book

Digital Government Excellence

Name: Digital Government Excellence
Author: Siim Sikkut
ISBN: 9781119858874

by Siim Sikkut

June 2022

Intermediate to advanced

320 pages

12h 11m

English

Wiley

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COVER
TITLE PAGE
COPYRIGHT
DEDICATION
PREFACE
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS
INTRODUCTION
Choice of Twenty Remarkable LeadersWho Can Benefit from This Book?Structure of the Chapters
CHAPTER 1: Aisha Bin Bishr
How Did You Rise to the Digital Government Leadership Role in Dubai?What Was the Concrete Expectation Laid Out for You?How Did You Go about Devising the Strategy and the Metrics Then?You Already Hinted a Bit about It, but Did You Hesitate at All When Taking the Job of Leading the SDO?Given These Challenges, Did You Have Any Requests Going In?What Was Your Own Motivation in Taking Up the Call by His Highness?What Was the State of Digital Development in Dubai at the Time, and What Led You to Suggest Creating the SDO?What Was the Mandate for SDO and the Tools at Your Disposal to Make Change Happen?What Were the Very First Steps You Took When You Started Leading the SDO?What Was the Focus or Core of the Strategy You Had Laid Out and Started Delivering—What Were the Steps for Building Up a Smart City for Happiness?How Did You Embrace New Things That Must Have Emerged along the Way? Did You Ever Adjust the Strategy?You Spent the First Months on Daily Tour to Build Relationship with Other Agencies. How Did You Sustain These Relationships Later?How Did You Attract Talent to Join You in SDO?What Qualities Were You Looking for in Your Hiring?Who Was Your Most Valuable Hire?Can You Tell Some More on What Was the Culture You Were Trying to Create in SDO?What Were Your Mantras That You Kept Repeating to Your Team?What Were Your Regular Practices or Routines to Act on These Values or Make Delivery Happen?What Were Your Biggest Achievements as the Director General, in Your Own View?What Prompted You to Move Ahead from Smart Dubai after Five Years in 2021?How Did You Prepare for the Handover and Making Sure Your Initiatives Would Live On?What Were—or Are—Going to Be Next Challenges for the Team and Smart Dubai?What Do You Wish You Had Known When You Started the Job? What Do You Think You Learned the Most?What Do You Think Are the Key Skills One Needs to Do Your Kind of Role Well?What Are Your Three Recommendations from Your Experience—What Does It Take to Do a Digital Government Leader's Job Well?Notes
CHAPTER 2: Alex Benay
How Did You End Up in a Digital Government Leader Role for the Government of Canada (GC)?Why Did You Say “No” at First?Given This Context, Did You Have Conditions or Requests to Take the Role?What Was Your Own Motivation for the Role?What Was the Concrete Mission Set to You through These Conversations by Your Bosses?Besides Phoenix and Outdated Policies, What Was the State of Digital Government and Strategy in GC?What Were Your Levers besides the Legislative Powers You Asked For?Given Your Overall Mission, Did You Set Yourself Any Concrete Goals or Deliverables to Reach?With All This Load Ahead of You, What Did You Start With? What Was the Focus for Your First Months?How Hard or Easy Was It to Maintain Your Focus on the Skunkworks as Time Went On?You Spoke about the Need to Work Very Openly and Transparently—How Did You Do That Really?You Did End Up Taking the Work of Saving Phoenix into Your Own Portfolio. How Did You Go about Fixing It?How Did You Build or Rebuild the GCIO Setup to Achieve the Changes?I Know That You Also Made a Big Push for the Team to Work in the Open. How Did That Work?Tell a Bit More on the Skunkworks Approach—How Did That Working Method Really Work?What Sort of Competence Did You Seek to Add to the Team?Who Was Your Most Valuable Addition to the Team?What Do You Consider as Your Biggest Achievements in the GCIO Role?What Was Surprising for You in the Job, Looking Back Now?Is There Anything Else You Wish You Had Known When You Started?What Do You Think Were Your Biggest Failures in the Job?Was This the Reason You Moved On or What Was behind Your Decision to Leave Office?What Are the Remaining Challenges on the Table for GC and Your Former Team?How Did You Ensure Your Initiatives and Changes Would Be Sustained?Would You Do the Same Job Ever Again, Being Wiser Now, Too?What Are the Core Necessary Skills to Do This Kind of Job Well?What Are Your Bottom-Line Takeaways or Recommendations on How to Do the GCIO Type of Job Well?

