How one town delivers innovation by getting out of its own way
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Leaning on relationships with users, ensuring staff have the tools they need and prioritizing projects helps Gilbert, Arizona, master digital transformation.
The key to improving operations is just to get started, said Eugene Mejia, assistant chief technology officer at the town of Gilbert, Arizona.
Speaking during a DocuSign-hosted webinar on Sept. 13, Mejia said it’s easy for state and local governments to get caught up in the challenges of modernization, such as pushback from employees worried about how new technology will affect their jobs, funding shortages and the time it takes to make changes. But letting those issues keep agencies from creating efficiencies puts them at risk of stagnating and not meeting customers’ needs, whether those customers are employees, constituents or vendor partners.
“Start somewhere. I think that’s part of the biggest challenge for us in government is that we see this daunting task ahead of us, and we don’t really take a step back,” Mejia said. “We get in our own way because of the fear of the unknown.”
Gilbert, home to about 280,000 residents, has become comfortable with change. Its strategic plan to become the “city of the future” is driving several transformation initiatives, including centralizing its cybersecurity and offering modern, self-service options for residents and employees.
That’s typical of the town’s approach to change management, Mejia said. “We really place a pretty important emphasis on making sure that we give our customers as well as the team the tools they need to be successful,” he said.
One way he does that is through feedback from employees and residents about what they need from IT, rather than IT dictating what they should use.
“As IT members, we thought, ‘Hey, this is the thing we should tackle first.’” But Mejia said they learned that the relationships with customers and internal stakeholders could help them “figure out what … will drive us forward.” They now ask users how they want to do things better, saying, “’How can we streamline the workflows and processes you have to ensure you’re getting what you need so that way you can focus on the innovation and things that really drive the business value?’”
Another step is prioritizing what changes to implement because requests come in from many directions. Mejia’s answer was to establish a governance structure. “If everything is a priority, nothing is a priority,” he said.
A third way Mejia tackles transformation is by finding champions inside and outside the agency who can assist with getting buy-in. That also helps with overcoming the perceived obstacles around workforce concerns.
“Get those champions with the adoption … and you’ll see the streamlined services you’re delivering internally and externally, and you’ll see that really start to take off and build that momentum … and success just starts to come,” he said.
Shonte Eldridge, senior director of state and local government strategy and solutions at DocuSign, added that the fastest way to change workflows is to stop believing four myths: that it costs too much, takes too long, requires technology the agency doesn’t have and employees will choose not to use it.
Then, she said, agencies should select several top use cases rather than trying to change everything at once. The three areas where she has seen the most success and impact are correspondence management, human capital management and procurement.
A former deputy chief of operations for the city of Baltimore, she praised Gilbert’s transformation tactics.
“I’ve seen … governments that try to simplify their workflows just start throwing technology at the problem, and they don’t really take the time to [ask] ‘how is this going to align to our mission and are we actually solving the right problem?’” Eldridge said. It’s crucial to “identify the why or the root cause of your challenges and problems.”
Stephanie Kanowitz is a freelance writer based in northern Virginia.