TBR T EC H N O LO G Y B U S I N ES S R ES EAR C H, I N C. TBR EVENT PERSPECTIVE. Evolving government technology: Leadership from invention to impact

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1 T EC H N O LO G Y B U S I N ES S R ES EAR C H, I N C. TBR EVENT PERSPECTIVE Evolving government technology: Leadership from invention to impact Leadership for a Networked World: 2015 Public Sector for the Future Summit Harvard University, Cambridge, Mass.; June 2-4, 2015 Author: Sebastian Lagana (sebastian.lagana@tbri.com), Senior Analyst TBR perspective The 2015 Summit, developed by Leadership for a Networked World and hosted by the Technology and Entrepreneurship Center at Harvard in collaboration with Accenture, brought together a wide range of public sector leaders spanning federal, state and municipal agencies. Through a series of breakout sessions, panel discussions, case studies and presentations, participants shared unique problems facing their respective organizations while receiving opinions and feedback from current practitioners and subject matter experts. TBR left with three key takeaways impacting public sector entities as they seek to evolve their managerial, technical and cultural models to better support the rapidly changing needs of their constituents: 1. The difference between leadership and management: How do these two at times disparate functions impact organizational culture and structure? Given imperatives to rejuvenate and refresh civil service workforces, increase innovation and do more with less, organizational leaders (and not necessarily managers) are becoming increasingly important. 2. Supporting innovation: Facilitating an environment where innovation is encouraged is a major challenge faced by public sector organizations. Developing tools and ideas under significant fiscal constraints to facilitate more efficient government is difficult, and the challenge is made

2 more complex by technological and cultural shifts that have occurred since many current civil service employees joined the workforce. 3. Human resource attraction and development: This is one of the most significant challenges facing the public sector over the next 10 to 20 years. A silver tsunami of retiring personnel is a major threat to the long-term efficacy of an aging government workforce, and public sector agencies face challenges recruiting younger generations to join their ranks. Leadership versus management Management is doing what is expected of you. Leadership is going beyond what is expected to get something to happen that wouldn t have otherwise. On the first day of the Summit, a participant offered the above quote a concise, yet accurate, synopsis of the core difference between leaders and managers. Often we tend to view managers as those who lead their respective organizations; however, many times leaders are individuals at the ground level, championing specific causes and generating buy-in from their peers. This distinction can be a double-edged sword, as individuals with sufficient gravitas to act as leaders may have agendas that do not necessarily benefit the greater organization. These natural leaders and influencers can be the best friend and worst enemy of managers, acting as organizational change agents depending on their level of buy-in. One message that came through was that, as managers, it s not always your role to be a leader, but rather to identify those individuals with the leadership skills capable of catalyzing other team members and to include them in the change process early, giving them a sense of ownership of the process. Generating goodwill with these leaders, in part by allowing them to help shape organizational change initiatives, is critical to generating a groundswell of support from those who will ultimately be impacted by these changes on a day-to-day basis. While there are many initiatives rolled out through public sector organizations under the guise of creating efficiency, improving outcomes or implementing new technologies, the cultural aspect remains very similar: Without employee buy-in, failure is likely. As one panelist noted, about 70% of transformations fail, both in the public and private sector. Often these are undermined from within due to cultural resistance. Thus, identifying those leaders who can facilitate the change from the ground level, as opposed to issuing edicts from on high, can improve chances for transformational success.

3 Fostering innovation TBR A lot of the old rules don t really count anymore. Our tools come from a time when things were much less complex. The pace at which innovation must take place increased dramatically over the past 10 years, as people leveraged digitization and technology to change the way they consume and interact with government. Highlighting this, a presenter on the first day of the Summit shared that in 2015 there are double the number of networked devices as there are humans. While this transition to a more digitized, networked environment is a daunting prospect for public sector agencies due to the need to change old rules and develop tools to interact with constituents, it also creates great opportunity for citizen engagement. This was highlighted via a case study revolving around the Boston Open311 system. By creating a simple-to-use, streamlined application and tying it into an underlying enterprise IT architecture, the city of Boston engaged citizens in flagging issues around the city, such as potholes and graffiti, to effectively point workers toward areas of need. By tying into the larger enterprise system, the city also increased efficiency by allowing better route- and repair-planning for work crews. Possibly the most encouraging part of this program was that it was championed not by legislative leadership, but by individuals directly involved in the technology department. Once their business case was locked tight, with a rough framework planned out, a proof of concept could be developed and deployed for testing. The Boston Open311 case represents the ideal, with ideas bubbling up from within the city s employee ranks. One thing often cited as impeding a more innovative culture is the belief in many public sector organizations that failure will be met with punishment. We can see this play out at the highest levels of the U.S. government, with instances of technological failure being met with congressional hearings to scapegoat an individual or organization. While there are certainly times where this is necessary such as suspected mismanagement, fraud or repeated instances of failed projects or initiatives allowing the idea that failure is not an option to persist crushes any attempts to create a culture that promotes taking chances. Certainly there are some options, such as developing ambidextrous organizations, which devote most resources to maintaining the status quo or upkeep of day-to-day operations, while carving out and openly supporting internal innovation groups. Without a change in this culture, it will be very difficult to address the challenges of attracting new talent.