CHAPTER 3: Anna-Maija Karjalainen
How Did You Become a Digital Government Leader in Finland?What Was Your Motivation in Taking Up the Offer, Especially Given the Short Time?Did You Have Any Hesitations at All?What Was the Expectation Laid Out to You or What Were You Called In to Do?If You Only Had Ten Minutes to Think, What Gave You the Confidence That You Were the Woman for the Job?What Is the Institutional Background of the Digital Government Setup in Finland? Why Is the Ministry of Finance in Charge of the Area?What Was Going on in the Area of Digital Government in Finland at the Time You Joined?Tell a Bit More—What Are the Suomi.Fi Services?What Was Your Own Strategy: What Did You Set Yourself as Concrete Objectives to Achieve?How Did the Strategy or Your Proposals Emerge?What Mechanisms Did You Have for Coordination and Leading across the Public Sector?Doing Workshops Is a Fine Idea, but It Does Not Have to Lead to Buy-In—How Did You Achieve That?How Did You Choose Your Priority or Where to Focus?Besides Trying to Figure Out the Strategy, What Other Steps Did You Start With in Your First Hundred Days?How Did You See That Change Through Then with Your Team?Were the Meetings Popular and Did You Keep Them as a Routine? What Were the Other Ways You Kept the Team Onboard?How Did You Keep Things in Focus for Delivery?What Were the Principles or Values You Tried to Push Forward to the Team?How Did You Rebuild Your Team? What Were the Competences You Were Looking For?How Did You Find People for the Team?Who Was Your Most Impactful Hire?What Do You Consider Your Biggest Achievement in the GCIO Role?Are There Things You Would Have Done Differently or Things You Even Failed At?What Made You Leave Office in 2021?How Did You Work to Make Your Changes Last or Stick?What Is the State of Finnish Digital Government Today? What Are the Remaining Challenges?What Do You Wish You Had Known When You Started in the Job, If You Look Back Now?What Are the Key Skills Necessary to Do the Government CIO Job Well?Would You Actually Recommend This Job to Anyone? What Makes It Special?What Are the Key Recommendations You Would Have for a Peer on How to Do the GCIO Work the Most Effectively?Notes
CHAPTER 4: Barry Lowry
How Did You Become Involved in the Digital Government Work?What Was Your Road Then to the GCIO Role in Ireland?Do You Still Miss a Chance to Get Your Hands into Code?How Is the Digital Government Work Led in Ireland and What Was Your Motivation to Join That Effort?What Did the Bosses Expect You to Deliver; What Was the Goal They Gave You?What Was the State of Digital Government When You Came into the Job?Where Did You Start with It? What Was Your Focus in the First Hundred Days?What Was Your Time Horizon with the Plan?What Were Your Levers to Make It All Happen?Besides Setting up the New Governance Model, What Were Your Major Priorities in the 18-Step Plan?How Has COVID-19 Changed the Way You Operate and What You Are Working On?How Have You Managed to Keep the Political Backing Necessary for Delivery and for Keeping a Focus?What Was the Team Like When You Joined and How Did You Build It Further?What Has Been Your Trick to Attracting Them to Come and Work for You?What Have Been Your Values or Mottos to Steer the Team With? What Culture Did You Want in the Team?What Have You Used to Sustain the Relationships with Other Departments and Stakeholders?Besides the Routines with External Stakeholders, What Routines or Style Have Been Effective with Your Own Team?Given All You Have Achieved, What Has Been the Hardest Part in Your Job and What Have You Also Perhaps Failed With?What Do You Consider Your Biggest Achievement in the Office?How Long Do You Think You Will Still Be in Office and What Might Be Next for You?What Will Irish Digital Government Look Like in Five Years Once You Hand Over? What Are the Next Things or Even the Next Strategy in the Works?How Are You Building Things to Last so That the Journey You Started Will Continue?What Are Your Nuggets of Advice for Any Peer about How to Do the National CIO or Similar Role Most Effectively?Note
CHAPTER 5: Bolor-Erdene Battsengel
What Was Your Journey to the Government in Mongolia and to Digital Government Leadership Like?Where Does Your Motivation for Improving the Government Come From?As the Prime Minister Asked You to Join, Did He or Anyone Lay Out a Concrete Expectation for You in Terms of What to Deliver?What Was the Digital Government Scene and Situation in Mongolia before That?What Have Been the Levers and Mandate of CITA to Bring Change to the Scene?If e-Mongolia Was the Deliverable, What Is Your Wider Mission? What Is the Objective You Have Set for Yourself and the Country in Digital Government?With All the Government Services to Digitalize, How Do You Prioritize and Sequence Them? What Are the Criteria for Selection?Given the Tough Context You Started From, How Did You Start in the Role and Gear CITA to Start Delivering from Your First Hundred Days?Still, How Did You Start Working with the CITA Team and Perhaps Changing Things There to Get the Speedy Delivery and New Approach from Them?Once you got e-Mongolia Up and Running, What Have Been Your Key Initiatives and Milestones since Then?How Have You Been Building the Team? How Do You Find People and Whom Do You Look For?How Do You Work with Your Team? What Are Your Methods and Style?What Type of Culture Have You Tried to Build into CITA?Where Does This Sort of Bravery Come From?What Have Been the Mantras You Have Kept Repeating to the Team?What Do You Think Have Been Your Biggest Achievements in the Role So Far?What Do You Think You Could Have Done Better? What Have You Learned the Most?What Are the Next Challenges Ahead for You, for CITA, for e-Mongolia?How Have You Managed to Make Sure That on Your Departure the Work Would Last—You Mentioned Standards, for Example?What Is Your Advice to Young Students on What Skills to Develop to Do This Kind of Job Well?What Are Your Key Recommendations on How to Reach Digital Government Progress?Note
