Siim Sikkut - Digital Government Excellence

22 CHAPTER 14: Mike Bracken How Did You Become a Digital Government Leader in the UK? In Addition to Honor, What Was Your Motivation or the Reason behind Such a Thought? Why So and What Were Your Hesitations? You Came in Knowing the Hardships; What Were Your Conditions for Taking the Job? What Task or Expectation Did Politicians Give You for the Role? If That Was the Case, What Sort of Ambition or Objective Did You Set for Yourself? Did You Set Yourself Any Concrete Objectives, Too? I Know You Have Considered the First Hundred Days to Be Crucial When You Start in a Leadership Role Because That Is When You Will Be the Fastest. What Was Your Plan for Your Hundred Days? What Were the Priorities of Your Work from Then Onwards? Did the Departmental CIOs Ever Stick Around? How Did You Change the Supplier Scene? How Did You Build Your Team? How Did You Convince People to Join You? What Kind of Culture Were You Trying to Have in the Team? What Slogans or Mottos Did You Push for the Team Again and Again in This Regard? What Were the Other Ways You Reinforced the Culture? What Steps Did You Take to Empower This Awesome Team to Deliver at Its Best? How Did the Political Relationships Work Out for You? What Were Your Failures or Things You Regret? Could You Have Avoided Your Own Exhaustion? Do You Think You Managed to Instill Some Culture Change in Civil Service At-Large, Like You Set Out to Do? You Said That You Knew from the Start There Was Going to Be Pushback and Struggles Ahead. Did You Start Doing Something Very Consciously to Make Sure That What You Are Starting Would Last? What Was the Push That Made You Leave after All? Would You Ever Take This Job Again? What Are the Skills Necessary to Do This Sort of Job Well? What Are Your Bottom-Line Three Recommendations from a Leadership Point of View for Anyone Doing a Similar Job? What Does It Take to Achieve Excellence in Something Like the GDS and Your Work? Notes

23 CHAPTER 15: Pedro Silva Dias How Did You Enter the Digital Government Leadership Role in Portugal? Did You Have Any Hesitations for Joining the Government? Did You Have Any Conditions for Taking the Role? You Said That the Minister's Vision Was Key—What Was the Objective He Set for You and Expected You to Deliver? What Was the Digital Government Situation Like Otherwise at That Time in Portugal? What Milestones Did You Set Yourself at the Beginning in Your Role? What Was Your Method for Learning Really Fast, as You Set Out to Do This as the Very First Thing? What Was Your Method for Rapidly Building Up the Relationships? What Did the Strategy You Came Up With Look Like? What Was Its Time Horizon? This Is a Wide Agenda—How Did You Choose Where to Focus or What to Prioritize? How Did You Sequence the Actions? How Easy Was It to Retain Focus through the Delivery Years? How Much Did Your Priorities Change? What Were the Tools in AMA's Disposal to Ensure Delivery and Get Other Agencies to Come Along? You Mentioned That You Started Changing the Management Procedures. What Was Your Management Style Like? How Did You Change the Team in AMA? What Was Your Selling Pitch to Convince People to Join? Who Was Your Most Valuable Hire? What Kind of Culture Did You Try to Build in AMA? What Were Your Sound Bites or Slogans You Kept Repeating to the Team? What Routines or Rituals Did You Use to Manage the Team? Are There Things You Regret Not Doing in AMA or Things You Think You Failed At? What Are You Most Proud of Achieving? Why Did You Decide to Move from AMA and Back to Private Sector? What Did You Learn the Most in Your Time in AMA? Do You Feel You Ever Got Used to the Public Sector? What Were the Remaining and Next Challenges Ahead for AMA and Digital Government in Portugal? What Steps Did You Take to Make Sure That What You Started Would Last? What Are Your Three Key Recommendations to Fellow Digital Government Leaders on How to Be Effective in This Role? Notes

