Category Archives: Business Insights & Lessons Learned

A Year in the Wilds of The Rowanwood Chronicles

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A reflective essay by the fellow who somehow decided that blogging about politics, climate, gender, and quantum mechanics was a relaxing hobby

I did not set out to become a blogger. No one does. Blogging is something that happens to you when you’ve said “someone should really write about this” one too many times and then realize the someone is you. That was my first year of The Rowanwood Chronicles. A steady accumulation of small irritations, large curiosities, and the occasional planetary existential dread finally pressuring me into a keyboard.

Over the past twelve months I have written about food systems, seismic faults, mononormativity, AI governance, and the demise of centralized social media platforms. This is, I admit, not a tidy list. Most writers pick a lane. I picked several highways, a few dirt roads, and one unmarked trail that led straight into a thicket of gender theory. Some readers have thanked me. Others have quietly backed away like I had started talking about cryptocurrency at a family barbecue. Fair enough.

The funny thing about running a blog with the byline “Conversations That Might Just Matter” is that you end up feeling mildly responsible for the state of the world. Somewhere in the back of my mind I became convinced that if I took one week off, climate policy would collapse, privacy laws would be gutted by corporate lawyers, and Canada would discover a massive geological fault running directly under my house. It is exhausting being the only person preventing civilization from tipping off its axis, but I have bravely carried on.

Along the way, I learned a few things.

First, people really do want long-form writing. They want context. They want to know why their health system is groaning like a Victorian heroine on a staircase. They want someone to explain decentralized social media without sounding like a blockchain evangelist who drinks only powdered mushroom tea. They want nuance rendered in plain language. I can do that. Sometimes even coherently.

Second, writing about politics is like trying to pet a squirrel. You can do it, but you have to keep your hands calm, your movements measured, and be prepared for the possibility that something small and unpredictable will bite you. Every time I published a political piece, I felt like I was tiptoeing across a frozen lake holding a hot cup of tea. Most of the time it held. Some days it cracked.

Third, the world is endlessly, maddeningly fascinating. One moment I was researching drought-related crop instability in the Global South. The next, I was reading government reports about flood plain management. Then I found myself knee-deep in a rabbit hole about the Tintina Fault, which sits there in the Yukon like an unbothered geological time bomb politely waiting its turn. Writing the blog became my excuse to satisfy every curiosity I have ever had. It turns out I have many.

What surprised me most was what readers responded to. Not the posts where I worked terribly hard to sound authoritative. Not the deeply researched pieces where I combed through reports like a librarian possessed. No. What people loved most were the pieces where I sounded like myself. Slightly bemused. Occasionally outraged. Often caffeinated. Always trying to understand the world without pretending to have mastered it.

That was the gift of the year. The realization that a blog does not need to be grand to be meaningful. It simply needs to be honest. Steady. And maybe a little mischievous.

I will admit that I sometimes wondered whether writing about governance, equity, and science from my small corner of Canada made any difference at all. But each time someone wrote to say a post clarified something for them, or started a discussion in their household, or helped them feel less alone in their confusion about the world, I remembered why I started.

I began The Rowanwood Chronicles because I wanted to understand things. I kept writing because I realized other people wanted to understand them too.

So here I am, a year older, slightly better informed, and armed with a list of future topics that spans everything from biodiversity corridors to the psychology of certainty. The world is complicated. My curiosity is incurable. And The Rowanwood Chronicles is still the place where I try to make sense of it all.

If nothing else, this year taught me that even in a noisy world full of predictions and outrage, there is room for thoughtful conversation. There is room for humour. There is room for stubborn optimism. And there is definitely room for one more cup of tea before I press publish.

Montreal on Tap: How a Legendary Brewery School Will Shape Canada’s Craft Scene

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Since its founding in 1872 in Chicago, the Siebel Institute has stood as a cornerstone of brewing education in North America. Its decision to relocate classroom operations to Montréal beginning January 2026 marks more than the closing of a historic chapter in U.S. brewing history. It signals a shift in where brewing knowledge, innovation, and the future of craft beer will be cultivated.  

At its new address on rue Sainte‑Catherine East, the school will be colocated with a baking and fermentation training facility run by its parent company. The move was explicitly justified by difficulties created by recent U.S. regulatory changes, especially obstacles for international students who, by the Institute’s own account, make up the majority of its student body.  

That this shift is happening now is significant. The Canadian craft beer scene is not fringe or marginal. On the contrary, the market has been growing steadily: in 2024 the Canadian craft beer industry produced about 1.8 million hectolitres, and industry analysts expect output to rise to 2.3 million hectolitres by 2033.  

The arrival of Siebel amplifies several emergent dynamics. First, it will bring a high level of technical brewing education, historically concentrated in the United States, into Canada. For Canadian, Québécois, and even international students, now studying in Montréal rather than Chicago, the barrier to access is lowered. Brewing will become more than an artisanal trade learned on the job; it becomes a discipline taught with academic rigour and breadth.