CHAPTER 6: Cheow Hoe Chan
You Have a Double Position: Government CDTO and the Deputy Chief Executive for GovTech Agency. What Is at the Core of What You Do?How Did You End Up in This Role—and in Government?If the Conversation Lasted Many Months, You Were Then Hesitating Quite a Bit at First?What Was the State of Digital Government in Singapore at the Time—Why Were the Leaders Seeking a Different Approach and Someone New?If This Was the Background, Were You Given Any Concrete Mission to Fulfill or a Deliverable to Reach?How Did You Then Carve Out a Plan or a Road to Follow?Were These Directions Easy to Start With?What Could Be an Example of an Early Small Project with Great Outcomes Like That, and How It Was Different?If Starting the Journey with Small Steps Was the Strategy, Did You Ever Set Yourself Any Time Frame for Longer Term?What Has Been Effective to Manage for or through These Inflection Points?Once You Had Started on Your Journey of Small but Impactful Projects, What Became the Core of Your Journey Thereafter?Besides Strongly Moving to Cloud, What Other Parts of Infrastructure Stack Did You Choose to Focus on and Why? What Have Been Your Priorities in This Sense?What Have Been Your Effective Routines or Methods to Evolve and Deliver Such a Strategy?How Much Has Your Strategy and Focus Pivoted or Changed through Your Term?How Have You Been Building Your Team Out? What Has Proven to Be Effective in This Area?You Said Yourself That Culture Determines the Delivery as Much as Talent, and You Have Wanted to Build a “Build Culture” in GovTech. How Have You Gone about It?You Were Afraid of Bureaucracy Yourself at First. How Have You Managed to Avoid Culture Getting Caught in It?What Have Been Your Mantras to Instill a Culture You Have Wanted to See in GovTech? What Have You Kept Saying to Your Team Over and Over?What Have Been Your Biggest Achievements in the Role? What Are You Most Happy With?What Are the Things You Think You Could Have Done Better or Differently?What Have You Learned the Most in This Job?What Are the Next Challenges or Milestones on the Horizon for You and Your Team?What Might Make You Move from Your Role One Day?What Steps Have You Taken to Make What You Have Started Last?What Are the Core Skills for Doing This Sort of Job Well, in Your View?What Would Be Your Three Core Recommendations to a Peer on How to Build an Excellent Digital Government as Its Leader?Notes
CHAPTER 7: Daniel Abadie
How Did You Rise to the Role of a Digital Government Leader in Argentina?What Was Your Motivation to Take the National Job? Did You Hesitate to Take the Role?What Was the Expectation for You? Were You Given Any Concrete Task or Objective?What Was the Institutional and Governance Setting Like for Public Sector Digitization in Argentina When You Started?How Did the Transition from City to National Level Then Work Out Still, Was It Similar after All as You Had Thought?What Were the Things You Could Not Say No To?What Was the State of Digital Government in Argentina When You Started as Undersecretary?How Did You Start Changing That Picture? What Were the First Steps?The Mandate Essentially Featured Your Strategy for the Next Years Then. What Were the Key Stages or Milestones for Delivering It?What Were Your Key Steps for the Quick Delivery of Single-Domain Efforts?How Did You Regain the Strategic Focus after the First Year?Did the Resourcing or Financial Situation Ever Get Better?How Did You Break That Cycle?It Seems That through All of This You Had to Work with Your Team and People Management a Lot Hands-On.How Did You Build and Empower Your Team?What Was Your Selling Argument to Get Someone to Join the Team?Who Was Your Most Valuable Hire?How Did You Motivate the Team to Keep Going, Even If There Were Never Enough Resources?What Sort of Culture Were You Trying to Build within the Team and How?What Were Some of the Things You Always Told Your Team, Your Mottos?What Was a Common Day Like on the Job?How Did You Ensure the Support of the President during Your Term?How Did You Build Relations with the Other Agencies?What Were Your Biggest Failures and What Did You Learn from Them?What Were Your Biggest Achievements during Your Term?What Made You Move on from the Role?How Did You Ensure That What You Started Would Last?What Would Have You Done in the Next Four Years, If You Had a Chance? What Were the Outlying Challenges?Is There Anything You Wish You Had Known When You Started the Job?If Someone Were to Offer, Would You Take the Job Again?What Do You Think Are the Necessary Skills to Do This Kind of Job Well?What Are Your Three Main Recommendations to Someone Starting on a Similar Job? What Are Your Key Bottom-Line Takeaways on How to Be Effective in This Role?Note
CHAPTER 8: Diego Piacentini
