Like most industries, the public sector is moving through digital transformation to improve the services it provides to constituents. But many agencies are falling behind on their digital initiatives. According to a report by Deloitte, government agencies were still significantly relying upon their legacy operating models even while leveraging certain tech capabilities prior to the pandemic.
It’s not enough for agencies to simply digitize services and information; they must also modernize how they work within their teams, making necessary cultural changes to support digital innovation. Half of surveyed federal employees say the workforce’s resistance to change is why modernization efforts fail. To successfully embrace digital transformation, organizations must address their culture. By communicating the purpose behind operational changes, as well as the benefits it will bring the organization, leaders can inspire changed behavior in employees.
In a recent opening keynote of the annual Atlassian Team Tour: Government, Atlassian CRO Cameron Deatsch emphasized that there is no true digital transformation without cultural transformation. With the help of an Atlassian Government Partner, agencies can align digital transformation and cultural transformation efforts, ensuring leadership teams have a roadmap for change to distribute to employees and configuring systems so employees are set up to work collaboratively.
Cultural and Digital Transformation Starts With Leadership
Leaders in the public sector must be at the center of any change, including digital and cultural transformation. Without buy-in and support at the top, goals won’t reach the broader organization where changes need to be implemented.
Once transformation goals are established—whether teams want to adopt Jira for issue tracking and managing, or migrate their applications for better performance—and senior leadership shares the team’s objectives, it’s up to managers to ensure changes are executed throughout the organization. This may require team leaders to take on new responsibilities, such as training their departments on new technology, or introducing staff to other teammates who will also be using the technology. Remember, achieving digital and cultural transformation will require clear communication on why the changes are necessary and how they will benefit the organization and its employees.
An Atlassian Government Partner can help leadership teams communicate the organization’s plan for change by providing teams with a roadmap for onboarding new systems that shows when and how employees will be impacted by any changes.
Upholding Change Initiatives Through Collaboration
Like businesses, government agencies can be stymied by siloes that impede the flow of work and ideas and weaken organizational health. It’s essential to have tools and procedures in place that foster efficient sharing across departments. This step requires adopting cultural norms, practices, and digital networks that support collaboration through a strong partnership between government agents and IT staff.
Successful collaboration means bringing stakeholders into all project phases to share objectives and provide feedback for common goals. Agile methodologies, for example, can boost collaboration between stakeholders and IT, providing the means to respond quickly to issues. The more closely departments can work together, the more effective digital transformation can be.
An Atlassian Government Partner can help here, too, by suggesting and implementing specific team collaboration tools. Once onboarded, an Atlassian Government Partner can configure agencies’ applications with workflow customizations to promote better synchronization between teams.
Creating a Blueprint for Change
A report by McKinsey & Co. found that just 20% of public-sector transformations meet their objectives. However, placing an equal focus on improving performance and organizational health will improve the odds of success by as much as 79%.
The report suggests that government entities create a transformation office or team to “drive accountability and ensure that initiative owners are meeting their deliverable milestones, achieving their specific targets, and getting the support they need.” The team should include employees from different departments that work together to help the organization reach its transformational goals. A key element, however, is ensuring the team has enough resources. Otherwise, it's more likely to fail to achieve objectives.
An Atlassian Government Partner like Contegix can help by aligning culture changes to digital transformation initiatives. Contegix’s government solutions experts can onboard teams to new technology, freeing up the agency’s IT team for more core tasks. In addition, an expert partner with a strong understanding of government policies and controls can configure applications to ensure that IT systems and software are running securely and efficiently.
Learn more about how Contegix can support your agency in its digital and cultural transformation.