It reinforces Canada’s growing identity as a brewing hub. Québec already has a deep craft beer tradition, including well‑established brewpubs and microbreweries that trace local heritage while experimenting with modern styles. The consolidation of advanced brewing education in Montréal will likely accelerate innovation, experimentation, and quality, raising the bar for the entire Quebecois brewing community and influencing national trends. Indeed a Montreal brewer described Siebel as “one of the few schools in North America that offers classes on brewing.”  

The timing connects to broader consumer and economic trends. As Canadians increasingly favour locally brewed, artisanal beers; with taste, provenance, and authenticity valued the craft beer segment is poised for expansion.   By anchoring educational infrastructure in Canada, brewing knowledge and technical capacity become part of that expansion rather than imported after the fact.

The relocation underscores a cultural shift: brewing is no longer just a subculture of beer enthusiasts and hobbyists. It is becoming a discipline, a profession, and a pillar of local economies and regional identities. Labour, supply‑chain, agriculture, tourism, and community culture all circle back to the brewery. In that sense, Siebel’s move to Montréal should not be read as the quiet shuttering of a school, but as the planting of a seed: a seed for a more mature, more technically grounded, more globally competitive Canadian brewing industry.

The significance lies not merely in changing postal codes. It lies in the fact that a venerable American institution, one whose graduates helped shape generations of breweries, has chosen to anchor its future within Canada. That choice reflects where the industry sees opportunity, where students now find access, and where brewing’s next generation of artisans and innovators are likely to train.

Results Over Bureaucracy: Transforming Federal Management and Workforce Planning

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Canada’s federal government employs hundreds of thousands of people, yet far too often, success is measured by inputs rather than results. Hours worked, meetings attended, or forms completed dominate performance metrics, while citizens experience delays, inconsistent service, and bureaucratic frustration. Prime Minister Mark Carney has an opportunity to change this by embracing outcomes-based management and coupling it with a planned reduction of the federal workforce—a strategy that improves efficiency without undermining service delivery.

The case for outcomes-based management
Currently, federal management emphasizes process compliance over actual impact. Staff are assessed on whether they followed procedures, logged sufficient hours, or completed internal forms. While accountability is important, focusing on inputs rather than outputs fosters risk aversion, discourages initiative, and prioritizes process over public value.

Outcomes-based management flips this paradigm. Departments and employees are held accountable for tangible results: timeliness, accuracy, citizen satisfaction, and measurable program goals. Performance evaluation becomes tied to impact rather than paperwork. Managers are empowered to allocate resources strategically, encourage innovation, and remove obstacles that slow delivery. Employees gain clarity on expectations, flexibility in execution, and motivation to improve services.

This approach is widely recognized internationally as best practice in public administration. Governments that adopt outcomes-focused management report faster service delivery, higher citizen satisfaction, and better use of limited resources. It is a tool for effectiveness as much as efficiency.

Planned workforce reduction: 5% annually
Outcomes-based management alone does not shrink government, but it creates the environment to do so responsibly. With clearer accountability for results, the government can reduce headcount without impairing services. A planned 5% annual reduction over five years, achieved through retirements, attrition, and more selective hiring, offers a predictable, sustainable path to a smaller, more focused public service.

No mass layoffs are necessary. Instead, positions are left unfilled where feasible, and recruitment is limited to essential roles. Over five years, the workforce contracts by approximately 23%, freeing funds for high-priority programs while maintaining core services. At the end of the cycle, a full review assesses outcomes: delivery quality, service metrics, and costs. Adjustments can be made if reductions have inadvertently affected citizens’ experience.

Synergy with the other reforms
This plan works hand-in-hand with the other two reforms proposed: eliminating internal cost recovery and adopting a single pay scale with one bargaining agent. With fewer staff and a streamlined compensation system, management gains greater clarity and control. Removing internal billing and administrative overhead frees staff to focus on outcomes, while a unified pay scale ensures fair and consistent compensation as the workforce shrinks. Together, these reforms create a coherent, accountable, and modern public service.

Benefits for Canadians
Outcomes-based management and planned workforce reduction offer multiple benefits:
1. Efficiency gains: Staff focus on work that delivers measurable results rather than administrative juggling.
2. Cost savings: Attrition-based reductions lower salary and benefits expenditures without disruptive layoffs.
3. Transparency: Clear metrics demonstrate value to taxpayers, building public trust.
4. Resilience and innovation: Departments adapt faster, encouraging problem-solving and continuous improvement.

Political and administrative feasibility
Canada has successfully experimented with elements of outcomes-based management in programs such as the Treasury Board’s Results-Based Management Framework and departmental performance agreements. These initiatives demonstrate that the federal bureaucracy can shift focus from inputs to results if given clear mandates and strong leadership. Coupled with a predictable downsizing plan, the government can modernize staffing while maintaining accountability and service quality.