How Did You Enter the Digital Government Role—and the Italian Government Overall?What Was the Prime Minister's Motivation behind Wanting This Sort of Change? What Task Did He Give You Concretely?Did You Still Hesitate at All about the Role While Deciding?What Was the Role You Created?What Was the Institutional Setup Before or Who Had the Responsibility for Digital Government?What Were Your Levers or Tools in the Commissioner Role to Push for Change?Where Did You Devote Your Time and Focus on at the Start?You Said at the Beginning of Our Chat That You Set Out to Build a Continuous Set of Processes—How Did You Do It?You Emphasized That Your Main Work Was to Build Out a Different Team—How Did You Go about Doing It?As You Were Bringing These People Together, How Did You Mold Them into a Team?What Were the Things You Always Used to Say to the Team, Your Mottos, or the Values You Wanted Them to Follow?What Routines Worked to Keep People Delivering?How Much of Your Work and Team Practices Came from Amazon Experience? What New Things Did You Learn on the Job?How Did You Build and Develop Relationships with Stakeholders While in Office?How Much Did the Relationship with Prime Ministers Work Out?What Was the Hardest Part of Your Job?What Made You Move on after the Two Years?How Did You Make Sure What You Had Started Would Last?What Do You Think You Managed to Achieve and What Are You Most Proud Of, Looking Back?Is There Anything You Regret Not Doing or Wish You Had Done Differently?Would You Ever Consider Doing Such a Job Again?What Are Your Three Bottom-Line Recommendations to a Colleague on What Does It Take to Do This Sort of Job Well?Notes
CHAPTER 9: Hillary Hartley
What Brought You to Work in Digital Government, in the US and in 18F at First?What Made You Jump to Ontario Government from There?What Appealed to You about the Job in Ontario Once You Learned More?What Was the Minister Saying That They Expected for You? What Was the Mission Set for You to Do?Did You Hesitate at All in Making the Move?Did You Set Any Conditions or Prerequisites for Joining In?Where Was ODS Placed Institutionally?What Was the State of Digital Government in Ontario, and What Prompted the Creation of ODS?What Was the Concrete Objective You Set for Yourself to Achieve?What Was Your Focus in the First Hundred Days or Three Months?What Were Your Initial Tools and Levers in the Mandate to Ensure Delivery Across the Government?If These Were the Initial Tools at Your Disposal, Have You Added Some More or How Have They Changed?How Did the Law Come About Politically? What Set Things Rolling in This Direction?Besides Having Champions to Have Your Back Politically, How Did You Ensure Buy-in from Other Departments—for the Wider Role and Power?How Did You Build a Team That Excels in Delivery?What Are Some of the Things You Have Been Telling Your Team as Your Mottos, Your Philosophy?What Have Been Your Regular Routines or Practices with Your Team?How Have You Managed to Attract Folks to Join the Team?Who Have Been Your Most Valuable Hires?If You Look Back to the Journey So Far, What Have Been Your Biggest Achievements That You Are Most Proud Of?Is There Something You Have Failed at or Regret Not Having Achieved Yet?What Would Make You Move on from the CDDO Role at Some Point?What Have You Done to Make Sure the Change You Initiated Is Sustained?Is There Anything You Wish You Had Known at the Start?What Kind of Skills Are Necessary to Do Your Job Well?What Are Your Key Recommendations about How to Be Excellent in the CDDO Job?Notes
CHAPTER 10: Innocent Bagamba Muhizi
How Did You Become a Digital Government Leader in Rwanda?What Was Your Motivation to Take Up the Calling and Join RISA?There Was a Massive Challenge Ahead—Did You Hesitate at All?What Were You Called in For? What Were You Expected to Deliver?What Was the State of Digital Government in Rwanda?What Was the Aim behind the Creation of RISA?What Did You Set Yourself as a Concrete Objective When Starting the Job?What Were the First Steps You Took from the Three-Year Plan?As You Started a New Way of Work for the Government, What Methods Have You Used for Steering Agencies in Your Intended Direction?You Emphasized That You Really Started from Building Up a Team. How Did You Find Suitable People?You Have Mentioned That as You Bring People Onboard, You Do a Lot of Training—How?What Routines Have Been Useful for You as the Manager to Steer RISA's Team and Culture?What Routines Have You Employed to Be an Effective Leader?What Has Been Effective for Managing the Relationships with Outside Stakeholders?You Mentioned That You Set Out to Create a Certain Culture from the Start. What Are Your Mottos or Principles That You Have Tried to Install in the Team?What Do You Think You Have Achieved in RISA So Far?You Brought Up That More Requests Came Your Way with COVID-19—How Did This Affect Your Delivery and How Did You Handle Them?Have You Had Any Failures or Things That You Regret?What Are the Next Challenges for You and for the Digital Government in Rwanda?What Steps Have You Taken to Make Sure That What You Have Been Starting Will Last?What Do You Think You Have Learned the Most in This Role?What Other Skills or Knowledge Is Useful to Do This Sort of Job Well?What Would Be Your Three Recommendations to a Colleague on How to Be an Effective Digital Government Leader?
CHAPTER 11: José Clastornik