4 Recruiting talent to replace outgoing employees TBR It s difficult to persuade individuals with strong technical capabilities to come to the public sector, as you re often asking those people to take up to a 50% pay cut. One area that generated many conversations was the difficulty of recruiting and retaining talented individuals to work in the public sector. There are many factors hampering efforts to recruit fresh talent into government at all levels, as public sector agencies struggle to compete with compensation packages prevalent in industries such as finance or IT, are viewed as risk-averse and noninnovative, and present the perception of being inflexible, highly bureaucratic organizations. In discussing a core perceptual difference between government and private sector, one presenter described a linear scale where one end is dedicated to administratively led organizations focusing on completing functional tasks, and the other end houses entrepreneurial organizations dedicated to innovation and consistently pushing the envelope. To figure out where an organization falls on this scale, one must assess its willingness to adopt risk. Government agencies, given the requirement to provide consistent service to their constituents, often fall into the more risk-averse, administratively focused end of the scale where larger bureaucratic businesses fall as well; private sector industries at the other end of the entrepreneurial spectrum that tend to demonstrate a higher tolerance for risk are increasingly attractive to new talent. One solution presented was the idea of carving out several small groups within public sector agencies, with the primary responsibility to pursue new solutions to increase efficiency and citizen involvement through the use of technology. Leveraging an operating model of this type will allow agencies to continue delivering the services and solutions required to keep day-to-day operations up and running, while simultaneously promoting a firewalled version of the type of high-risk, high-reward environment critical to the development of innovative solutions often associated with the private sector. While developing resource pipelines will remain challenging in the near term, showing the tangible, positive impact that innovative, technology-driven solutions can have on a community will help reposition public sector agencies as forces for innovation. This in turn has the potential to increase the attractiveness of public sector employment to a new generation of prospective resources, helping address one of the most important challenges currently facing government. TBR assessment One of the simplest, yet most encouraging, takeaways from the Summit is the sheer number of people who genuinely are trying to drive change from the ground up within governments. While it is clear there are significant bureaucratic hurdles to structural change within the public sector framework, particularly in the United States, the opportunity to be surrounded by strong, engaged public leaders reinforces the notion that we are on the long path to a more efficient, effective government.

5 While many initiatives are simply too large to undertake internally, these government leaders, with the support of technologically and strategically adept partners such as Harvard and Accenture, will ultimately prove to be the catalysts of change that public sector agencies desperately need to develop, deploy and hone the new tools required to continue effectively serving their constituents. Technology Business Research, Inc. is a leading independent technology market research and consulting firm specializing in the business and financial analyses of hardware, software, professional services, telecom and enterprise network vendors, and operators. Serving a global clientele, TBR provides timely and actionable market research and business intelligence in a format that is uniquely tailored to clients needs. Our analysts are available to further address client-specific issues or information needs on an inquiry or proprietary consulting basis. TBR has been empowering corporate decision makers since For more information please visit Technology Business Research, Inc. This report is based on information made available to the public by the vendor and other public sources. No representation is made that this information is accurate or complete. Technology Business Research will not be held liable or responsible for any decisions that are made based on this information. The information contained in this report and all other TBR products is not and should not be construed to be investment advice. TBR does not make any recommendations or provide any advice regarding the value, purchase, sale or retention of securities. This report is copyright-protected and supplied for the sole use of the recipient. Contact Technology Business Research, Inc. for permission to reproduce.