A smarter, results-driven public service
Prime Minister Carney has the opportunity to reshape Ottawa’s culture. Moving from input-focused bureaucracy to outcomes-based management, and pairing it with a responsible workforce reduction, creates a public service that delivers more for less. Citizens experience faster, more reliable services; employees understand expectations and have clarity in their roles; and the government maximizes value from every dollar spent.

Together with eliminating internal cost recovery and adopting a single pay scale, this reform completes a trio of policies that make the federal government smaller, smarter, and more accountable. Canadians deserve a public service focused not on paperwork, but on results that matter. This is the path to a modern, efficient, and effective Ottawa.

One Scale, One Union: Simplifying Federal Compensation for a Modern Public Service

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Canada’s federal workforce is a patchwork of pay scales, bargaining units, and special arrangements that often pay employees differently for similar work. This complexity creates inefficiency, confuses managers, and undermines transparency. For decades, the federal government has wrestled with these issues, attempting harmonization through studies and pilot projects, but meaningful reform has never been fully implemented.

Prime Minister Mark Carney has the opportunity to finally address this problem by creating a single pay scale for all new hires and promotions, with a central bargaining agent to represent them. Starting April 1, 2027, this reform would apply to every new employee and to anyone promoted after that date. Over time, as legacy employees retire, the workforce would converge under a single, transparent framework, vastly simplifying management and reducing administrative costs.

The current problem
Federal employees are currently represented by multiple unions, covered under different collective agreements, and paid according to a variety of classification systems. Two employees performing essentially the same job in different departments may have different pay scales, benefits, and promotion paths. This complexity creates friction: managers spend more time navigating pay rules than supervising staff, bargaining is prolonged and repetitive, and HR systems are costly to maintain.

Promotions often compound the problem. Without a unified framework, employees may move between roles under different rules or remain in outdated pay bands indefinitely. This creates inequities and prevents the workforce from operating as a coherent system.

A proven foundation exists
Importantly, Canada has not been starting from scratch. During the 1990s, the federal government explored harmonizing job classifications and pay structures under the Universal Classification Standard (UCS) project. The Treasury Board and Public Service Commission produced extensive documentation, job definitions, and classification guidelines. Additional studies, such as the PS2000 project, analyzed potential efficiencies and pathways for standardization. Much of this work remains relevant today.

By leveraging existing frameworks, the government can implement a single pay scale and central bargaining agent far more quickly than starting from scratch. The definitions, classification structures, and analyses already exist, they need modernization, updating for today’s workforce, and political will to implement.

The proposal: one pay scale, one bargaining agent
The plan is straightforward. Starting April 1, 2027:
1. All new hires enter the federal public service under a single UCS-style pay scale, with clear levels tied to responsibility, experience, and job complexity.
2. Any promotions after this date automatically shift employees to the UCS-style scale and the central bargaining agent, ensuring convergence over time.
3. A single central bargaining agent represents all employees on the UVS scale, whether it is a restructured existing union or a newly created organization.

This approach eliminates the patchwork of bargaining units, reduces negotiation complexity, and ensures equitable pay and promotion practices. Employees understand where they fit in the system, managers can deploy staff more effectively, and the public service as a whole becomes easier to administer.

Benefits for government and taxpayers
A single pay scale reduces administrative overhead, simplifies HR planning, and facilitates mobility between departments. One bargaining agent prevents overlapping negotiations, saving months of time and tens of millions in potential costs. By tying promotions to the UCS system, inequities between legacy and new employees shrink naturally over time.

For taxpayers, the benefits are equally clear. Streamlined payroll systems, reduced HR costs, and more predictable budgeting allow funds to be redirected from administrative complexity into actual service delivery. Employees benefit from transparent, fair, and consistent compensation, while management gains clarity and flexibility.

Building a coherent, modern workforce
Canada’s federal public service is one of the largest in the developed world. To make it efficient, equitable, and responsive, it must operate on clear, uniform principles. A single pay scale and central bargaining agent, applied to new hires and promotions after April 1, 2027, provides exactly that.

This reform is achievable because the groundwork is already laid. The challenge is not designing the system, it is implementing it decisively. By building on past harmonization efforts and committing to a transparent framework, Carney can create a public service that is fairer for employees, easier for managers to oversee, and more accountable to Canadians.

Canada can no longer tolerate a federal workforce fragmented by pay scales, bargaining units, and inconsistent policies. One scale, one union, and a commitment to transparency is the path forward.

Ending Ottawa’s Shadow Economy: Why Internal Cost Recovery Has to Go

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One of the least visible, but most wasteful features of the federal government is something few Canadians ever hear about: internal cost recovery. It sounds harmless, even sensible. In practice, it is a bureaucratic shadow economy; departments billing each other for services, shuffling money back and forth across the federal ledger, and employing armies of staff to process transactions that produce no benefit for the public.