24 CHAPTER 16: Randall Brugeaud What Is Your Background Story—How Did You End Up in a Digital Government Leadership Role in Australia? Why Did You Take the DTA Role and Why Were You Approached? What Was the Expectation or the Mission Given to You with the Job? Did You Have Any Asks or Conditions Going into the Job? Tell a Bit More on the Context You Had to Start From—What Was the State of Digital Government in Australia, Also What Was Going on with DTA? What Was the Team Feeling with All These Shuffles? What Sort of Team Did You Take Over? What Was the Mandate for DTA When You Started? What Were the Agency's Levers to Do the Whole-Of-Government Job? What Did You Set Yourself as the Objective When You Started in DTA—What Was to Be Your Concrete Mission? What Were Your First Steps in the Role? You Changed the Whole Operating Model in the First Sixty Days? Where Did You Get the Ideas from for the New Operational Model? What Sort of Coordination or Governance Did You Set Up with Other Government Stakeholders? How Did You Cement the Standing of the DTA? What Were Your Methods or Routines for Managing the Relationship with Political Masters? How Did the Institutional Setting or Cover Change for DTA during the Years? Who Was the Boss? You Have Emphasized a Few Times That You Had to Remake the Team. How Did You Build the Team Out? Who Was Your Most Valuable Hire or Appointment? You Did Bring Up a Cultural Fit Issue about Team Building. What Sort of Culture Did You Want to Have in DTA? What Were Your Own Days and Routines Like as a Team Leader? If You Do Look a Bit Back Now, What Do You See as Your Greatest Achievements in the Job? Tell a Bit More on How COVID-19 Changed the Way You Operated—How Did You Reshuffle Your Work in DTA? Do You Think You Had Any Failures or Things You Regret? Would You Ever Consider Doing the Same Job Again? But What Make You Pack Up and Leave DTA in 2021 Then? What Were or Are the Remaining Challenges for DTA and the Digital Government in Australia? You Said You Were Tapped into the DTA Leadership for Your Background and Expertise. What Would Be Your Main Recommendations for a New Peer or Colleague to Excel in This Type of Job? Note

25 CHAPTER 17: Shai-Lee Spiegelman How Did You Rise to the Role of a Digital Government Leader in Israel? Did You Hesitate at All When Taking the Job? How and Why Was the Digital Israel Initiative Born? What Was Your Role at First? What Was the State of Digital Government in Israel at the Time More Precisely? What Was the Concrete Expectation for You to Deliver? What Did You Set Out to Achieve as Your Own Ambition or Objective Then? How Did the National Digital Strategy Then Come Together—and What Became the Strategy? How Did You Set Out to Deliver the Strategy and to Sequence the Various Initiatives, Which Had Been a Puzzle First? How Did You End Up in the CEO Role of Digital Israel after Two Years in the Team? What Was the Expectation or Task Given to You as You Became the CEO? Given the Horizontal or Matrix Nature of Governmental Strategy, How Did You Build Up the Collaboration with Ministries to Ensure the Delivery on Their End? Was There Ever Pushback from Some Ministries? How Did You Manage to Ensure the Delivery of the Plans? How Did You Help Ministries along the Journey? One of the Keys to Make It All Happen Was to Build Out a Great Team. What Was Your Approach in This Area? How Did You Bring Your Team Together? What Did You Do to Keep the Good People? Can You Tell a Bit More on the Culture You Were Building for the Team? What Were Your Guiding Principles as a Leader? What Were Your Most Effective Management Routines? Looking Back, What Do You See as Your Biggest Achievements in the Job? Are There Things You Regret or Things You Think You Failed At? When 2020 Came, You Decided to Move On—Why Did You Make This Decision? What Were the Remaining or Next Challenges for Digital Israel as You Left? How Did You Make Sure That What You Started Would Stick and Last? Looking Back Now, What Were Your Biggest Learnings in This Job—Anything You Wish You Had Known at Start Already? Did You Ever Learn How to Fix Bureaucracy, as You Had Initially Set Out to Change Government Ways? If Despite It Being Hard, Someone Still Wants to Do This Kind of Job, What Skills Are Necessary for It? What Are Your Three Summary Takeaways from Your Digital Government Leadership Role, as Recommendations to Any Peer on How to Be Effective in This Job? Notes