Accelerating the Public Sector’s Digital Transition

This article - whose co-author is IE’s Idola Ortiz de Artiñano - was also published in El País.

Last year, one of the world's most prestigious government-affiliated laboratories closed its doors, sparking a wave of backlash in the public innovation circles. After 16 years of work, Denmark’s Mindlab was replaced by the Disruption Taskforce, a new unit focused on the digital transformation of government organizations and the regulation of new technologies. Among other countries seeking to redirect their government innovation laboratories and open new entities focused on their transition to digital isPortugal. Mexico City and Colombia are also two clear examples.

It is still too early to assess the impact of this new generation of government laboratories, but now is the perfect time to rethink the goals and methods of new digital transformation units within the public sector. Such units promote the organizational and cultural changes needed to maximize all the opportunities the digital world has to offer, leveraging disruptive technologies and data intelligence. The theory behind this new model is clear: it is useless for our governments to invest in big data if it is applied to poorly designed public policies, if we enter deficient data into the systems, or if officials fail to use the new predictive capabilities of data analytics in their decision-making. 

The technological revolution brings progress in all areas and, with it, new ways of approaching public service. Agile methodologies, together with user-centered design, open innovation and behavioral sciences, are ushering real change that goes beyond just focusing on government architectures and technological frameworks. It is necessary to examine certain aspects of government, such as public procurement regulation, organizational culture and the new skillset required of officials in order to incorporate new technologies in public organizations.

The new generation of units plays a more central role in the transformation process, moving from spaces of innovation and free experimentation to modules that promote problem-oriented work, open innovation, experimentation, use of data and large scale impact. This is what some call theNew Practice of Public Problem Solving The new approach aims to:

• Address specific problems, seeking results in the short term while measuring their impact. This involves focusing on the needs of specific social groups, starting with the real issues and working to provide feasible solutions in the short term. This means developing a fundamental capacity in times when change is rapid and constant, taking the actions of Singapore, the United States and Poland as examples. It also involves focusing on achieving results and measuring the impact of innovations in the field of spending efficiency and quality of services. It is important to point out that many cities have been leading the way in this new generation of digital solutions and public innovation by allowing their governments to be closer to the concerns of ordinary citizens. Bogota, Buenos Aires, Dubai, Madrid, Montreal and Sao Paulo have opened particularly agile government innovation laboratories with promising results.

• Seek Innovative solutions both inside and outside public institutions, with amore open and flexible approach. Government relations with digital start-ups are promoted, boosting the competitiveness and diversity of companies working with public institutions. To this end, teams are created to convey public entities’ internal demand for innovation to private digital start-ups, thus facilitating the constant flow and exchange of information, as well as new ideas and concepts between government and the market. The speed of technological innovations requires that the public sector display greater flexibility and agility to become leveraged and adapt to the challenges it faces. This closeness feeds, in a more informed way, public consultations and tenders. The programs adopted by England,Portugal and Denmark are promising examples of these new approaches to public innovation.

• Experimentation, constant assessment and iteration is critical for this work scheme to be successful. It is preferable to accelerate potential failure, and design the service based on the continuous feedback of citizens who use the service. To that end, it is of utmost importance to take both qualitative and quantitative information into consideration when deciding on design, evaluating each iteration and redefining the model depending on data. This requires that the state have sufficient technical capabilities to understand the potential that new technologies have to offer in order to improve the efficiency of public policies and the delivery of public services.

• Finally, the goal is to scale impact.. It is necessary to evaluate the replicability of digital solutions, identifying from the outset any obstacles to scaling it, such as officials’ reluctance to change, encumbering regulatory barriers, lack of capacity to implement them and budgetary issues.

The technological revolution has made great strides in the fields of artificial intelligence, blockchain and cloud services, but it has also helped us achieve a much more collaborative, cross-cutting and experimental way of working. This requires major changes in the bureaucratic culture governed by rules and red tape. The new units of digital transition, which are focused on such organizational and cultural changes within public entities, can provide a kind of "sandbox" for innovation and become a fundamental part of the state’s transformation. Going beyond just the technological aspects of change, the project dares to redefine the way public services are operated, organized, purchased and provided in the digital age. Ultimately, people, not technologies, are the ones who must lead the change.