Dave Byng - MA in Leadership (MAL)

Because I am in position to affect change in my organization, it has benefited greatly from my learning at Royal Roads University.

My Royal Roads experience began with an executive leadership certificate. This course allowed me to reflect and grapple with important leadership concepts. I remember at the end of that course feeling like it had been the most worthwhile time I’d ever spent learning something.

That’s when I decided to look into getting a master’s degree. But I was conflicted about the prospect of leaving my work to do it, so the opportunity to do both through Royal Roads with the full support of my employer was a great privilege and one that I seized upon.

The greatest example of how my learning contributed to changes in my organization was the impact of my major project for my leadership MA (formerly MALT - MA in leadership and training). While doing my course work, I began to realize that organizational leadership plays a major role in organizational culture. That culture impacts on employee satisfaction, which has a direct connection to customer satisfaction. In my case, that also impacts on public confidence in government.

So my project did a thorough customer service assessment of the Ministry of Transportation’s operations, from the employees to the clients.

Not only did my organization provide the resources to complete the original research for my project, the recommendations that came out of it were implemented and have since become part of the way we do business. The Ministry of Transportation now undertakes this research on an annual basis and uses it to identify opportunities to improve the service provided to British Columbia highway users.

While completing my degree, I noticed that younger people coming into our organization bring a different set of values than people from an older generation. Prior to undertaking my degree, I would typically look for results by doing things the way they’d always been done. Our organization was structured hierarchically with a command and control philosophy.

Since there are increasing numbers of young people in my department, we have learned about the benefits of flattening that hierarchy and allowing employees to do things in an environment that is comfortable for them. In this way we are giving them the flexibility they need to get the job done.

Instead of telling people what to do, I look for ways to help them to do a better job. The positive effects of this shift are seen in the way we are able to recruit and retain our employees.

Dave Byng is Associate Deputy Minister, BC Public Service Agency. He graduated in 2004 with a Master of Arts in Leadership (formerly MALT - MA in Leadership and Training) and received the Founder’s Award, a peer-nominated award for a learner who best exemplifies leadership, sustainability and personal development. The project he led for his RRU MA was nominated for a Premier’s Award in the fall of 2004.

In 2004 Byng was made a fellow of the Royal Geographical Society in London and in 2007 he was elected as a Fellow with the Explorers Club in New York City. Since completing his MA, he and his family have volunteered to go to the Amazon Basin where they installed water filtration systems in remote communities. Since 2006 they have led scientific conservation expeditions in Cusuco National Park, located in the mountainous cloud forest of Honduras and in the desert of the Sinai Peninsula in Egypt. They hope to lead another expedition in 2008 and will be focussed on the participation of Canadian youth in exploration.