Radish Sprouts

A Proposal to Deliver "Technology in Government" Excellence

We'll explore how the federal government can strengthen its own internal operations by leveraging innovation and technology lessons.

The Innovation Vision

The Biden vision is to make America the global innovation leader through steps such as:

	Lead the world again in innovation by investing $300B in R&D.
	Increase federal support for municipal broadband.
	Fund clean energy R&D and prioritize carbon capture, utilization, and storage technology.
	Insure proper technology for national cybersecurity and Health IT.
	Direct entrepreneurial and commerce competitiveness.

We've already seen important actions in Biden's first days to honor science and appoint credible leaders for important technology roles.

Furthermore, discussions are underway to address ways to improve U.S. overall competitiveness. These include: valuing and funding high-speed Internet access for all; supporting Made in America 5G communications and critical infrastructure technologies; allowing international STEM students to more easily study and get work visas in the U.S.; encouraging, expanding, innovating, and enforcing Buy American; protecting our intellectual property from international pirates; and many more.

However, federal government must strengthen its own internal operations by leveraging innovation and technology. Here is a proposal which builds on some good work already underway.

Five-Pronged Proposal for 'Technology in Government' Excellence

1. DRIVE A CULTURE OF INNOVATIVE GOVERNMENT

Innovation must be nurtured and implemented. Innovation will positively impact public, as well as private, sector organizations and help build a stronger and more competitive nation. Innovation delivers extraordinary results! The 'Pursuit of Passionate Purpose' approach has proven to deliver innovative IT transformation for the State of Colorado and many other organizations. Here's how.

	Find passion. The intersection of values and talents describes Passion. Discern innovation as a core value. Include innovation in our envisioned future, as Biden has done. Bring along on our journey the proper people who can support innovation.
	Establish a passionate purpose of customer delight by striving to meet and exceed customers' expectations. Define who the customer is. Build customer satisfaction. Then work to improve the user experience (UX) or customer experience (CX).
	Pursue the purpose with all your heart and soul persistently until you make progress. Establish a plan. The mantra must be "Focus, Finish, and Fly." Less is more.
	Assess progress. Define the right measure of success. Is it the number of innovations brought to market that deliver a positive Return on Investment. Is it the speed of delivering these innovations coupled with quality? Define and track it. Reward progress, regroup, and continue the pursuit by reaffirming passion in the first step.

2. COLLABORATE AMONG AGENCIES FOR CYBERSECURITY AND INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY TRANSFORMATION

	Get the many agencies working together to set common goals, prioritize initiatives, establish policies, and enforce universal standards. Move from a federated model, where each agency operates independently, to more of a hybrid operating model, incorporating shared governance and economies of scale from appropriate centralized IT transformation.
	Reignite the Federal CIO Council. Expand the CIO collaboration to include CIOs of smaller agencies and departments.
	Collaborate between federal CIOs, state CIOs, and local CIOs. Involve NASCIO and other key organizations.

3. BUILD BACK TALENT

	Focus on replenishing talent. During the prior administration, many technology experts left and were not replaced. People are the most important asset.
	Build back the Office of Science of Technology Policy, the Office of the Federal CIO, as well as more expertise in the agencies.
	Hire, fund, and empower Customer Experience Officers.
	Stress diversity with more women and people of color.

4. FOCUS ON PROMISING TECHNOLOGIES THAT ARE EMERGING NOW

GE's Global Innovation Barometer and Insights find that 95 percent of respondents say innovation is the primary way to make a nation's economy more competitive. The findings show that most leaders realize that unless they disrupt, they will be disrupted.

	Explore new technologies that can provide breakthroughs in attaining government objectives and improving security. Study trends of emerging technologies that have great potential to transform. Surveys of top CIOs prioritized cybersecurity and risk management platforms; digital government frameworks with mobility, artificial intelligence (AI), and accessibility; cloud strategy; customer relationship management; data management and analytics, and more. Launch pilot programs and experiment. Succeed fast or fail fast.
	Allocate budget for novel solutions and emerging technologies. Use an agile budgeting and development approach, yet include 'divide and conquer' project methodologies that can deliver valuable outcomes.
	Modernize legacy platforms and applications to enhance capabilities, reduce costs, simplify support, and improve user experience and performance.
	Stimulate digital transformation within all parts of the federal government and in private sectors. Use new approaches to make it easier and more efficient for people to interface with government. Learn lessons from the pandemic about turning up new systems and serving users on a fast schedule.