Prime Minister Mark Carney has spoken about making government smaller, smarter, and more accountable. Ending internal cost recovery would be one of the most powerful first steps in that direction.

What is internal cost recovery?
In theory, cost recovery ensures that when one department provides a service to another, the costs are borne by the recipient. For example, the Department of Justice bills departments for legal services. Shared Services Canada invoices other agencies for IT support. Administrative services, from payroll to translation to communications, are often cross-billed.

The intent was to make departments more aware of their costs, encouraging efficiency. In reality, it has created a closed-loop billing system that ties up thousands of public servants in paperwork and accounting exercises that add no value to taxpayers. Money flows from one government pocket to another, with staff tracking, reconciling, and auditing every movement.

Why it fails
The problem is that federal departments do not operate like businesses. There is no competition to drive down prices, no customer base to discipline quality, and no profit incentive to innovate. Cost recovery becomes an elaborate exercise in bookkeeping without the benefits of market discipline. Worse, it creates incentives for departments to prioritize revenue generation over service.

Take Justice Canada. Its “clients” are other departments. The more billable hours it can record, the more revenue it pulls in. Yet this revenue is not real, it is funded by taxpayers in the first place, laundered through another department’s budget. The system distorts priorities and consumes time that should be spent on delivering legal clarity, not chasing internal invoices.

Shared Services Canada provides another case. It was created to streamline IT across government, but its billing model has forced agencies into a vendor-client relationship with an entity that cannot be avoided. Agencies complain, invoices circulate, disputes arise, and the system groans under its own artificial complexity.

The hidden cost of staff time
Every invoice issued, processed, and reconciled requires public servants to handle it. Treasury Board has to monitor flows, departmental finance units have to manage transfers, and auditors have to verify them. Entire teams are employed in these transactions. None of this work would be necessary if departments were simply budgeted to deliver their services directly, as they should be.

Ending internal cost recovery could free thousands of hours of staff time each year. That time could be redirected to real work: drafting better policies, improving service delivery, or responding more quickly to citizens. In a public service already stretched for talent, reducing waste should be a top priority.

What should replace it?
The solution is straightforward. Departments should receive direct appropriations for the services they provide, based on realistic needs and demand forecasts. Justice should be funded to provide legal advice across government. Shared Services should be funded to deliver IT. Translation services should be budgeted to serve the entire public service.

Instead of charging their “clients,” these organizations should be judged on outcomes: timeliness, quality, and responsiveness. Treasury Board can hold them accountable through performance reviews, not through a maze of invoices.

The political case for reform
Ending cost recovery would not only save money; it would simplify government in a way Canadians could understand. Imagine explaining to the public that their tax dollars currently pay for one department to send an invoice to another, then pay again for that invoice to be processed, then pay once more for it to be reconciled, all for money that never leaves the federal accounts. Most Canadians would rightly ask: why not just stop?

This is low-hanging fruit in government reform. It does not involve painful layoffs or dramatic structural upheavals. It simply requires the courage to admit a failed system and replace it with something simpler and better.

A smarter Ottawa
Ending internal cost recovery will not solve every problem in Ottawa. But it is a symbol of the kind of reform Canadians expect: eliminating waste, cutting bureaucracy, and focusing staff time on serving the public. It sends a signal that government exists to deliver value to citizens, not to maintain pointless internal economies.

Prime Minister Carney has spoken about building a leaner and more effective government. Ending cost recovery is the perfect starting point. It demonstrates seriousness about reform, frees capacity across departments, and sets the tone for larger changes to follow.

Canadians are ready for a government that respects their time and their money. The shadow economy of cost recovery has run its course. It is time to end it.

Sharing as the Core of Influence in Knowledge-Driven Organizations

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In contemporary organizational theory, the capacity to share knowledge efficiently is increasingly recognized not merely as a good practice, but as one of the central levers of influence, innovation, and competitive advantage. Influence in the workplace is no longer determined solely by formal authority or proximity to decision-makers; it hinges instead on who opens up their ideas, disseminates outcomes, and builds collective awareness. Knowledge sharing, properly conceived, is a social process that undergirds learning, creativity, and organizational agility.

Why Sharing Still Matters
Even with advances in digital collaboration tools, hybrid work environments, and more explicit knowledge management policies, many organizations continue to wrestle with information silos, “knowledge hoarding,” and weak visibility of what colleagues are doing. These behaviors impose hidden costs: duplication of work, failure to capitalize on existing insights, slow adoption of innovations, and organizational inertia.

Empirical studies confirm that when organizational climate is supportive, when centralization and formalization are lower, knowledge sharing behavior (KSB) tends to increase. For example, a recent study of IT firms in Vietnam (n = 529) found that a positive organizational climate had a direct positive effect on KSB, while high degrees of centralization and formalization decreased knowledge‐sharing intentions.  

