Daniel Tumiwa on Empowering The Best Talents In the GovTech Edu Team
GovTech Edu has successfully launched various tech platforms to help teachers, schools, and education administrators provide better education in Indonesia. This is a first for Indonesia, where the Ministry has managed to gather the best talents in their field to join the mission of making irreversible transformations through technology in the education sector. These user-centric approaches have so far been received very well, and adoption has seen double-digit growth week on week, on track to very soon pass the tipping point towards mass adoption. Daniel Tumiwa, the COO of GovTech Edu, has a different perspective on this progress, one that is very rarely seen as it all happens behind the scenes.
“I think, alongside the success of the platforms launched, things happen unseen. The ability to attract the best talent to join this mission, leave their important and rewarding positions, stock options and comfortable perks, to explore what appears to be way out of their comfort zone is an achievement by itself.” says this ex-CEO of OLX, who has been focusing on organization performance, culture, and team engagement in recent years as his true passion. As Daniel explains to be able to do this, a solid foundation of business model sustainability is critical. The way we are organized under Indonesia’s largest technology and communications enterprise, Telkom Indonesia, is a strong statement that we have created a “safe to join” initiative that enables us to be involved directly in policy and transformation so that technology can be built and introduced in a sustainable way so that fundamental change can happen, funds can be utilized efficiently and effectively, resulting in real possibilities for reform and transformation through technology.
Often potential talent asks about the continuity of this initiative and if it is wise to drop everything and jump in, contribute and make a direct impact. This perception is not new as history itself has shown that “Ganti Menteri, Ganti Aturan’’. Daniel continues, “We are here to stay. To be able to continue to contribute, the agility of the organization is a key element, down to continuously adjusting to the requirements of the bureaucracy so that the team can continue to focus and deliver the products that are mission critical. These well-designed products will be the winning element of irreversible transformation. The users will not want to digress in the future, as the tech products introduced are so much enjoyed, where each user truly feels stronger, safer and more empowered. We have been able to continue to navigate, adjust and always comply while finding ways to push the bar to levels never done before to create and maintain a team of size, depth and agility. This is all done with a true passion so that we consistently show that the GovTech Edu organization is the place for those who want to directly contribute to Indonesia’s progress in the Government Sector through technology”.
Daniel has more than 25 years of experience working in various fields, ranging from digital commerce, marketing, to public affairs. When he was invited to join the initiative, it was nothing but an honor for him. He sees this opportunity as yet another chance to bridge work on the government side and the tech sector that mostly is private, a great opportunity to contribute all the past experience and navigate uncharted areas.
GovTech Edu’s culture and values in every way
Daniel emphasizes, the working pace at GovTech Edu may have a different pace than fast-growing startups given the nature of bureaucracy and regulations. It gets even more challenging as most of the GovTech Edu’s employees were used to working in dynamic, fast-paced working environments before joining. Sometimes, making team members second-guess themselves whether they are performing well or not, is inevitable.
“With our organization’s setup structure and working within the fiscal regulation limitations, we are running at the fastest pace possible, but oftentimes the team does need re-confirmation that we are well on track and any change that we bring will already have a huge impact on the system.” The affirmation allows the team to know whether they are a cultural fit so that they can maximize their potential and contribute to such an environment. He sometimes succeeds, other times GovTech Edu helps the talents decide if they are at the right culture fit to continue to contribute within our structure and limitations.
“For the first time, I have seen actual work and life co-existing well in an organization. Everyone is treated as adults. Everyone is responsible and accountable for their actions and results. Feedback is Gifts here. It is openness so everyone knows how they are doing. We take personal time very seriously and the whole team respects this. It also often means we need to speed up things when needed, so that we can strike a good balance results between personal and work”.
“We are making changes in Indonesia’s education system and it takes time to achieve that. It takes patience and care– and it’s probably not for everyone. We have seen a few talents deciding to move on and grow outside GovTech Edu. We celebrate their “Graduation”, yet we continue to reflect and improve the way we do things within” says Daniel on the culture and engagement within his organization. We continue to get the highest satisfaction index results that we measure each quarter. But we also pay very close attention to the reality of “growing pains” as we expand fast as a team, and more and more programs we are entrusted to deliver. It is a super agile environment that for sure pushes everyone to perform through continuous reflection and alignment. This makes us able to always move forward stronger”.
Stakeholders Management like no other
Many of the employees said that working at GovTech Edu is a rare opportunity. First, they get a chance to make an impact on the education sector by developing user-centric tech products. Second, they are exposed to different stakeholders, state-owned enterprises and ministries for instance, that require interpersonal skills.
Stakeholder management, hence, plays an important part at GovTech Edu– only few coming from the tech space understand the skill and GovTech Edu feels the need to sharpen it. “Even those who are experienced in stakeholder management still find it pretty challenging. It is urgent to address this matter,” he said. Therefore, GovTech Edu has initiated a Stakeholder Management Development Program called “Work in Progress’’. Participants are hand held over a period of 4 months to learn theories and techniques to master Stakeholder Management.
They are given a framework to activate this new area to them, and benefit from the ongoing learning experience that is shared by each participant. In practice, they are taught and facilitated to solicit feedback about themselves from stakeholders and their significant others. Daniel is directly involved in this program as the principal facilitator. “Everyone is given the opportunity to identify areas of growth, invited to take action to improve it and given the permission to take the time to improve themselves to their full potential” Daniel underlines.
GovTech Edu’s Chief Of Staff for Operations Achmad Moesadad (he goes by the name Usa) is on his fifth week of this program acknowledges “We are forced to improve interpersonal communication skills by soliciting quality feedback amidst our challenging schedules. Everyone being taught how to give quality feedback and how to change feedback into improvement actions, I must say is scary at the start but truly fun and rewarding as we all do it collectively. The feedback is valuable to help us understand ourselves and stakeholders’ expectations towards us,” Usa shared his experience.
Besides Work in Progress, GovTech Edu also provides various improvement programs for all functions to sharpen their skills.
Eyeing rising talents
“I believe that our mission will be the main attraction for the best talent to join. It means opening up more opportunities for the best talent to be employed well and competitively, directly contributing through the government programs. We have set up a place that enables the country’s best digital talent to make an impact in a more sustainable way. The organization structure under Telkom, and executing the vision of the Minister of Education, Culture, Research, and Technology are the uniqueness as well as a strong points of GovTech Edu ” he said, full of hope.
GovTech Edu continues to hire the best talents in Indonesia. While hiring more experienced talents, they are also eyeing young graduates. With packages and benefits competitive to the upper percentiles of the market, you will learn firsthand on developing user-centric tech products, seeing your impact unfold directly in front of your eyes, learn from bureaucracy and real people behind the policies that determine the direction of Indonesia Maju.
