Centralized digital transformation: Opportunities (Part 2)

Disclaimer: The views expressed here are my own, and don’t represent the opinions of my current or previous employers.

In my last blog post, I talked about what I've seen work (and not work) in centralized digital transformation in government.

In writing and reflecting, I saw four distinct opportunity areas that would allow BC Government to learn from UK's Government Digital Service (GDS) and the federal government’s Canadian Digital Service (CDS) - organizations that I've previously worked for.

These are not meant to be 'solutions' but rather areas that I believe are important to focus on, based on my experiences in GDS and CDS.

1: Blend mandated transformation (GDS) with a collaborative partnership approach (CDS)

When I was there, GDS leveraged financial controls and service standards/assessments to transform government, while CDS used a more collaborative approach that allowed departments to have the final say over services. These experiences taught me that strong standards and mandates can rapidly speed up progress and alignment, but it also risks an “us vs. them” dynamic that can lead to resentment and erode trust over time. Sustainable people-centred change may require seeing ministries as partners, co-creators, and long-term stewards of new ways of working, rather than passive recipients of direction.

This could look like:

• Reducing over-reliance on hierarchy by distributing decision-making authority across multiple job roles and working levels (think committees of experts rather than committees of executives and senior leaders.)
• Building mixed working groups across the centre and ministries to shape standards, platforms, and priorities together, with a collective mindset of “co-creating”, and a focus on supporting ministries to meet service standards (over enforcing compliance to those standards.)
• Creating shared accountability for transformation outcomes, and shared responsibility for big decisions that empower ministry involvement while aligning with the centre.

2: Integrate frontline staff, policy staff, and people with lived experience into delivery teams and decision-making

All services benefit from a diverse range of perspectives that can guide, critique and de-risk the work. But 'cross-functional' service delivery teams aren't really cross-functional if they leave out the parts of government that own the 'before' (policy) and the 'after' (front-line delivery staff) in the service lifecycle. Including "non-digital" members of staff on delivery teams isn't just a win for delivery: It also upskills staff, helps with career progression and builds digital capability.

Additionally, public-facing services will benefit immensely from having people with lived experience participate as partners, advisors, or rotating members of delivery teams (see Marlieke's excellent blog post on embedding a peer researcher in the design team)

This could look like:

• Establishing a rotating schedule of frontline and policy staff to be embedded part-time on delivery teams, for sprint reviews, planning sessions and retros.
• Building mechanisms for lived-experience partners to contribute, such as paid positions, internships, panels or advisory groups.
• Creating clear ongoing supports and rituals so non-digital contributors feel confident participating (such as a buddy system, training guides or onboarding materials)
• Moving away from committees of executives to more diverse decision-making processes that include front-line staff, non-digital team members and people with lived experience.

3: Create digital apprenticeship schemes to upskill and train existing staff

Governments need more digital capability, but economic and political constraints limit hiring. Meanwhile, many public servants fear being left behind by technology or – worse – laid off during efficiency reviews. An obvious and sustainable solution would be to build digital capability within the existing workforce by offering upskilling or retraining schemes for positions at risk of being cut – retaining institutional knowledge while making staff feel empowered and trusted.

This could look like:

• Offering regular in-house training on core digital capabilities (research, service design, delivery management) that is free for staff
• Create apprenticeship schemes, project placements or temporary assignment frameworks for core capabilities, pairing them up with an experienced practitioner
• Offering secondment opportunities for staff to build skills outside of the organization that they can bring back to government (for example, in tech companies, startups or even another government,) allowing them to obtain new skills and perspectives without worrying about what it will do to their pension or seniority
• Providing clear, accessible guidance on standards, patterns and best practices, and how to meet them, as well as examples, case studies, research and reusable code that others can learn from and reuse.

4: Build trust and efficiency through meaningful transparency and oppenness

Mistrust arises through uncertainty and the feeling that decisions are made behind closed doors, without explanation. But trust isn't earned through polished email blasts and "ta-da!!" moments; transparency isn't a box to check.

For both staff and the public, trust can be built through frequent, human updates that are easy to find, easy to understand and open to feedback, in formats and spaces where there is room for dialogue and conversation. Simply pushing data out can overwhelm people, so it's important to share meaningful updates in a way that is intentional, informative and human.

This could look like:

• Publishing (publicly!) service performance data, roadmaps, decision logs and user research summaries for key services
• Making most documentation and decision records internally open by default in searchable folders for all staff to find, with separate spaces and classifications for any truly confidential information.
• Frequently sharing honest, human updates in a place that offers space for feedback and conversation... keeping the polished press release email blasts to a minimum.
• Hosting regular demos, “show the thing” sessions and showcases of work in progress, and allowing people to find these events and sign up themselves (rather invites being pushed only to a select group of people.)

There's obviously a lot more but these are the 'big four' opportunity spaces I see, based on my experiences. I'll share some ideas in another blog post.

Did I miss anything?