• Initiative to Forestall and Address Mad Cow (BSE) and
Creutzfeldt-Jakob (vCJD) Fatal Diseases
Major public-health issues left a dire footprint of destruction in several countries. Alain blamed himself for not teaming up
with substantive-expertise professionals before crafting
a prior proposal to the prime minister for an emergency measures' organization.
While in Northern France, he learned from esteemed friends who were concerned about
the immeasurable intertwined death toll, human pain and substantial financial losses, suffered in the eighties and nineties,
by their British friends, resulting from highly infectious and fatal prion diseases, namely Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy (BSE)
and the human counterpart Variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease (vCJD). Upon returning to Canada, it was natural for Alain
to call on
Dr. Brian Morrissey
who retired from the public service,
to prepare Canada, among other countries, with a strategy to prevent or, at least mitigate, the adverse consequences
of these prion diseases.
Dr. Morrissey shared Alain's preoccupation,
and immediately conducted research and drew governance lessons from the British exposure to BSE and vCJD.
For this purpose, Dr. Morrissey applied, among others, Alain's HUGS framework about issue incubation and evolution
pathways, stakeholders'
dynamics and change-agents' psychographic tools. He created a case study,
titled "Mad-Cow Issue Incubation Lessons",
to illustrate the incubation cycle of policy issues that required major changes in government machinery in the United Kingdom.
A summary of this case study is featured in the book
Harnessing the Power of Intelligence,
Counterintelligence & Surprise Events (Appendix of Chapter 7).
Dr. Morrissey and Alain Martin subsequently teamed up with the scientists and executives of Health Protection Branch at Health Canada to
review the work-in-progress and draft the plan to identify and address the dual BSE-vCJD potential threats and real harm,
nine months before the pathogen hit our shores. It was recognized during the discussion that immediate attention
should be focused on the stakeholders' dynamics, by identifying and preparing the change agents, both at the substantive and
community levels,
where resistance could be a challenge, across the country.
• Lifting Embargoes on Canadian Meat Imposed by Large Asian Trading Partners
Following the discovery of a single mad-cow disease (BSE) case in Canada and the embargoes
of Canadian meat imposed by China, Japan, South Korea, The Philippines and Taiwan
Alain took another initiative to study the deadlock with esteemed Asian scholars
in public governance, who confirmed that although their countries welcome executives and elected
officials representing their trade partners, they feel more comfortable, to explore and negotiate
science-based and policy options, with teams comprising, at the very least, one foreign counterpart
who possesses advanced education in veterinary medicine and epizootics.
Although Alain favoured Drs. Morrissey's
and Willis' candidacies, he preferred to provide the prime minister with more choices,
given the scarcity and uncertain availability of most
outstanding scientific leaders. Thus, he advised P.M. Jean Chrétien to appoint one
of the following scientists with cutting-edge expertise and charismatic power in epizootics, among Asian veterinary generals
at the World Organization for Animal Health
(WOAH in Paris), at the time known as the "Office international des Épizooties" OIT):
Gordon Dittberner, Brian Morrissey, John McGowan or Norman Willis.
Dr. Willis was selected. He is a veterinary surgeon with a PhD in virology and a world authority
on epizootics and accidental release and deliberate use
of biological agents affecting food and agriculture.
He designed, built and ran the groundbreaking Level IV biocontainment laboratory in Winnipeg. He designed
the latest curriculum for veterinary-medicine's education in the U.S. Dr. Willis is also respected worldwide,
as a former director general, now lifetime president emeritus,
of the World Organization for Animal Health (woah) in Paris. Armed with evidence-based BSE/vCJD expertise
and principled-negotiation diplomacy, Dr. Willis played an instrumental role in lifting the bans
and restoring the flow of Canadian beef exports, as indicted in the post-scriptum appended to
Alain Paul Martin's memorandum to P.M. Chrétien.
• Non-partisan Pro-Bono Executive Member of the Prime Minister's Committee
on Government Reform
Alain also served as an
executive member of the Prime Minister′s Committee on the Federal-Government Reform. In this pro-bono function,
he built on skills acquiered at Harvard Business School, Harvard Law School and MIT and his experience
as a governance advisor in large-scale government and corporate change.
He also put to practice his experience as a scholar studying organizations facing serious crises, beginning with IBM,
which provided insights for his contribution to this Committee (and much later, Apple, GE and Nortel). Each firm had teams
of brilliant scientists and engineers for decades, the quintessence of the impossible, on innovation;
yet they all sorely lacked the strategic-change maestros (defined as conductors in
Martin's book, Chapter 9, The Change-Makers, their Power, Status and Role) to orchestrate such complex change; namely
craft the corridor of navigation
for high-knowledge workers and spark the "quiet revolution" to excel, in leadership throughout
in the value chain, including logistics, production, marketing, sales and client retention.
• Research on the Kernel of Value of Nation Building;
The Dialogue Primer and the Deep-Dive Seminar:
"Building Together a Caring and Principled Great Nation"
Prime Minister Jean Chrétien and Alain Paul Martin
Photo Jean-Marc Carisse, © 1998. All rights reserved.
www.carissephoto.com
While at Harvard, then in Canada and other countries,
Alain researched the kernel of value of nation building; created a 60-minute dialogue primer and a deep-dive seminar (duration one to three days)
titled "Building Together a Caring and Principled Great Nation". Both sessions are founded on a co-elevation
culture of purpose, empathy without judgment,
caring, solidarity, learning, positive sum game,
synergy, collaborative innovation and principled habits, including humility, worth adopting, for all, not the least scientists,
educators, influencers and leaders, across sectors. The focus is on education, responsible free will, rather indoctrination.
The deployment of "legitimate power" is not precluded; but orchestrated, with due regard to its adverse consequences
on all parties, including the voiceless. Typically, a hybrid course of options is explored, starting from catlytic-charismatic power,
then collaborative-synergistic (including Joseph Nye's soft power). Two measured and responsible contingencies of last resort exist:
limited coercive power, and only
if absolutely necessary, restrained tactical hard power with constant olive-branche pauses, and review of its value on the stakeholders' dynamics
over the best alternative, throughout the intervention.
The first primer presentation was attended by over 300 participants (including the Prime Minister of Canada,
members of the National Liberal Caucus, and their staff from the Senate and the House of Commons).
Clients interested in charting the future on nation building: Please contact
Alain Paul Martin directly on LinkedIn
for the 2025-26 up-to-date
version of the one-hour presentation Dialogue Primer and the Deep-Dive Workshop (up to 3 days in length)
of "Building Together a Caring and Principled Great Nation". A preliminary conversation is essential, since our program is not
applicable to all countries. We can also taylor the program to states, cities, the United-Nations agencies and non-profit organizations.
Acknowledgment: I am grateful to both P. M. Jean Chrétien, whose spontaneous empathy, caring
and altruistic-nurturing passion to help, raised our learning effectiveness;
and Mr. Jean-Marc Carisse, who immortalized, in this photo, the humble
beginnings, of my primer session, delivered to the National Liberal Caucus.
