GX Notes 2024-03-24
A roundup of Government Experience (GX) links and comments from the past week
Teach government agency customers about project sponsorship
If you work in government digital services, you likely have customers (clients, agencies, etc.) that are not sophisticated consumers of technology services. Many of them likely do not know what it means to be a “sponsor” of a project, and don’t know what that role entails. There’s big decision-making, consulting with peers and staff, budget control, and most importantly change management (helping the humans get from where they are today to where they need to be).
These clients are not dumb, they just don’t know the expectations for the sponsor role and like all of us, they’re already busy.
So let’s teach sponsorship!
Thankfully this new resource (linked below) might help. It’s effectively an introductory letter to a new sponsor, explaining what’s needed from them while also acknowledging they already have a day job.
I love this thing. It’s just Part 1 (with more parts to come), but already I want to steal this and start to modify it for local government use. Maybe we’ll do just that—we can credit the source but release a government-focused “welcome to the party, pal!” intro document for our stakeholders.
Excellent stuff. Barebones Business Sponsorship, Part 1
Does your digital government team want to make audio or video podcasts? Read this first.
For anyone in government looking to start a digital media channel, this post is a great place to start to understand the complexities and workload involved.
Yes, audio/video is a great way to tell stories and share information with the public. But don’t underestimate the work, expertise, and costs involved if you want to make a quality product the community will actually appreciate and use.
I want to encourage development in this direction. But if you go too cheap-and-easy, maybe to satisfy the political objectives of elected officials or their staff, you could end up sinking a lot of time into a poor-quality product that no one follows (but to your face, people will tell you they love it).
Podcast success is accessible, and not terribly expensive, but it’s not free and it takes real work. Don’t short-change the commitment.
Personal / professional branding is real
Substack writer Irina Stanescu posted a Note about personal branding with this insight:
Your brand is what you’re known for, your professional reputation, and what people say about you when you’re not in the room.
The truth is: You already have a personal brand, whether you like it or not.
This sparked a comment from me:
Two questions a former, and wise, coworker used to ask people:
What reputation do you have?
What reputation do you want?
Both are personal brands. And if there’s a big difference between 1 and 2, you need to take action to consciously move things toward 2.
Here is her full post…
An hour of futurist Amy Webb can get you thinking about what digital government teams will face next
Are you in a tech leadership role? Do you need to be ready for broad tech innovations and trends? If so, block out 1 hour to watch this session from SxSW 2024 with futurist Amy Webb.
Some simple leadership advice (that, like so many things, is easier said than done)
Three powerful bits of team leadership or service leadership advice that are simple to understand but hard to master.
Chart the course (know where you are going and clearly communicate it)
Set the pace (know the work, focus on what matters, demand more from the hours you have)
Hold the line (require quality results)
This is from David Heinemeier Hansson at 37signals: Chart the course, set the pace, hold the line