Friday, December 17, 2010

Happy Holidays! Now Watch This!

Work tends to slow down around this time of year as fewer and fewer people are in the office. If you find yourself with some downtime at your work station I suggest you make some popcorn, assemble a few of your colleagues and watch this video entitled "Why Work Doesn't Happen at Work". Who knows with everyone gone you may actually have the bandwidth to stream it from your otherwise archaic government workstation.



Thanks everyone for your ongoing support, see you in the new year.

Cheers.

- Nick

This column was originally published to cpsrenewal.ca by Nick Charney.

Friday, December 10, 2010

Think IDEO, but for government

This entry may be last before the new year, and to be honest, has been a long time coming. You see, I've got this thought in my head and it seems to have taken up residence. I'm not sure how much you know about me, or how much you care to know, but I've spent the last four years in the public sector. I could bore you with all of the details but let's just say that I've experienced both the best and the worst this sector has to offer.

My initial experience was so abhorrent that I've made it my mission to try to make it better for others; I look to my father for inspiration and to my children for lessons in collaboration. I like to think that I have helped inspire public servants to be courageous, to rethink old mental models, and to alert them to the art of the possible.

I've met many great people, inspiring thinkers and doers, and for that I am incredibly fortunate. Many think I am living the dream, that I am one of the few who have come as close as you possibly can to an entrepreneur in the public sector.

There was a time when I agreed with them, but that time has passed.


We are ready for so much more


I was on the bus on my way to work yesterday and overheard three public servants speaking. One of them was talking about her son who was working as a student two days a week for a federal agency. He was doing so well that they wanted to bridge him in full time, only he didn't want that. In fact, "It is the last thing he wants, he is looking for something where he can be entrepreneurial."

It's not surprising, despite the best efforts of some of our best and brightest, even the most well-intentioned attempt at public sector innovation is suffocated by the traditionally bureaucratic: committees, policies, and briefing notes.

Perhaps it’s time for a complete redesign.


Or at least I am

I want to spend the next leg of my professional career working on all facets of public sector redesign. I've said before that:

Never before has technology allowed us to paint such a clear picture of what is informing decision-making, policy, and program delivery. Embracing a more open ethos and grabbing hold of enabling technology will do more for our public services than we could possibly imagine. It starts with a simple switch: connecting what we used to write in the margins of our paper based notebooks on the web.

In short, I want to focus on designing and implementing open systems for the public sector in virtual, intellectual and physical space. I want to help ensure that the most innovative ideas, practices and people are no longer lost, ignored or marginalized.

I have ideas on how this can be done both within existing public sector organizations, and as a private firm. I'm open to discussing this with anyone who gets me even one inch closer to being able to pull this together.

Think IDEO, but for government.




This column was originally published to cpsrenewal.ca by Nick Charney.

Friday, December 3, 2010

The Long Tail of Internal Communications

I assume you are already familiar with the long tail; if so proceed directly to flipping through my slides below, if not it might be worth reading the Wikipedia article, the book by Chris Anderson, or watching this video by Clay Shirky, as the long tail forms the basis of my entire line of reasoning below.

The Tail




The bulk of communication within the organization - perhaps its very life blood - is informal. If you look at the examples I've charted you begin to understand how the long tail grows as new communication tools emerge.

No one would ever think of trying to enforce an approvals process on face to face peer-to-peer communication. If someone told you had to pre-screen your phone calls or emails through communications you'd probably laugh. Yet the tone is rather different when we approach the confluence of corporate intranets and enterprise wikis. At the epicenter, where formal and informal collide, there is great confusion. A confusion that paralyzes staff, creates division and sucks productivity.

My hope is that visualizing internal communications along the long tail helps people understand that internal communications happens along a continuum, and that continuum shifts as the tool set grows. Once we understand that, we understand that the role of communications shouldn't be simply to maintain the integrity of formal communication channels but to also ensure that people are communicating effectively within the organizations informal channels as well.


The Emerging Role for Communicators


I see three very specific roles for which modern communicators: (1) provide guidance and strategic direction; (2) steward modernization ; and (3) employee engagement Moreover these three roles occur at very specific parts of the organization: (1) policy; (2) culture; and (3) collaborative technologies. Essentially, this is the emerging role for communicators:




BTW - if anyone is interested, I have developed a 3 hour training session around this conceptual framework for internal communicators.