The other side of smart cities: culture change

By Story Bellows

In regularly talking to mayors and agency leaders from cities about the critical issues facing their communities and how technology can help move them forward — the notion of culture change seems more relevant than ever to address. One of my favorite lines that we use at Cityfi is that “we’re urbanists before technologists.” We’re all really interested in the newest apps, technologies, business models, and tools, but having worked inside government, we inherently understand that these are only as good as the individuals and teams inside government choosing, buying, and using them to impact our cities.

Being urbanists means that our work is organized around urban change management, where culture rarely begins as the primary theme, but often ends up at the center of conversations. All too often, a focus on culture is seen as fluffy or secondary or optional, but really, it’s at the heart of the implementation and operationalization of any major new initiative. The ability to change culture and priorities are sorely needed — in all sorts of institutions, regardless of sector. There isn’t a one-size-fits-all approach for changing culture in institutions, and it isn’t easy, but it is critical to recognize that culture change must be an intentional part of any evolutionary process, and that being able to change is a capacity worth building.

Particularly in large, bureaucratic institutions, change is talked about frequently, especially by new leaders, but rarely is that change institutionalized. Frequently, rank and file employees simply wait out the temporary spotlight on a new mission or mandate, as they don’t have the tools necessary to implement it. Similarly, leaders often shift focus onto a new priority without ensuring a holistic approach to supporting change and implementing the last grand idea.

A few years ago, I took a position at the Brooklyn Public Library. It was my job to lead the team implementing a new strategic plan, one that created a significantly different value structure than the transaction-focus approach that had historically been in place. This framework, which focused on orienting each branch library towards meeting the needs of its particular community, pieced together a series of initiatives and endeavors we had pursued over the course of the new strategy’s development. Little did I know that it would become my playbook for working with all sorts of institutions, cities, and agencies in developing approaches to and strategies for culture change and organizational development.

1. Clearly articulate values: Change for the sake of change is tough to get behind. Institutional leaders need to both clearly articulate values, or “North Stars” as we often call them at Cityfi, and work with staff to ensure that these values are translated into meaningful and appropriate metrics (ideally those focused on outcomes).
2. Use data for decision-making: Enabling staff at all levels to make decisions and providing access to data in personalized ways is critical to ensuring that all members of an organization understand how they are contributing towards the achievement of a new goal.
3. Build new skills and competencies: Professional development is under-supported in many public sector and non profit institutions. As we expect staff to analyze data in new ways or conduct new types of outreach to different communities, we must recognize that these asks may be quite different than what’s been expected in the past or on how staff have been trained. As such, building capacity and supporting training and skill building are critical for organizational change.
4. Support collaboration across entities: Entities can be departments, library branches, community organizations, or other organizing structure. In traditionally siloed institutions, there needs to be a real commitment to developing a culture of collaboration. It likely won’t occur overnight, and will require some letting go and decentralization.
5. Expand tolerance for risk: We must create space for failure. Incentives don’t often line up to rewarding individuals and groups for trying something new, particularly in large organizations, so developing programs and pathways that support experimentation, piloting, and risk-taking must be prioritized.
6. Demonstrate change publicly: It’s important to celebrate and acknowledge change. In addition to talking about change internally (whether within a city or agency or department or organization), this change needs to be reflected externally so that other stakeholders are aware of a team’s evolution — only then can the impacts of change be fully realized.

I had the opportunity to see this cycle through at the Brooklyn Public Library from the inside. I may no longer spend my days working there, but it’s incredibly rewarding to look from the outside and see both the change in culture and elevation in capacity that was enabled through a commitment to this holistic approach. Since leaving the library, I’ve had the opportunity to work with public, private, non-profit, and academic leaders, and it seems that each sector can derive great value from not only thinking about new technologies and processes, but how their organizations can support them and realize their potential impact. Much of my time working in new mobility, where new business models, modes, and data availability are fundamentally changing the roles of and interplay between businesses and city agencies.

As LADOT’s Technology Action Plan so accurately states, “The bottom line is clear: Culture is the most important enabler of digital transformation. Without people, tools will not make any difference.”

I can’t give enough credit to my many co-conspirators at the library, especially Chief Strategy Officer David Giles and the strategy, data, and innovation team who developed this approach with me and have continued to lead the implementation of a visionary plan for Brooklyn’s libraries.

Follow me on Twitter: @storybellows / @teamcityfi