Moreover, knowledge sharing is strongly associated with improved performance outcomes. In technological companies in China, for instance, research shows that AI-augmented knowledge sharing, along with organizational learning and dynamic capabilities, positively affect job performance.  

Theoretical Foundations & Diffusion of Influence
A number of established frameworks help us understand both how knowledge spreads and why sharing can shift influence within organizations.
• Diffusion of Innovations (Everett Rogers et al.): This theory explains how new ideas are adopted across a social system over time via innovators, early adopters, early majority etc. Key variables include communication channels, time, social systems, and the characteristics of the innovation itself.
• Threshold Models & Critical Mass: Recent experiments suggest that when a certain proportion of individuals (often around 20-30%) behave in a particular way (e.g. adopting or sharing an innovation), that can tip the whole system into broader adoption. For example, one study found that social diffusion leading to change in norms becomes much more probable once a committed minority exceeds roughly 25% of the population.
• Organizational Climate & Intention/Behavior Models: Behavior intentions (e.g. willingness to share) are shaped by trust, perceived support, alignment of individual and organizational values, and perceived risk/benefit. These mediate whether knowledge is actually shared or hidden.  

Barriers & Enablers
Understanding why people don’t share is as important as understanding why they do.

Barriers include:
• Structural impediments like overly centralized decision frameworks, rigid hierarchy, heavy formalization. These reduce the avenues for informal sharing and flatten the perceived payoff for going outside established channels.
• Cognitive or psychological obstacles, such as fear of criticism, loss of advantage (“knowledge as power”), lack of trust, or simply not knowing who might benefit from what one knows.
• Technological and process deficiencies: poor documentation practices, weak knowledge management systems, lack of standard archiving, difficult to locate material, etc. These make sharing costly in terms of effort, risk of misunderstanding, or duplication.  

Enablers include:
• Cultivating a learning culture: where mistakes are not punished, where experimentation is supported, and where informal learning is valued. Studies in team climate show that the presence of an “organizational learning culture” correlates strongly with innovative work behavior.
• Leadership that is supportive of sharing: transformational, inclusive leadership, openness to new ideas even when they challenge orthodoxy. Leaders who make visible their support for sharing set norms.
• Recognition, incentive alignment, and reward systems that explicitly value sharing. When sharing contributes to promotions, performance evaluations, or peer recognition, people are more likely to invest effort in it.  

Influence through Sharing: A Refined Model
Putting this together, here is a refined model of how sharing translates into influence:
1. Visibility: Sharing makes one’s work visible across formal and informal networks. Visibility breeds recognition.
2. Peer Adoption & Critical Mass: Innovation often needs a threshold of peer adoption. Once enough people (often around 20-30%) accept or discuss an idea, it tends to propagate more broadly. Early informal sharing helps reach that threshold.
3. Legitimization & Institutionalization: When enough peers accept an idea, it begins to be noticed by formal leadership, which may then adopt it as part of official strategy or practice. What was once “radical” becomes “official.”
4. Influence & Reward: As an individual or team’s ideas get absorbed into the organizational narrative, their influence increases. They may be entrusted with leadership, provided more resources, or seen as agents of change.

Recent Considerations: Hybrid Work, Digital Tools, AI
Over the past few years, changes in how and where people work, plus the integration of AI into knowledge-sharing tools, add new dimensions:
• Remote and hybrid setups tend to magnify the problems of invisibility and isolation; informal corridor conversations or impromptu check-ins become less likely. Organizations must work harder to construct virtual equivalents (e.g. asynchronous documentation, digital forums, internal social networks).
• AI and knowledge-management platforms can help accelerate sharing, reduce friction (e.g. discovery of existing reports, automatic tagging, summarisation), but they also risk over-trust in automation or leaving behind tacit knowledge that is hard to codify.
• Given the increasing volume of information, selective sharing and curating become skills. Not every detail needs to be shared widely, but knowing what, when, and how to share is part of influence.

Implications for Practice
For individuals aiming to increase their influence via sharing:
• Embed documentation and archival processes into every project (e.g. phase reports, lessons learned).
• Use both formal and informal channels: internal blogs or newsletters, but also coffee chats, virtual social spaces.
• Be willing to experiment, share preliminary findings; feedback improves ideas and increases visibility.

For organizations:
• Build a culture that rewards sharing explicitly through performance systems.
• Reduce structural barriers like overly centralized control or onerous formalization.
• Provide tools and training to lower the effort of sharing; make knowledge easier to find and use.
• Encourage cross-team interactions, peer networks, communities of practice.

Final Word
Sharing is not just a morally good or nice thing to do, it is one of the most potent forms of influence in knowledge-based work. It transforms static assets into living processes, elevates visibility, enables innovation, and shapes organization culture. As the world of work continues to evolve, those who master the art and science of sharing will increasingly become the architects of change.