How Did Your Digital Government Leadership Story Start in Uruguay?Why Were You Approached or Selected to Join the Board and Take the Lead Role?Did You Hesitate to Join and Take the Role? What Was Your Motivation to Join AGESIC?What Was Lacking in the Digital Government Area in Uruguay Back in 2005?What Was the Mandate of AGESIC to Change the Scene?What Led You to the Incubator Approach?What Were the Carrots or Sticks That AGESIC Had toward Other Agencies to Execute Its Mandate?What Was Your Own Role in AGESIC as the Executive Director? How Would You Describe It?What Were Your First Steps as Executive Director of AGESIC? What Did You Start Working On?How Did You Work with the Wider Ecosystem after the Initial Strategy Making?You Worked in AGESIC for Nearly Fifteen Years. What Were the Key Initiatives or Strategic Periods across the Years?With Eleven Boards and a Full Agency to Manage, Plus a Handful of Things in Strategy—How Did You Choose Your Priorities?How Did You Align the Setup of AGESIC to the Delivery of Initiatives?How Did You Build the AGESIC Team?What Were the Principles or Working Routines You Tried to Have and Take Root in Your Team?What Do You Think Were Your Greatest Achievements in Your Fifteen Years in AGESIC?What Were Your Biggest Failures, in Your View?After Three Periods and Three Governments, What Made You Leave Finally?What Are the Next or Remaining Challenges Going to Be for a Digital Government in Uruguay?How Did You Ensure That What You Started Lasts?Looking Back, Is There Something You Wish You Had Known When You Started the Job?Would You Recommend the Job to a Friend?What Would Be Your Recommendations for Being Effective in Such a Role?Notes
CHAPTER 12: Lars Frelle-Petersen
How Did You Get Involved in the Digital Government Field in Denmark?Was the Task Force Successful?From the Task Force, What Led to Setting Up the Agency of Digitisation Quite a Few Years Later?What Made You Stay in the Field, and Then Step into a Leadership Role in DIGST?Why Do You Think They Chose You?Did You Hesitate to Apply at All?Why Is the Ministry of Finance at the Helm of Digital Government Work in Denmark?What Other Levers, Carrots, or Sticks Were at Your Disposal to Ensure Cooperation?What Became Your Own Strategy Going into to DIGST? What Did You Set Out to Be Your Objective There?You Had Been There Already Before in the Agency, but What Was Your Hundred-Day Plan When You Started in the Director General Role?As You Said, the Elephant Is Eaten Piece by Piece. How Did You Prioritize and Sequence the Steps? What Did the Road Map of Elephant Eating Look Like in Your Case?Did You Have Surprises along the Way?Did Politicians Stay behind the Strategy All the Way Through?How Did You Build Out Your Team to Achieve All of That?Who Was Your Most Valuable Hire through the Years?You Have Already Said a Bit about It, but What Was the Culture You Wanted the Team to Have?What Are You Most Proud of Achieving as the Director General?What Is Something You Most Regret or You Think You Failed At?What Made You Move on from DIGST in 2017?How Did You Make Sure That Things Will Last in DIGST and with the Agenda?What Are the Skills Necessary to Be Effective in This Kind of Job?In Addition to the Skills, What Are Your Three Recommendations on How to Be Effective in This Role?
CHAPTER 13: Luis Felipe Monteiro
What Was Your Journey into the Digital Government Leadership Role in Brazil?What Was Your Motivation in Becoming the Secretary?Did You Hesitate at All about the Challenge or the Role?What Was the Expectation Laid Out to You in the Role in Terms of What to Achieve or Fix?Can You Give a Bit of Context about Where Was Brazil Standing in Digital Government Development in 2018?What Was Your Vision and Proposed Strategy Then in More Detail?What Was the Time Frame for Your Vision and Strategy?How Did You Chart Out the Delivery Plan and How Hard Was It to Retain Delivery as Intended?What Kind of an Organizational Setup Did You Build Up to Make Such a Rapid Delivery Possible?What Were Your Main Priorities within the First Hundred Days in the Secretary Role?How Did You Manage to Retain the Focus on the Strategy Delivery, as You Went Along?What Were Your Methods to Really Get Agencies On Board for Such an Aggressive Transformation Program?You Already Spoke about Adding Some Specific Skills to the Team, but How Did You Build Out the Team Overall?Where Did You Find the Skills and Talent From, and How Did You Lure Them Over to Work with You?Who Were Your Most Valuable Hires?What Routines Did You Use to Manage the Team?Did You Also Have Some Regular Routines with Outside Stakeholders?What Were Your Principles of Leadership? What Slogans or Sayings Did You Repeat to the Team?How Did You Build These Principles into a Team Culture?What Was the Hardest Part of Your Job?In Your Time on the Job, What Do You Think Were Your Failures?What Do You Consider Your Achievements in the Role?What Is Still Left on the Table as Next Challenges for Brazilian Digital Government?What Made You Move On from the Job in Autumn 2021?What Did You Do to Make Your Initiatives and the Change Last?To Sum Up, What Do You Think Are the Skills Necessary to Do This Kind of Job Well?What Are Your Key Takeaways from Your Time as the Digital Government Leader? Your Three Recommendations to Any Peer Doing the Same Job?Notes
CHAPTER 14: Mike Bracken
