Siim Sikkut - Digital Government Excellence

26 CHAPTER 18: Taavi Kotka How Did You Enter Public Sector and the Government CIO Role in Estonia? What Was Your Main Motivation Still to Take the Role—Besides the “Golden Handcuffs” from the Exit? What Made the Minister or Secretary General Choose You, and What Were You Called In to Do or Deliver? What Were the Things That Needed to Be Done? What Was the State of Play in Digital Government in Estonia in 2013? What Was the Institutional Setup Like—Including the Mandate for Your Role? What Did You Set Yourself as Some Concrete Objectives to Achieve? What Were Your First Steps or Actions in the Role? How Were You Able to Deliver on Your Objectives from There On, Also Given the Small Size of the Team? How Did You Influence Other Government Departments to Get Onboard the Initiatives? Can the Tank Method Also Backfire? With the Usual Incentives Not Available, How Did You Motivate Your Own Team to Deliver? How Did You Choose the People to Your Team? What Was the Factor You Looked For? Who Was Your Most Valuable Hire? How Did You Advance the Culture in the Team? What Were Your Routines to Ensure That Delivery Was Happening? What Were the Things You Kept Saying to the Team Again and Again? What Are the Things You Regret from Your Time in Office, or Things You Failed At? What Do You Consider Your Biggest Achievements While in Office? Did You Manage to Make Any Difference? What Made You Stay in Government Longer Than Planned, and What Made You Leave after Four Years after All? How Did You Make Sure That Your Work Would Last? Knowing What You Now Know, Is There Anything You Wish You Had Known When You Started? Is There Any Skill That Can Be Learned to Be Ready to Take Such a Job? What Are the Key Things to Do to Be Effective as a Government CIO or in a Similar Role? Notes

27 CHAPTER 19: Tim Occleshaw How Did You Enter the Digital Government Leadership Role in New Zealand? What Was Your Motivation to Apply? What Was the Institutional Context of Digital Government Steering in New Zealand at the Time? Did You Hesitate at All about Whether to Apply For, or to Take the Job? Did You Have Any Conditions Going in or Asks for the Role? What Was the Expectation to You, or the Ambition Laid Out for You to Achieve? What Was Your Team's Mandate and the Mechanisms or Levers to Achieve These Aims? What Was Your Initial Plan or Essential Steps in the First Three Months of the Job? What Was the Time Frame for Your Strategy? What Was the Gist of the New Strategy? What Were the Mechanisms Foreseen in the Strategy for Ensuring Its Delivery? What Else Did You Employ for Ensuring the Strategy's Delivery and Especially across the Government? You Had Planned for a Mid-Term Review of Strategy after the First Two Years—How Much Did You Change the Plan Then? With Changing Politics and Otherwise Things Happening in Life How Did You Manage to Keep the Delivery of Strategy in the Intended Line and Your Focus on the Strategy as Opposed to Current Events? Your Title Changed Half-Way through Your Time in the Office—Why? How Did You Build Your Team? What Key Roles or Competences Did You Look For? What Was Your Selling Argument to Convince People to Join You? What Was the Culture Fit You Were Aiming For in This Team? As a Leader of the Team, What Were Your Principles or Mottos You Kept Infusing? What Were Your Routines to Handle Relationships with Peers or Stakeholders in the Government? You Served under the Government CIO—Later GCDO—Colin MacDonald. How Did You Two Work Together? During Your Term, You Were Able to Raise More Funds for the Work—What Was the Trick to That? You Have Told Me at Some Point That It Is Important to Know When to Lead and When to Follow. How Did That Manifest in Your Work? If You Sum Up Your Term in Office, What Are You Most Proud of as Your Achievements? Do You Think You Had Any Failures? Are There Any Other Regrets You Have? You Already Touched Upon What Made You Move On—the Difference of Views Over the Scope of Strategy. Was That All? What Do You Think Were the Outlying Next Challenges for Digital Government in New Zealand? How Did You Ensure What You Started Would Last? Would You Take the Same Job Ever Again? What Do You See Are the Core Skills Necessary to Do This Job Well for Impact? What Are Your Recommendations to a Good Peer from Another Country—Tim's Friendly Advice for How to Perform Digital Government Leadership Well? Notes

28 CHAPTER 20: Yolanda Martínez How Did You Enter the Field of Digital Government and Become the Leader in it in Mexico? Did You Hesitate at All about Joining the President's Team? Was There Any More Concrete Mission or Deliverable Set for You to Come and Take Care Of? For Background and Context, What Is the Institutional Setting of Digital Government in Mexico? How Did the Decision Emerge That Very Strong Central Coordination Was Exactly What Was Needed? How Easy Was the Transition from City to Federal Level for You? What Were Your First Steps During the First Months in Office? How Did the Initial Agenda Become the Eventual Digital Strategy? What Was the Main Focus or Priority in the Strategy, and How Did You Set Out to Deliver It? How Did You Get the Other Entities Onboard with the GOB.MX Agenda? How Did You Coordinate All These Other Governmental Stakeholders More Widely, Too? How Did This Commission Work as Your Main Governance Body? Setting the Focus Is One Thing, Keeping It Another. How Hard Was It for You to Maintain the Focus on Your Approved Agenda? In Mexico's Digital Government Agenda, Open Government Was Always a Very Big Part. How Did That Come About, Because It Is Not Necessarily the Case Elsewhere? You Have Talked Sometimes Quite a Bit about the Work on Making a Birth Certificate Standard Together with State Governments. What Was That About and Why Was It Important? How Did You Build the Team Out? As You Were Expanding the Team, Who Was Your Most Valuable Hire or Addition? Once You Had the Team, What Were the Principles or Culture You Wanted Them to Follow? Where There Any Routines You Used Regularly to Manage the Team? How Much Did You Spend Time Managing Up, Once the Presidency Was in Full Swing? What Are the Things You Wish Could Have Worked Out Better During Your Time in Office, or Things You Would Do Differently? What Was for You the Hardest Part of the Job? In 2017, You Actually Took the Wider Role and Replaced Alejandra Lagunes as the National Digital Strategy Coordinator—How Did That Come About? What Was Your Trick or Recipe for Attracting Good People to Join Your Team? You Had to Depart with the Rest of the Team When the President Changed after the Next Elections. Were There Any Steps You Took During Your Term Consciously to Make Your Initiatives and Reforms Last? If the Next President Comes Calling, Would You Work the Same Job Again? Is There Anything You Wish You Had Known When You Started the Job? What Are the Core Skills to Be Successful in This Job? What Is Your Summary of What Does It Take to Be Effective in Such a Digital Government Leadership Role? What Would Be Your Recommendations, Concluding from Your Experience?

29 EPILOGUE: How to Lead a Government to Digital Excellence Deliver, Deliver, Deliver Strategy Is Your Job—and Your Opportunity It Is Hard without Proper Political Support It Is a Networked Job and a Job of Networking Good Communications Will Empower You The Team Will Determine How Far and Fast You Can Run Work for Lasting Change—Every Day The Job Is Hard—Be Ready for It Fix Your Sight on the Users—The Impact on Citizens and Businesses Your Effectiveness Is in Your Own Hands

30 ABOUT THE AUTHOR

31 INDEX

32 END USER LICENSE AGREEMENT

1 COVER

2 TABLE OF CONTENTS

3 TITLE PAGE

4 COPYRIGHT

5 DEDICATION

6 PREFACE

7 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

8 LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS

9 INTRODUCTION

10 BEGIN READING

11 EPILOGUE: How to Lead a Government to Digital Excellence