References:
Here are key sources that discuss the concepts above. You can draw on these for citations or further reading.
1. Xu, J., et al. (2023). A theoretical review on the role of knowledge sharing and … [PMC]
2. Peters, L.D.K., et al. (2024). “‘The more we share, the more we have’? Analyses of identification with the company positively influencing knowledge-sharing behaviour…”
3. Greenhalgh, T., et al. (2004). “Diffusion of Innovations in Service Organizations.” Milbank Quarterly – literature review on spreading and sustaining innovations.
4. Ye, M., et al. (2021). “Collective patterns of social diffusion are shaped by committed minorities …” Nature Communications
5. Bui, T. T., Nguyen, L. P., Tran, A. P., Nguyen, H. H., & Tran, T. T. (2023). “Organizational Factors and Knowledge Sharing Behavior: Mediating Model of Knowledge Sharing Intention.”
6. Abbasi, S. G., et al. (2021). “Impact of Organizational and Individual Factors on Knowledge Sharing Behavior.”
7. He, M., et al. (2024). “Sharing or Hiding? Exploring the Influence of Social … Knowledge sharing & knowledge hiding mechanisms.”
8. Sudibjo, N., et al. (2021). “The effects of knowledge sharing and person–organization fit on teachers’ innovative work …”
9. Academia preprint: Cui, J., et al. (2025). “The Explore of Knowledge Management Dynamic Capabilities, AI-Driven Knowledge Sharing, Knowledge-Based Organizational Support, and Organizational Learning on Job Performance: Evidence from Chinese Technological Companies.”
10. Koivisto, K., & Taipalus, T. (2023). “Pitfalls in Effective Knowledge Management: Insights from an International Information Technology Organization.”  

Elbows Up: How Canada’s Cooling Ties With America Expose U.S. Insecurity

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With Canadian travel, spending, and goodwill toward the United States in steep decline, Washington’s defensive tone reveals a superpower under pressure and struggling to cope.

In recent months, the cross-border relationship between Canada and the United States has come under an unusual strain. What was once seen as one of the closest, most dependable partnerships in the world is now marked by tensions over trade, culture, and public perception. Data shows Canadians are spending less on American goods, traveling less often to the U.S., and expressing rising skepticism about their southern neighbor. Against this backdrop, the American response has been marked not by calm confidence, but by a defensive edge: an insecurity that suggests Washington is feeling the pressure and coping badly.

The tone was set when U.S. Ambassador Pete Hoekstra accused Canadians of harboring an “elbows up” attitude toward his country. Speaking to reporters, Hoekstra complained that Canadian leaders and the media were fanning what he called “anti-American sentiment” and warned against framing ongoing trade disputes as a “war.” His words revealed just how sensitive U.S. officials have become about Canada’s growing assertiveness. Where past American diplomats might have dismissed Canadian criticism as the grumblings of a junior partner, Hoekstra’s defensive language betrayed a sense of vulnerability.

If the rhetoric sounded strained, the economic numbers were even more alarming for Washington. Canadian travel to the United States, long a reliable driver of border-state economies, has fallen sharply. According to industry data, cross-border car trips by Canadians dropped by more than a third year-over-year in August 2025, with similar declines in road travel overall. Air bookings are also down, as Canadians increasingly avoid American destinations. Analysts warn that even a 10 percent fall in Canadian travel represents a loss of over US$2 billion in U.S. tourism spending, affecting thousands of jobs in hotels, restaurants, and retail along the border.

Nor is the pullback limited to tourism. Surveys indicate Canadians are choosing to buy fewer American goods, opting instead for domestic or third-country alternatives whenever possible. Retailers and importers report declining sales of U.S. products in sectors ranging from consumer electronics to clothing. The “buy Canadian” mood, once a marginal theme, has gone mainstream. These choices, multiplied across millions of households, amount to a quiet but powerful act of economic resistance, one that chips away at America’s largest export market.

For the United States, the twin shocks of declining Canadian tourism and shrinking demand for U.S. goods are more than economic nuisances. They strike at the heart of America’s self-image as Canada’s indispensable partner. When Canadians spend less, travel less, and look elsewhere for their needs, it signals a cultural cooling that U.S. officials have little experience confronting. Historically, American policymakers could take for granted that Canadians would continue to flow across the border for shopping trips, vacations, or work, while Canadian governments would swallow irritants in the name of preserving harmony. That assumption no longer holds.

The American response, however, has been reactive rather than reflective. Instead of acknowledging Canadian frustrations, whether over tariffs, trade disputes, or political rhetoric, U.S. officials have scolded Ottawa for being too combative. By objecting to the term “trade war,” by lecturing Canadians about their “attitude,” Washington has reinforced the perception that it neither understands nor respects Canada’s grievances. The tone has become one of deflection: the problem, U.S. diplomats suggest, is not American policy, but Canadian sensitivity.