How Did You Become a Digital Government Leader in the UK?In Addition to Honor, What Was Your Motivation or the Reason behind Such a Thought?Why So and What Were Your Hesitations?You Came in Knowing the Hardships; What Were Your Conditions for Taking the Job?What Task or Expectation Did Politicians Give You for the Role?If That Was the Case, What Sort of Ambition or Objective Did You Set for Yourself?Did You Set Yourself Any Concrete Objectives, Too?I Know You Have Considered the First Hundred Days to Be Crucial When You Start in a Leadership Role Because That Is When You Will Be the Fastest. What Was Your Plan for Your Hundred Days?What Were the Priorities of Your Work from Then Onwards?Did the Departmental CIOs Ever Stick Around?How Did You Change the Supplier Scene?How Did You Build Your Team?How Did You Convince People to Join You?What Kind of Culture Were You Trying to Have in the Team?What Slogans or Mottos Did You Push for the Team Again and Again in This Regard?What Were the Other Ways You Reinforced the Culture?What Steps Did You Take to Empower This Awesome Team to Deliver at Its Best?How Did the Political Relationships Work Out for You?What Were Your Failures or Things You Regret?Could You Have Avoided Your Own Exhaustion?Do You Think You Managed to Instill Some Culture Change in Civil Service At-Large, Like You Set Out to Do?You Said That You Knew from the Start There Was Going to Be Pushback and Struggles Ahead. Did You Start Doing Something Very Consciously to Make Sure That What You Are Starting Would Last?What Was the Push That Made You Leave after All?Would You Ever Take This Job Again?What Are the Skills Necessary to Do This Sort of Job Well?What Are Your Bottom-Line Three Recommendations from a Leadership Point of View for Anyone Doing a Similar Job? What Does It Take to Achieve Excellence in Something Like the GDS and Your Work?Notes
CHAPTER 15: Pedro Silva Dias
How Did You Enter the Digital Government Leadership Role in Portugal?Did You Have Any Hesitations for Joining the Government?Did You Have Any Conditions for Taking the Role?You Said That the Minister's Vision Was Key—What Was the Objective He Set for You and Expected You to Deliver?What Was the Digital Government Situation Like Otherwise at That Time in Portugal?What Milestones Did You Set Yourself at the Beginning in Your Role?What Was Your Method for Learning Really Fast, as You Set Out to Do This as the Very First Thing?What Was Your Method for Rapidly Building Up the Relationships?What Did the Strategy You Came Up With Look Like? What Was Its Time Horizon?This Is a Wide Agenda—How Did You Choose Where to Focus or What to Prioritize? How Did You Sequence the Actions?How Easy Was It to Retain Focus through the Delivery Years? How Much Did Your Priorities Change?What Were the Tools in AMA's Disposal to Ensure Delivery and Get Other Agencies to Come Along?You Mentioned That You Started Changing the Management Procedures. What Was Your Management Style Like?How Did You Change the Team in AMA?What Was Your Selling Pitch to Convince People to Join?Who Was Your Most Valuable Hire?What Kind of Culture Did You Try to Build in AMA?What Were Your Sound Bites or Slogans You Kept Repeating to the Team?What Routines or Rituals Did You Use to Manage the Team?Are There Things You Regret Not Doing in AMA or Things You Think You Failed At?What Are You Most Proud of Achieving?Why Did You Decide to Move from AMA and Back to Private Sector?What Did You Learn the Most in Your Time in AMA?Do You Feel You Ever Got Used to the Public Sector?What Were the Remaining and Next Challenges Ahead for AMA and Digital Government in Portugal?What Steps Did You Take to Make Sure That What You Started Would Last?What Are Your Three Key Recommendations to Fellow Digital Government Leaders on How to Be Effective in This Role?Notes
CHAPTER 16: Randall Brugeaud
What Is Your Background Story—How Did You End Up in a Digital Government Leadership Role in Australia?Why Did You Take the DTA Role and Why Were You Approached?What Was the Expectation or the Mission Given to You with the Job?Did You Have Any Asks or Conditions Going into the Job?Tell a Bit More on the Context You Had to Start From—What Was the State of Digital Government in Australia, Also What Was Going on with DTA?What Was the Team Feeling with All These Shuffles? What Sort of Team Did You Take Over?What Was the Mandate for DTA When You Started? What Were the Agency's Levers to Do the Whole-Of-Government Job?What Did You Set Yourself as the Objective When You Started in DTA—What Was to Be Your Concrete Mission?What Were Your First Steps in the Role? You Changed the Whole Operating Model in the First Sixty Days?Where Did You Get the Ideas from for the New Operational Model?What Sort of Coordination or Governance Did You Set Up with Other Government Stakeholders?How Did You Cement the Standing of the DTA?What Were Your Methods or Routines for Managing the Relationship with Political Masters?How Did the Institutional Setting or Cover Change for DTA during the Years? Who Was the Boss?You Have Emphasized a Few Times That You Had to Remake the Team. How Did You Build the Team Out?Who Was Your Most Valuable Hire or Appointment?You Did Bring Up a Cultural Fit Issue about Team Building. What Sort of Culture Did You Want to Have in DTA?What Were Your Own Days and Routines Like as a Team Leader?If You Do Look a Bit Back Now, What Do You See as Your Greatest Achievements in the Job?Tell a Bit More on How COVID-19 Changed the Way You Operated—How Did You Reshuffle Your Work in DTA?Do You Think You Had Any Failures or Things You Regret?Would You Ever Consider Doing the Same Job Again?But What Make You Pack Up and Leave DTA in 2021 Then?What Were or Are the Remaining Challenges for DTA and the Digital Government in Australia?You Said You Were Tapped into the DTA Leadership for Your Background and Expertise. What Would Be Your Main Recommendations for a New Peer or Colleague to Excel in This Type of Job?Note
CHAPTER 17: Shai-Lee Spiegelman
