By Beth Bell, Vice President, Canadian Public Sector, IBM
Global Business Services
(Beth Bell pictured below with Andrew Treusch, Commissioner of the Canada Revenue
Agency, as she presents him with the inaugural 2016 IPAC IBM Social
Leadership Award for his inspiration and engagement of millennials and new professionals in the Public Sector)
I recently had the opportunity to speak at an IPAC
conference and share a thought leadership piece I had a part in writing. It was
on a topic that is a point of passion for me – how does IBM help our public
sector clients transform faster to meet the ever-changing needs of their
citizens and employees?
As the leader of a large team, I’m faced with the differing
needs and wants of many generations of employees. So while it’s important to address the needs
of all generational segments, I feel the Millennial generation has skills that
can be encouraged by public sector organizations in new and innovative ways.
Despite significant efforts to transform government services
through technology, it’s no secret that government organizations continue to
trail behind the private sector in the digital revolution. Today, citizens increasingly expect government to provide
them with the same conveniences and level of service they experience as
consumers. This means having access to relevant information when, where and how
they want it.
It’s also no secret that, as digital natives, Millennials can
bring some unique skills and perspectives to any organization looking to stay
relevant in this fast-paced digital era.
Recently, my team at IBM asked itself: Can Millennials meaningfully help government
to keep pace? Can they truly help lead the charge in transforming governments
into this new digital era? In essence-- Can Millennials rescue government? While the title of the report is a
bit “cheeky”, I think you’ll find that the findings are worth considering for
your transformational projects.
Earlier this year my team embarked on some fascinating research in collaboration with the IBM’s
Institute for Business Value which also included insights from an IPAC New
Professionals workshop and a social media study. It revealed that Millennial-aged government
employees both can and want to actively engage in
transformation projects.
Our research was detailed in a report titled Can
the Millennial generation rescue government?
Leveraging digital natives in your transformation efforts which concluded that--while
there is never just one quick fix to any complex transformation issue-- there
are a few key things that governments can and must do to better leverage the
insights of Millennials to transform government for the better in this new
digital era. I encourage you to read the
whole report, but here are the highlights of our recommendations:
1. Use an
approach that yields citizen-centered outcomes at speed and scale.
What successful digital transformations today really
reinforce is that adoption of new technologies and processes is what really
matters. Adoption occurs by appealing to the user and putting the user at the
center of the design process. A design thinking approach, which focuses on user
needs, provides a framework for teaming and action. It helps teams not only
form intent, but deliver outcomes – outcomes that advance the state of the art
and improve lives. This approach puts users’ needs first and uses
multidisciplinary teams to collaborate across disciplines to move faster and
work smarter. It also instills a discipline of restless reinvention. By
optimizing systems and interactions for the users, we can truly transform how
people interact and perform tasks to create a friction-less experience.
2. Make
sure Millennials are represented equally along with seasoned employees, users
and citizens when staffing transformational initiatives.
Multidisciplinary teams aren’t just faster – they’re
smarter. Seeing the world through each others' eyes drives unique insights,
advancing the whole team’s thinking. Put people new to the problem alongside those
with deep working knowledge. Ensure all ideas are considered regardless of the
seniority of the person tabling them.
3. Ignore
the traditional immovable objects – and consider wild ideas in the ideation
process.
While issues of security, regulation and legislation must be
considered, try not to encumber creative thinking by these policies – in fact,
foster the wild ideas. While this might be considered heresy to most long-term
government employees, it frees design teams from being tied to the way things
are done today. This ensures that they look at all the best ideas when
designing for the user’s needs and don’t discount the possibility of making
security, legislative, or regulatory changes necessary to accommodate a
transformational idea. Remember, industry disrupters like Uber are not
concerned by the immovable objects – even though they realize these objects can and do
appear. Disrupters focus on the user needs and experience.
4.
Re-evaluate hiring practices to make acquisition of Millennial top talent
easier.
Faster paths to permanent positions based on value delivered
to the organization, shortened
hiring cycles, clear career paths, promotion and
skill-building road maps, and the ability to
make a difference from where they are in the organization
will make an incredible difference in
attracting and retaining top talent.
5. Improve
collaboration tools and transparency to enable greater efficiency within
government.
Millennials use technology in their everyday lives and, in
many cases, as a way to improve communication and efficiency. As an extension,
they expect better technology and digital collaboration tools to help them do
their jobs and connect with others. There is often frustration with the silo
approach of many governments today. Millennials want to collaborate across
government to deliver the best possible service to citizens and expect modern
tools to facilitate that.
Embracing Millennials in large numbers, including them in
transformation projects and embracing collaborative techniques and technologies
in the business of government will bring fresh new thinking from a generational
group used to rapid transformation. These disrupters, if embraced and leveraged
for who they are, just might rescue government.
Ready or
not? Ask yourself these questions…
Government organizations looking to harness the ability of
Millennials to help “re-imagine” the way they engage with both employees and
citizens alike would therefore be well-served in asking themselves these
questions:
• Is my organization actively recruiting and using creative approaches
to retain top-talent Millennials?
• Are we actively engaging and including the Millennials in our
workforce in transformation projects? Are
we fully leveraging their digital skills and fresh insights and ideas?
• Are we embracing agile and design thinking approaches in our
transformational projects to put the user at the center of our design?
• Are we sufficiently enabling an environment of creativity and
collaboration to help generate innovative ideas that may positively disrupt the
way we provide services today?
For organizations that manage to get this right, the payoffs in terms of
innovation and productivity can reap benefits for years to come.
[IPAC
invited Beth to guest blog after a series of workshops and conferences
for IPAC garnered wide interest in the combined research and outreach
that IPAC and IBM have partnered to produce. namely: the New Public Servant Survey
by IPAC, the New professionals Workshops and Leadership Conference, the
IPAC annual conferences in Halifax and Toronto, and the Social
Leadership Award. Beth Bell is the Vice
President responsible for the Canadian Public Sector IBM Global Business
Services team. She is responsible for assisting government and healthcare
organizations in Canada achieve their transformation objectives. Beth is a
diversity champion within IBM Canada and speaks regularly on government
transformation challenges and leadership.]
Beth can be reached by
email at: bethbell [at] ca.ibm.com
Twitter: https://twitter.com/itsbethbell
See the results of IPAC's New Professionals Survey, Facing the Future: Exploring the Recruitment and Retention of New Public Servants in Canada, here: English / Français