This defensiveness has left Washington exposed. It reveals that, beneath the rhetoric of confidence, U.S. officials recognize that Canada’s resistance carries real consequences. With fewer Canadians traveling south, U.S. border states lose billions in revenue. With Canadian households buying less from U.S. suppliers, American exporters face measurable losses. And with Canadian leaders willing to frame disputes in sharp terms, U.S. diplomats find themselves on the back foot, struggling to preserve an image of partnership.

For Canada, this shift represents a moment of self-assertion. By spending less in the U.S. and leaning into domestic pride, Canadians are signaling that friendship with America cannot be assumed, it must be earned and respected. For the United States, it represents an uncomfortable reality: even its closest ally is no longer willing to automatically defer.

In the end, the story is less about Canadian hostility than about American fragility. A confident superpower would shrug off criticism, listen carefully, and adjust course. What we see instead is irritation, defensiveness, and rhetorical overreach. By lashing out at Canada’s “elbows up” attitude, Washington has confirmed what the numbers already show: it is under pressure, it is losing ground, and it is coping badly.

AI and the Future of Professional Writing: A Reframing

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For centuries, every major technological shift has sparked fears about the death of the crafts it intersects. The printing press didn’t eliminate scribes, it transformed them. The rise of the internet and word processors didn’t end journalism, they redefined its forms. Now, artificial intelligence fronts the same familiar conversation: is AI killing professional writing, or is it once again reshaping it?

As a business consultant, I’ve immersed myself in digital tools: from CRMs to calendars, word processors to spreadsheets, not as existential threats, but as extensions of my capabilities. AI fits into that lineage. It doesn’t render me obsolete. It offers capacity, particularly, the capacity to offload mechanical work, and reclaim time for strategic, empathic, and creative labor.

The data shows this isn’t just a sentimental interpretation. Multiple studies document significant declines in demand for freelance writing roles. A Harvard Business Review–cited study that tracked 1.4 million freelance job listings found that, post-ChatGPT, demand for “automation-prone” jobs fell by 21%, with writing roles specifically dropping 30%  . Another analysis on Upwork revealed a 33% drop in writing postings between late 2022 and early 2024, while a separate study observed that, shortly after ChatGPT’s debut, freelance job hires declined by nearly 5% and monthly earnings by over 5% among writers.  These numbers are real. The shift has been painful for many in the profession.

Yet the picture isn’t uniform. Other data suggests that while routine or templated writing roles are indeed shrinking, strategic and creatively nuanced writing remains vibrant. Upwork reports that roles demanding human nuance: like copywriting, ghostwriting, and marketing content have actually surged, rising by 19–24% in mid-2023. Similarly, experts note that although basic web copy and boilerplate content are susceptible to automation, high-empathy, voice-driven writing continues to thrive.

My daily experience aligns with that trend. I don’t surrender to AI. I integrate it. I rely on it to break the blank page, sketch a structure, suggest keywords, or clarify phrasing. Yet I still craft, steer, and embed meaning, because that human judgment, that voice, is irreplaceable.

Many professionals are responding similarly. A qualitative study exploring how writers engage with AI identified four adaptive strategies, from resisting to embracing AI tools, each aimed at preserving human identity, enhancing workflow, or reaffirming credibility. A 2025 survey of 301 professional writers across 25+ languages highlighted both ethical concerns, and a nuanced realignment of expectations around AI adoption.

This is not unprecedented in academia: AI is already assisting with readability, grammar, and accessibility, especially for non-native authors, but not at the expense of critical thinking or academic integrity.  In fact, when carefully integrated, AI shows promise as an aid, not a replacement.

In this light, AI should not be viewed as the death of professional writing, but as a test of its boundaries: Where does machine-assisted work end and human insight begin? The profession isn’t collapsing, it’s clarifying its value. The roles that survive will not be those that can be automated, but those that can’t.

In that regard, we as writers, consultants, and professionals must decide: will we retreat into obsolescence or evolve into roles centered on empathy, strategy, and authentic voice? I choose the latter, not because it’s easier, but because it’s more necessary.

Sources
• Analysis of 1.4 million freelance job listings showing a 30% decline in demand for writing positions post-ChatGPT release
• Upwork data indicating a 33% decrease in writing job postings from late 2022 to early 2024
• Study of 92,547 freelance writers revealing a 5.2% drop in earnings and reduced job flow following ChatGPT’s launch  ort showing growth in high-nuance writing roles (copywriting, ghostwriting, content creation) in Q3 2023
• Analysis noting decreased demand (20–50%) for basic writing and translation, while creative and high-empathy roles remain resilient
• Qualitative research on writing professionals’ adaptive strategies around generative AI
• Survey of professional writers on AI usage, adoption challenges, and ethical considerations
• Academic studies indicating that AI tools can enhance writing mechanics and accessibility if integrated thoughtfully

The Independent Knowledge Worker and the Question of Marketability

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Recently, I read a post from a well-known contributor on a community platform. This writer, an accomplished author with years of experience, lamented the decline of opportunities in her field. She spoke of a shrinking market, a lack of viable contracts, and the challenges of her geographical location in trying to generate meaningful revenue. Out of habit, I rarely respond to such posts, but this time I did. My response drew a public reply, and while I tend not to engage in prolonged debates on public forums, too often they dissolve into vitriol, I chose to bring the discussion here, to my own space, where ideas can be unpacked more thoughtfully.

