You can change culture now: A grassroots guide for public servants pt. 1
Earlier this year, my friend and colleague Thom Kearney wrote an excellent blog post outlining three essential truths that leaders in the public service can apply to change culture within government. They are: (1) sharing is good, (2) ego gets in the way [of collaboration], and (3) you can’t communicate too much. I’ve been thinking about this utopian workplace where employees are encouraged and rewarded for actively sharing information, pursuing collaboration and communicating often and openly, and what it would mean for the average Canadian federal public servant. I’ve been inspired by the situation in my current work environment, where I am dubbed as the person who does that innovation stuff. This reputation comes primarily from my advocacy for open government and use of technologies to improve internal processes and outcomes for clients. Even though I don’t know a lick of code, my manager calls me his “techie” because I am social media savvy. Lately, I’ve had some colleagues approach me for advice on how to become more innovative, and how to secure buy-in from their managers. I often turn to a quote from the Clerk of the Privy Council who said “Innovation does not need to be revolutionary… It’s really just a fancy word for doing things differently.” With that message in mind, I’ve converted Thom’s three truths into principles with some general tips for influencing culture change from the bottom-up, which I will release as a three-part series.
Principle 1: Sharing
As a public servant, chances are that you are already sharing your work to some extent. Most of us are accustomed to working on horizontal files and regularly sharing products with stakeholders for input. When they are shared, these products are typically in a close-to-final state. They’ve been worked through and edited multiple times by your team members or managers, sometimes with 30 previous draft versions.
To share in innovative ways, you need to look at what stages you usually share and who you typically share with to understand how you might break out of old patterns to create efficiencies. Within the Gov. of Canada, you have access to GCconnex and GCcollab as information sharing platforms that serve as an alternative to e-mail. GCconnex allows you to crowd source ideas, best practices and feedback from other Gov. of Canada employees and GCcollab expands this connection to academics and students from Canadian post-secondary institutions as well as public servants from sub-national governments.
Instead of only sharing final products, consider sharing work that is less-refined. It may be a little uncomfortable to share a concept that is not yet fully fleshed out, but it affords you the opportunity to learn from others and leverage their knowledge early on. By sharing your work with a wider audience, and not just the usual suspects, you receive a richer diversity of perspectives that ultimately challenge you and force you to look through new lenses.
A final point on sharing in innovative ways… make friends with colleagues working in privacy! As guardians of public information, it’s our responsibility to balance innovation with security. When in doubt about what information you can share internally or externally, seek advice from the privacy experts in your organization. Fostering this relationship and demonstrating your knowledge of privacy principles and information classification will empower you to navigate new platforms and networks for sharing confidently.
What are your information sharing habits, and how might you break them to promote innovation?