How Did You Rise to the Role of a Digital Government Leader in Israel?Did You Hesitate at All When Taking the Job?How and Why Was the Digital Israel Initiative Born?What Was Your Role at First?What Was the State of Digital Government in Israel at the Time More Precisely?What Was the Concrete Expectation for You to Deliver?What Did You Set Out to Achieve as Your Own Ambition or Objective Then?How Did the National Digital Strategy Then Come Together—and What Became the Strategy?How Did You Set Out to Deliver the Strategy and to Sequence the Various Initiatives, Which Had Been a Puzzle First?How Did You End Up in the CEO Role of Digital Israel after Two Years in the Team?What Was the Expectation or Task Given to You as You Became the CEO?Given the Horizontal or Matrix Nature of Governmental Strategy, How Did You Build Up the Collaboration with Ministries to Ensure the Delivery on Their End?Was There Ever Pushback from Some Ministries?How Did You Manage to Ensure the Delivery of the Plans? How Did You Help Ministries along the Journey?One of the Keys to Make It All Happen Was to Build Out a Great Team. What Was Your Approach in This Area? How Did You Bring Your Team Together?What Did You Do to Keep the Good People?Can You Tell a Bit More on the Culture You Were Building for the Team?What Were Your Guiding Principles as a Leader?What Were Your Most Effective Management Routines?Looking Back, What Do You See as Your Biggest Achievements in the Job?Are There Things You Regret or Things You Think You Failed At?When 2020 Came, You Decided to Move On—Why Did You Make This Decision?What Were the Remaining or Next Challenges for Digital Israel as You Left?How Did You Make Sure That What You Started Would Stick and Last?Looking Back Now, What Were Your Biggest Learnings in This Job—Anything You Wish You Had Known at Start Already?Did You Ever Learn How to Fix Bureaucracy, as You Had Initially Set Out to Change Government Ways?If Despite It Being Hard, Someone Still Wants to Do This Kind of Job, What Skills Are Necessary for It?What Are Your Three Summary Takeaways from Your Digital Government Leadership Role, as Recommendations to Any Peer on How to Be Effective in This Job?Notes
CHAPTER 18: Taavi Kotka
How Did You Enter Public Sector and the Government CIO Role in Estonia?What Was Your Main Motivation Still to Take the Role—Besides the “Golden Handcuffs” from the Exit?What Made the Minister or Secretary General Choose You, and What Were You Called In to Do or Deliver?What Were the Things That Needed to Be Done? What Was the State of Play in Digital Government in Estonia in 2013?What Was the Institutional Setup Like—Including the Mandate for Your Role?What Did You Set Yourself as Some Concrete Objectives to Achieve?What Were Your First Steps or Actions in the Role?How Were You Able to Deliver on Your Objectives from There On, Also Given the Small Size of the Team?How Did You Influence Other Government Departments to Get Onboard the Initiatives?Can the Tank Method Also Backfire?With the Usual Incentives Not Available, How Did You Motivate Your Own Team to Deliver?How Did You Choose the People to Your Team? What Was the Factor You Looked For?Who Was Your Most Valuable Hire?How Did You Advance the Culture in the Team?What Were Your Routines to Ensure That Delivery Was Happening?What Were the Things You Kept Saying to the Team Again and Again?What Are the Things You Regret from Your Time in Office, or Things You Failed At?What Do You Consider Your Biggest Achievements While in Office? Did You Manage to Make Any Difference?What Made You Stay in Government Longer Than Planned, and What Made You Leave after Four Years after All?How Did You Make Sure That Your Work Would Last?Knowing What You Now Know, Is There Anything You Wish You Had Known When You Started?Is There Any Skill That Can Be Learned to Be Ready to Take Such a Job?What Are the Key Things to Do to Be Effective as a Government CIO or in a Similar Role?Notes
CHAPTER 19: Tim Occleshaw
How Did You Enter the Digital Government Leadership Role in New Zealand?What Was Your Motivation to Apply?What Was the Institutional Context of Digital Government Steering in New Zealand at the Time?Did You Hesitate at All about Whether to Apply For, or to Take the Job?Did You Have Any Conditions Going in or Asks for the Role?What Was the Expectation to You, or the Ambition Laid Out for You to Achieve?What Was Your Team's Mandate and the Mechanisms or Levers to Achieve These Aims?What Was Your Initial Plan or Essential Steps in the First Three Months of the Job?What Was the Time Frame for Your Strategy?What Was the Gist of the New Strategy?What Were the Mechanisms Foreseen in the Strategy for Ensuring Its Delivery?What Else Did You Employ for Ensuring the Strategy's Delivery and Especially across the Government?You Had Planned for a Mid-Term Review of Strategy after the First Two Years—How Much Did You Change the Plan Then?With Changing Politics and Otherwise Things Happening in Life How Did You Manage to Keep the Delivery of Strategy in the Intended Line and Your Focus on the Strategy as Opposed to Current Events?Your Title Changed Half-Way through Your Time in the Office—Why?How Did You Build Your Team? What Key Roles or Competences Did You Look For?What Was Your Selling Argument to Convince People to Join You?What Was the Culture Fit You Were Aiming For in This Team?As a Leader of the Team, What Were Your Principles or Mottos You Kept Infusing?What Were Your Routines to Handle Relationships with Peers or Stakeholders in the Government?You Served under the Government CIO—Later GCDO—Colin MacDonald. How Did You Two Work Together?During Your Term, You Were Able to Raise More Funds for the Work—What Was the Trick to That?You Have Told Me at Some Point That It Is Important to Know When to Lead and When to Follow. How Did That Manifest in Your Work?If You Sum Up Your Term in Office, What Are You Most Proud of as Your Achievements?Do You Think You Had Any Failures?Are There Any Other Regrets You Have?You Already Touched Upon What Made You Move On—the Difference of Views Over the Scope of Strategy. Was That All?What Do You Think Were the Outlying Next Challenges for Digital Government in New Zealand?How Did You Ensure What You Started Would Last?Would You Take the Same Job Ever Again?What Do You See Are the Core Skills Necessary to Do This Job Well for Impact?What Are Your Recommendations to a Good Peer from Another Country—Tim's Friendly Advice for How to Perform Digital Government Leadership Well?Notes