Artificial Intelligence was seen as the main villain in this public debate, but I believe that’s a red herring. Yes, we are all adjusting to the challenge of AI, but the only constant in life is change, so what is the real issue here. 

The heart of the matter is this: the defining advantage of being an independent knowledge worker is precisely the ability to work from anywhere. The office is no longer a cubicle on the twentieth floor of a glass tower, but the laptop on your kitchen table, although I prefer my dedicated home office. The clients may live continents away, but the work flows seamlessly across time zones. In this economy, location is not the limitation it once was. The real limitation is mindset.

Even as I write this post, I am exchanging messages with an Argentine colleague who is currently based in Canada. She is orchestrating a major PR announcement for a company headquartered in the Netherlands. Just last week, I was on a call with a professional in Paraguay to discuss a project in Chile. Another colleague, specializing in agricultural and agri-food writing, maintains an active client list that stretches from Australia to Japan to Portugal. None of us share an office, or a city, but all of us share the same reality: we are independent professionals with global client bases, connected by skill, adaptability, and digital tools.

This is why I push back when I hear colleagues insist that their difficulties are rooted in market decline. It is not the shrinking of opportunity, but the narrowing of their willingness to market themselves that becomes the stumbling block. The truth is uncomfortable: talent alone does not guarantee survival.

The writer whose post sparked this reflection has produced over a hundred articles, essays, and commentaries that I have personally read. Her body of work is substantial, and her craft is evident. Yet the refrain of “just give me work, so I can do my job” misses the larger truth of freelancing. Writing is the service, but self-promotion is the business model. Without branding, without a visible signal to clients about why they should choose you over the hundreds of other qualified voices, the work will not come.

Whenever I submit a proposal for a project, I begin by ensuring I have the necessary expertise and experience; but the more important question quickly follows: “why me?” Why would this client entrust me with their project rather than the next bidder? If I cannot answer that persuasively, I do not waste time chasing the opportunity. The answer to “why me?” is not entitlement, nor is it a résumé; it is positioning, visibility, and the willingness to show that your work has unique value.

In the end, the challenge of independent knowledge work is not scarcity of markets, but the discipline of visibility. The professionals who thrive are those who accept that marketing is not a distraction from their craft, but a core part of it.

Strategic Pricing Adjustment to Accelerate User Growth and Revenue

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Dear OpenAI Leadership,

I am writing to propose a strategic adjustment to ChatGPT’s subscription pricing that could substantially increase both user adoption and revenue. While ChatGPT has achieved remarkable success, the current $25/month subscription fee may be a barrier for many potential users. In contrast, a $9.95/month pricing model aligns with industry standards and could unlock significant growth.

Current Landscape

As of mid-2025, ChatGPT boasts:

  • 800 million weekly active users, with projections aiming for 1 billion by year-end. (source)
  • 20 million paid subscribers, generating approximately $500 million in monthly revenue. (source)

Despite this success, the vast majority of users remain on the free tier, indicating a substantial untapped market.

The Case for $9.95/Month

A $9.95/month subscription fee is a proven price point for digital services, offering a balance between affordability and perceived value. Services like Spotify, Netflix, and OnlyFans have thrived with similar pricing, demonstrating that users are willing to pay for enhanced features and experiences at this price point.

Projected Impact

If ChatGPT were to lower its subscription fee to $9.95/month, the following scenarios illustrate potential outcomes:

  • Scenario 1: 50% Conversion Rate
    50% of current weekly active users (400 million) convert to paid subscriptions.
    200 million paying users × $9.95/month = $1.99 billion/month.
    Annual revenue: $23.88 billion.
  • Scenario 2: 25% Conversion Rate
    25% conversion rate yields 100 million paying users.
    100 million × $9.95/month = $995 million/month.
    Annual revenue: $11.94 billion.

Even at a conservative 25% conversion rate, annual revenue would exceed current projections, highlighting the significant financial upside.

Strategic Considerations

  • Expand the user base: Attract a broader audience, including students, professionals, and casual users.
  • Enhance user engagement: Increased adoption could lead to higher usage rates and data insights, further improving the product.
  • Strengthen market position: A more accessible price point could solidify ChatGPT’s dominance in the AI chatbot market, currently holding an 80.92% share. (source)

Conclusion

Adopting a $9.95/month subscription fee could be a transformative move for ChatGPT, driving substantial revenue growth and reinforcing its position as a leader in the AI space. I urge you to consider this strategic adjustment to unlock ChatGPT’s full potential.

Sincerely,
The Rowanwood Chronicles

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