5. BE THE ENTREPRENEUR

An entrepreneur organizes, manages, and assumes the risks of a business or enterprise. Entrepreneurs, in the purest sense, are those who identify a need — any need — and fill it. Phil Weiser, State of Colorado Attorney General, says "a core failing of today's administrative state... is the lack of imagination as to how agencies should operate. In reality, however, effective administration depends on entrepreneurial leadership that spearheads policy experimentation and trial-and-error problem-solving, including the development of regulatory programs that use non-traditional tools." We need to:

	Build into the federal IT culture the permission to imagine, experiment, and incubate.
	Support and fund government technology incubators.
	Hire proven entrepreneurs and train internal leaders to take on their winning traits.
	Pursue strategic partnerships with entrepreneurial ventures, including public / private partnerships like the one that delivered the U.S. Digital Service.

Conclusion

There is a need to focus in order to achieve the vision of American as the global innovation leader. Five focus areas to build back better technology in government include: drive a culture of Innovative Government, collaborate at the federal, state, and local areas on cybersecurity and IT Transformation, replenish talent, focus on technologies of the future now, and be the entrepreneur. Let's play and have fun with technology. Let our creativity and imagination flow. As Einstein said, "Imagination is more important than knowledge."

Dan King's Passionate Purpose

Dan King, one of the fastest masters runners in the U.S., pursues his passionate purpose! Dan King has a success formula — it works in both his personal and professional life. He applied this approach as the co-founder and CEO of ReadyTalk, a teleconferencing company, which was sold in 2017 to Premiere Global Services. And he uses this process now to be the all-time fastest masters runner in the U.S. over 60 years old at distances from one mile to 5000 meters.

According to Runners World, "On December 11, at the Five and Dime meet in Columbia, South Carolina, King ran the mile in 4:52.68, shaving 0.33 seconds off the existing 60-64 American record of 4:53.01, set by Nolan Shaheed in 2012." He broke the 3000- and 5000-meter American records the next day. WOW!

How Does He Do It?

It's no surprise that Dan's formula follows the four-stage "Pursuit of Passionate Purpose" process. Here's how:

1. FIND PASSION. When values are aligned with talents or gifts, one finds passion. Dan did.

Build from Values. "I always am guided by values in life. I desire to live life to the fullest and get the most out of my years. I want to make the world a better place. As an athlete, I commit to my well being through nutrition and exercise. I don't make excuses — I stay fit all the time."

Align with Talent. "Running is my favorite sport. My Dad and siblings were runners. My former coach at CU Boulder recently told me I was the most talented walk-on he had ever coached."

2. ALIGN PASSION TO A MEANINGFUL PURPOSE.

Set the Goal. "The goal must not be too easy or too big. I don't get energized by an easy goal. Or an impossible one. It must have the right discomfort level. I use goals to guide my training and give me things to aspire to. My goal entering 2020 was to be one of the few Americans over 60 years old to have ever run under a 5-minute mile."

Visualize. "I visualize my desired outcome. I use visualization to paint the picture of what success looks like, and how it will feel to achieve it."

3. PURSUE PURPOSE.

Plan. Goals must be measurable and quantifiable. That sets the stage for planning what it will take to achieve them. Examples are:
  - Find a time and place to run a USATF-sanctioned track meet at sea level with favorable conditions.
  - Create a training schedule that supports the goal. Continually research and gain knowledge about performance in the sport.
  - Stay adaptable. Cross train to manage around inevitable setbacks.

4. ASSESS PROGRESS.

Have a Growth Mindset. Discover self-limiting behaviors. Experiment with new approaches. Keep an open mind.

Adapt. "Even with my successes in 2020, I am now trying a new training approach. I love to experiment on myself and continually grow in this sport."

Be Persistent and Consistent.

Applying It to Business

Dan has used the same process in his business life with ReadyTalk. "Energy came from the belief that a company based on values and purpose will be a better place to work."

Values. "Our values included integrity, respect, accountability, high standards for excellence, and collaboration. As CEO, I made sure these were well understood and communicated regularly. We gained clarity on our values and other elements of culture. We built a hiring system based on alignment with our values."

Visualize. "We engaged our whole team with visualization exercises to paint the picture of what we wanted to create, including things like the physical location, products, reviews, and other artifacts that were part of our desired state. Weekly at our 30-minute all-company meeting, we reinforced the values, told stories and aligned them with our objectives, and recognized teammates who were living the values with their talents, and more."

By continuing to pursue its purpose using the "Pursuit of Passionate Purpose" principles, ReadyTalk found its desired exit. You can too.

Summary

So what about you? What personal records will you break? How can you make the world a better place? Find your passion. Align it with a meaningful purpose. Then pursue it persistently with a plan. Keep at it and make a difference!

copyright Theresa Szczurek 2020.  All rights reserved.  

photo credit:  Dave Albo.  lane1photos.com