Reflections on digital government during COVID and what that might mean for our collective future, for the Institute of Citizen Centric Servies in Canada.

I presented a set of stories of incredible achievement, usually against the odds and against the norms of the systems those teams were working in.

  • Digital teams work. Reset operating models around them.
  • Legacy systems are brittle. And not just technology. Reform funding and incentives to unlock them.
  • Data infrastructure is missing. Build the right service models so everyone wins.
  • The things that have worked this year started as risky bets. Get comfortable placing informed bets.
  • Sustained leadership engagement and clear focus remove friction. New governance and new leadership skills are still vital.

These were in part drawn from some strategy work Dave Rogers and I had been doing for a Canadian client.

The talk was transformed into an article on ‘How the pandemic made the case for digital government reform’