CHAPTER 20: Yolanda Martínez
How Did You Enter the Field of Digital Government and Become the Leader in it in Mexico?Did You Hesitate at All about Joining the President's Team?Was There Any More Concrete Mission or Deliverable Set for You to Come and Take Care Of?For Background and Context, What Is the Institutional Setting of Digital Government in Mexico?How Did the Decision Emerge That Very Strong Central Coordination Was Exactly What Was Needed?How Easy Was the Transition from City to Federal Level for You?What Were Your First Steps During the First Months in Office?How Did the Initial Agenda Become the Eventual Digital Strategy?What Was the Main Focus or Priority in the Strategy, and How Did You Set Out to Deliver It?How Did You Get the Other Entities Onboard with the GOB.MX Agenda?How Did You Coordinate All These Other Governmental Stakeholders More Widely, Too?How Did This Commission Work as Your Main Governance Body?Setting the Focus Is One Thing, Keeping It Another. How Hard Was It for You to Maintain the Focus on Your Approved Agenda?In Mexico's Digital Government Agenda, Open Government Was Always a Very Big Part. How Did That Come About, Because It Is Not Necessarily the Case Elsewhere?You Have Talked Sometimes Quite a Bit about the Work on Making a Birth Certificate Standard Together with State Governments. What Was That About and Why Was It Important?How Did You Build the Team Out?As You Were Expanding the Team, Who Was Your Most Valuable Hire or Addition?Once You Had the Team, What Were the Principles or Culture You Wanted Them to Follow?Where There Any Routines You Used Regularly to Manage the Team?How Much Did You Spend Time Managing Up, Once the Presidency Was in Full Swing?What Are the Things You Wish Could Have Worked Out Better During Your Time in Office, or Things You Would Do Differently?What Was for You the Hardest Part of the Job?In 2017, You Actually Took the Wider Role and Replaced Alejandra Lagunes as the National Digital Strategy Coordinator—How Did That Come About?What Was Your Trick or Recipe for Attracting Good People to Join Your Team?You Had to Depart with the Rest of the Team When the President Changed after the Next Elections. Were There Any Steps You Took During Your Term Consciously to Make Your Initiatives and Reforms Last?If the Next President Comes Calling, Would You Work the Same Job Again?Is There Anything You Wish You Had Known When You Started the Job?What Are the Core Skills to Be Successful in This Job?What Is Your Summary of What Does It Take to Be Effective in Such a Digital Government Leadership Role? What Would Be Your Recommendations, Concluding from Your Experience?
EPILOGUE: How to Lead a Government to Digital Excellence
Deliver, Deliver, DeliverStrategy Is Your Job—and Your OpportunityIt Is Hard without Proper Political SupportIt Is a Networked Job and a Job of NetworkingGood Communications Will Empower YouThe Team Will Determine How Far and Fast You Can RunWork for Lasting Change—Every DayThe Job Is Hard—Be Ready for ItFix Your Sight on the Users—The Impact on Citizens and BusinessesYour Effectiveness Is in Your Own Hands
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
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Content preview from Digital Government Excellence

EPILOGUEHow to Lead a Government to Digital Excellence

You have now met with twenty remarkable digital government leaders in this book: reading about their achievements and the working methods and learnings that went into making their success happen.

They share plenty of tricks and good practices to copy from or use for inspiration. Having been in a digital government leader's shoes myself, I can confirm that each chapter is rich in detail about what works and what is needed to do similar work in any government or organization.

As such, synthesizing or summarizing any of these stories feels like I am committing an injustice to the individuals and their insights. Surely the details of practices will inevitably get lost. Regardless, I will attempt to generalize the overarching themes and most-common aspects that keep reappearing through the twenty leaders' journeys in leading a government to digital excellence.

The following pages will read a lot like the classic ABC of management or general leadership, public sector management, and reform wisdom. Or digital transformation best practices. This is to be expected, because digital government leadership is first and foremost leadership in its core, and only then about the digital and government specifics—the specific contexts in which the leadership wisdom and best practices have to be applied. But at the start and end of the day, digital government leadership is about—well, leadership.

Several insights can be considered trivial ...

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EPILOGUEHow to Lead a Government to Digital Excellence

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