Lately I have been hearing much talk about government needing to take more risk and learn from failure (and so on); not least from Sir Gus O'Donnell in an article in the Telegraph yesterday. But I can't help feeling that this thinking is more than a bit wobbly: government should be taking less risk...
Creating cultures in government that cope with complexity
Following on from thinking in a few recent posts about the emerging nature of change in government (and after inspiration and help from Noah Raford) I have put together a white paper available as a PDF or here... Governments are facing new, game-changing complexity. They are dealing with increasingly pressing and diverse problems: from improving public services, to ensuring national security, to dealing with the global financial crisis. Each problem has its own specific set of issues; but now, in a world of mounting complexity, these issues interact and it is near-impossible to manage them separately. A focus on applying the right technical solution for each problem in isolation is unlikely to work. The real challenge is to develop cultures that will …
There is not "No chance for G-Cloud"
I was stirred by an article in the Guardian's government computing section: No Minister: No chance for the G Cloud which questions the viability of the Government's approach to cloud computing. Whilst doing anything transformative in government IT is going to be hard, I see much to recommend in the approach being taken. I wrote this comment in response (copied here)...
When things aren't working
Nuff said.
Noses for hire: a new kind of help?
This post is about how I think government organisations need to change, and how to get the right people to do the right things to make this change happen. In particular, I will talk about hired help. And about noses.
"I object to this social... stuff"
I talk with people quite a lot about using social software in organisations. This post is about the objections I hear and how I respond.
The Crazy Ones
If you work in an organisation that you think is weighed down by its ways then there is something you can do. Take a close look at the icon for Apple's TextEdit software...
'Collaboration' is too good a word to waste
I have just been reading the recent Home Affairs Committee report: New Landscape of Policing. There is an interesting chapter on Collaboration and in particular I was struck by the use of the word collaboration itself.
A view on the PASC Report on Change in Government and why just "doing stuff" will come into its own
I have just finished reading the Public Administration Select Committee's (PASC) recent report on Change in Government (pdf). Undoubtedly much effort has gone into it, with contributions from many wise people; but I can’t help feeling that it misses something very important, which makes the thrust of its conclusions …er …wrong. This thing is Complexity...
Agile Tea and the Four Ex Model
Today I spoke at AgiliTea, a networking session run by the Innovation and Delivery team of the Government Digital Service.
