If you're finding the move to eGovernment more difficult than expected maybe you need to look at where the resistance is really coming from, suggests Harry Parkes of Culture Dynamics.
The move towards eGovernment clearly presents a number of technical challenges, but these can hide the underlying adaptive challenges Government departments and agencies face.
So what do we mean by adaptive and technical challenges?
Technical challenges are relatively straightforward and can be solved with the IQ part of the brain; problems are clearly defined, they can be broken down into actionable tasks and allocated accordingly.
What’s more difficult to define is the adaptive challenge, challenges that require character growth and mindset change, an altogether more opaque issue requiring similar solutions at every level of the organisation starting with its culture.
In an interview with Business Week, Lou Gestner outlined how he faced a similar challenge when he took over at IBM:
“It wasn't for lack of strategy. It wasn't for lack of exhortation on the part of the leadership saying, "We've got to change." Nothing happened. The culture didn't want to change. It didn't buy into the strategy. The culture, which is made up of all kinds of practices and behaviors in the institution, fought the change. So what you have to do is go in and change all the processes that underlie cultural behavior.”
What IBM was facing was an adaptive challenge, one that needed the whole organisation to change to be successful. Many public sector organisations are facing similar issues.
Cause or Effect?
The Internet and eGovernment requires a new way of being for the public sector. Therefore it requires new behaviours and attitudes to be developed alongside the technical shifts.
It’s hard to say whether the technical advances of the last decade in public sector service delivery are the result of changes in the relationship between the government and its citizens or, that these changes have actually been enabled by the advances in technology that has allowed them to occur. Regardless of what aspect came first it’s happening and those charged with responsibility for delivery electronic service delivery are having to run very hard to keep up.
The person or team charged with delivering the ESD programme can come to work expecting to solve a technical issue, but spend all day fighting with the adaptive one. No wonder it can seem like such an uphill struggle, and a one where they often feel that they are dragging the whole weight of the organisation behind them.
eGovernment demands so much from the organisation; openness, clarity of purpose, transparency, speed of delivery and excellent customer service on a 1:1 level. Are these are really behaviours that public sector organisations have traditionally valued?
Doing or Being?
The response to this situation is often to ‘do’ a lot. If you are doing lots of things then something must be happening? But often you find that all you are doing is wasting energy and resources. It’s the first rule when the cars’ stuck; flooring it won’t make the matter any better, in fact you’ll probably only make the hole deeper.
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Organisational cultures are very adept at sabotaging change programmes
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Re-skilling through training is often looked to as the solution - send everyone on a course, maybe away for the weekend - but teaching someone new skills and then putting them back into the environment that doesn’t value or nurture them is unlikely to see a return on the training budget, at best this addresses symptoms not causes.
It’s only by understanding the underlying adaptive challenge and the mindset changes needed that one can start to move things forward. If you understand the cultural situation you can start to deal with the behaviours and attitudes that are creating and reinforcing the issues you are facing.
Meeting these challenges cannot be done in the boardroom alone, the whole organisation needs to be engaged. This means asking staff to take on new ways of being, leaving behind outdated ways of thinking and working. This means listening at every level, from the top to bottom of an organisation, to get an accurate picture of the problems that the organisation faces.
The work of the leadership in these situations is fostering an environment where new ways of doing things are explored, giving employees the support they need to get them through the change process and, crucially, regulating the stress it causes.
Key Points
- The challenge of eGovernment is as much an adaptive one as it is technical. Dealing only with the technical issue without addressing the adaptive ones will greatly reduce chances of success
- Managers and team leaders need to first appreciate the attitudinal and behavioural changes that eGovernment is calling for and develop programmes to address these alongside the technical projects.
- Organisational cultures are very adept at sabotaging change programmes that threaten the status quo, it will fight back and managers need to be supported through this process.
- People want to stay in their comfort zones, leadership must maintain strong communication with staff to give them the reasons and reassurance that their staff need to solve adaptive challenges.
Harry Parkes is a consultant at Culture Dynamics.
Culture Dynamics helps clients to undertake the mindset changes they need in order to deal with the adaptive challenges they face and to engage the whole organisation in solving adaptive challenges. We work with team leaders and on 1:1 level to design solutions that will produce sustainable, long term change.
