This may not be the first of this kind of letter that you see, nor would I imagine it will be the last, but it is MY first opportunity to write such a letter. I was a California state employee for 32 years — Gov. Jerry Brown was the governor when I started my career, and he was the governor when I retired and began my second chapter in the private sector. During my career as a state employee, it was considered a “career-limiting” move to be outspoken to or about the incoming administration. So, this is my first opportunity to let an incoming governor know what’s on my mind. And you’re reading this letter in a publication focused on technology, so my thoughts are mostly focused on technology — I spent 25 or so years in that domain as a state employee.
First, congratulations! And maybe condolences, as well. You’re now the leader of the sixth-largest economy in the world, with a governing apparatus that exceeds most countries in terms of depth and breadth: Nearly 300,000 employees. Over 150 departments. An information technology portfolio that is likely the largest in the world in the public sector.
That means that in addition to all the other big jobs you have, you have a big job on the technology side, too. As you likely know by now, the media loves to point out projects that have challenges, security systems that have been breached, and the state’s general inability to get data to the people in a timely way. It’s not much different from “dirt” in a campaign.
In my humble opinion, I think there was a lot of progress made over the last couple of decades, but there is so much more to do, frankly speaking. Over the last half-dozen years, we’ve focused on initiatives that must now be tied together so that momentum is not lost, assuming you do not want to lose momentum in key areas of efficiency and effectiveness, accountability, reducing cost, and asset management.
You have four, possibly eight years — tops, and everyone knows change takes time, but no one budgets for it. Please don’t throw the baby out with the bath water and “reboot” initiatives that are already underway. Reinforce what is good that fits your program priorities and keep making forward progress.
Move toward effective and efficient. We made some progress in the last administration toward management and leadership development, LEAN training, and human capital management, but you must now take those early efforts and extend them. Require all departments to implement LEAN. Make a proclamation, and hold all directors accountable. Visit departments on a periodic basis and reinforce how important this is to the taxpayers. Get moving early and fast, and sustain your personal involvement somehow. Require all departments to have strategic plans and run their operations with those strategies. Don’t let them get by with some of the crap that they call strategic plans (you know who you are). Government doesn’t run like a business for good reasons, but that doesn’t mean that government can’t be strategic and “planful.” Other states are making good progress with this approach.
Don’t just “modernize” technology — modernize people and culture, too. Old systems can still work (Made an airline reservation lately? Most back ends are still running on mainframes) with intelligent upgrades. Not everything is a “rip and replace.” Require IT strategies that support the business strategies in meaningful ways — and this should roll all the way up to the state IT strategy. Good progress has been made by the state on project approvals using the “stage/gate” model — extend that to account for ROI and make sure people know what to do with that information. When projects ARE approved, manage project approvals toward consolidation of systems and data stores. Of course, all of this will be scary for employees and managers alike, and there is sometimes a tendency to get micro-managey when people get scared. But micromanagement poisons the work environment — don’t let it happen. Pay attention to culture. There are tried and true methods out there to help people transition from a “command and control” environment to more of a “performance-based team” environment; these methods work and help manage these transitions more quickly and effectively. It takes decades for “momentum” to build to a sufficient point where change is recognizable, but you can shortcut that with a carefully planned and managed approach.
Hire hard and fire easy. Hire for core values. Spend some time on management accountability and making sure they know how to do their jobs and have the tools they need. Training them in leadership is great, but then follow up. Get rid of those who don’t do the work of management. Encouraging innovation is good for an environment unless the environment itself does not support innovation — then there is some work to do before we encourage people to do something that will not be appreciated. Don’t neglect the “back end” of innovation — we can develop new apps all day long, but without some attention to what goes on in the background, the innovation investment will not reach its ROI anytime real soon, and may actually have an opposite impact.
Un-silo and move deliberately toward interoperable systems and data. You can probably fund all other initiatives in this rant with the money that will (eventually) be saved by connecting systems and minimizing duplication of the same. The value of a holistic approach to government services has been proven over and over again, across most domains. That we continue to ignore it is almost criminal, especially when we look at the primary reason why we ignore this important piece — it’s too hard to get people to the table and to agree on what needs to happen, so often we don’t even try. When we don’t try, we are effectively encouraging the silos to exist. How can we ever effectively serve citizens without taking a holistic view? How can we effectively manage or even stop “waste, fraud and abuse” without being able to see the whole picture? How can we effectively collaborate to solve our toughest problems if we can’t share data? And don’t let anyone tell you that data cannot be shared. In most instances, data can be shared, with appropriate precautions and consents. Move toward consent. You may not be aware of this, but departments within the same agency will not share data with other departments within the same agency, even though they ultimately work for the same person (you). Decree (and enforce through project approvals) that silos will not be tolerated.
Data is an asset of the citizens of California. Treat it like it matters. Managing an asset implies keeping it clean and making sure it is accurate, timely and secure. Managing the asset requires an investment — make sure every agency has someone that is vested with developing and administering the agency’s data program, and THEN make sure that every department has a data program as well. Manage this toward a longer view of eliminating these very same data programs as you consolidate data stores, as you consolidate systems. Plan for this obsolescence. No one will like this — proliferating data stores is good for those selling in this sector, and every department wants to own its own data, but that doesn’t mean they do a good job of managing that asset. This is where you can be truly innovative — in building data stores for interoperable systems and making sure that departments make use of the centralized stores. Heck, you can even create these stores as “public utilities” outside of government as nonprofit agencies that can perhaps move more effectively and efficiently to stand up the infrastructure and ensure that standards are used and maintained. It is a long view, but, in my humble opinion, worth the investment.
Just my $.02.
