Let’s get digital
Editor’s note: the Ontario Digital Government team is partnering with the Brookfield Institute for Innovation + Entrepreneurship to host the Let’s Get Digital event next week. In this post, Jesse Darling from the Brookfield Institute shares some of her thoughts on digital government and why they’re working with us.
Imagine a 150-year-old organization tasked with delivering products and services for customers with different needs across diverse geographies. This organization has withstood the test of time, but chances are, there’s still a lot of room for improvement when it comes to delivering products that are useful and valuable to all the people it serves.
To stay current, this organization must adapt to changing consumer and societal demands. Now more than ever, there is a need to reimagine traditional business models to enable a digital transformation — and a need to recognize that digital is not just about technology. Digital impacts all aspects of an organization: from the way products and services are purchased and delivered, to the way problem-solving and risk-taking are rewarded.
Over the past few months we have begun to see this type of transformation in one of the oldest Canadian organizations — the Ontario Government. Employees across the public service are being mobilized and empowered to create user-centered services and use digital tools to serve the people of Ontario.
Some of this transformation is overt — office hours on restaurant rooftops, blog posts that are written by staff, a digital team operating like a startup inside the government — but most of the work is being done in the background, by people all across the organization, working hard to deliver better outcomes to Ontarians.
It is hard to make change anywhere. It is exceptionally hard to drive change in any large, complex organization — especially one that provides health care, builds infrastructure, delivers social assistance programs, and all the other things that ensure the wellbeing of people in the province.
The first step government needs to take in order to build better digital services for Ontarians is to innovate internal processes and systems. By transforming existing systems and organizational culture, the government can support the already-growing conditions for building a better public service.
That’s why we at the Brookfield Institute for Innovation + Entrepreneurship are excited to co-host Let’s Get Digital with the Digital Government team.
On October 17th, digital leaders across industry, community, non-for-profit, and government will come together to help shape Ontario’s first Digital Government Action Plan. This plan will be a roadmap for how the Ontario Government can drive innovation, better leverage data, and champion a citizen-first approach across government.
We’ve designed the evening to be fun, engaging and most importantly, impactful:
- Inspiring speakers. Check.
- Workshops that will challenge attendees to flex their mental muscles and creative problem solving skills. Check.
- An adapted version of Cards Against Humanity to get at big, thorny topics like organizational culture. Check.
We are committed to collecting and synthesizing all of the notes and ideas generated from online activity, satellite socials and workshops and posting them online for anyone to access. We will use these insights to inform the development of a white paper that will provide recommendations to the Digital Government Team when crafting Ontario’s Digital Action Plan.
I hope you will take part in this important conversation. You can join us at Ryerson University in downtown Toronto, or by attending or hosting a satellite social.
If you are interested in learning more about Let’s Get Digital or how to get involved, please do not hesitate to get in touch. I can be reached at jesse.darling@ryerson.ca or on Twitter.
