academic work on public management, my experience working in a federal Minister’s office and having personally managed a transition exercise.
How long did it take you to write your latest book?
It took longer than I expected. Originally, I thought that I could rely on published material for my background research but, it very soon became obvious that there was a scarcity of information available in Canada about transitions planning. As a result, I ended up doing more than 40 interviews with public servants and political staff which took considerable time to conduct, transcribe, and analyze.
It took two years from developing the work plan to submitting the final draft to the University of Toronto Press.
What do you find most interesting about your area of research?
The most interesting part of the work was the interview process. Every person that I approached agreed to an interview and everyone had fascinating stories to tell about their experiences during a government transition. It is unfortunate, that I only used a small fraction of the information that I collected.
What do you wish other people knew about your area of research?
I hope that this book might inspire some people to look at transition planning as a core function of good government and as a result to establish transition planning as an interesting area of academic research.
What’s the most surprising thing you discovered during the course of your research?
One unexpected discovery as a result of having interviewed a number of people who attended the same meetings is that participants recall events and interpret outcomes very differently depending on their own circumstances such as their expectations and knowledge about issues.
Do you have to travel much concerning the research/writing of your book?
Fortunately, I was able to access materials in the Government of Canada Archives and most of the people who had been involved in transition planning at the federal level from the public service and political side still lived in Ottawa.
What was the hardest part of writing your book?
The most difficult part of writing the book was deciding what to exclude from the manuscript. It is a great challenge trying to estimate how knowledgeable and interested a potential reader is in your subject and, as a result, there is a tendency to write everything that you know about a topic to ensure full coverage of the issue. Fortunately, those who read earlier drafts cut out a lot of material that was already available from other sources. Hopefully, this kept the book to a reasonable length and focused on the issue of transition planning.
Did you learn anything from writing your book and what was it?
I learned that for a small number of public servants and political staff, a transition is a major responsibility regardless of who the leader is. It also became apparent that transitions that were well planned launched governments on a trajectory that made it easier for them to implement their priorities. For those who did not take transition planning seriously, they would struggle to succeed as a government.
What are your current/future projects?
Currently, I am working on a new project that derives from the transition book. As I was writing Off and Running I became more acutely aware of the importance of the cognitive style of prime ministers in determining the way in which they organize their offices, hire their staff and generally manage the day to day activities involved in governing the country. As a result, I have started working on a new book that is tentatively entitled, The Management Styles of Prime Ministers, which will explore the importance of personality, cognition, and experience in determining the way in which prime ministers have governed Canada since Pearson in the early 1960’s.
What do you like to read for pleasure? What are you currently reading?
I like to read historical novels.
