Culture Change


Issue/Topic:  Culture Change

 

From the Open Government Directive Workshop, January 11, 2010 at the US Department of Transportation

 

Session Number – Space/Location Letter 1 - H

 

Convener: Avi Marcus & Chris Berendes

 

Notes-taker: Asha Aravindakshan

 

 Tags” for the session - Open Government Topics discussed:

 

 Discussion notes, key understandings, outstanding questions, observations, and, if appropriate to this discussion: action items, next steps:

 

 

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Session 1 – Breakout H:  Culture Change  

Name

Organization

Asha Aravindakshan

DC Govt – Office of the CTO

Bryan Rahija

Project on Government Oversight

Maxine Teller

DOD

Virginia Hill

HHS/NIH

Christopher Berendes

Netalyst

Wayne Moses Burke

Open Forum Foundation

Robert Owens

DOT/FTA

Nick Skytland

NASA

Paul Bove

AFPAA

Sandy Washington

DOT/FRA

Brett Barndt

Indigo Initiatives

Sandy Heierbacher

National Coalition for Dialogue & Deliberation

Karly Kaufman

Union of Concerned Scientists

Avi Marcus

Touchstone Consulting

Bethany Letalien

OPM

Robbie Schinyler

NASA

Andrew Krzmarzick

GovLoop

Joshua Salmons

Defense Information School

Tedd Determan

Onlinetownhall.com

Cynthia Vaughan

DOT – HR Systems

 

Notes

·     DOT HR has implemented a Culture Workgroup with 8-12 people from within DOT

·     Culture is interpreted differently at various levels within the organization

·     Proper tools for feedback are needed

·     Culture, policy and technology are trinity of open government

·     Agencies are waiting on DOD approved policies to begin using social media tools

·     Renegades are breaking existing policies à policies need to be changed

·     Renegades can help craft new policies

·     Until you use the new technology (social media, collaboration tools), you won’t understand it

·     Social media and collaboration impact each other

·     DOD uses SharePoint/IntelliLink as a collaborative workspace

·     New technology makes work easier, but changing culture is hard to do

·     Need trusting culture à currently, highly bureaucratic culture

·     “New York Times” test for trying new tools

·     Self-policing is necessary

·     Trendsetters may break the ice, but without the proper infrastructure, people will be “all over the place” – dozens of different platforms, need a decision to be made

·     Considering operational security (OpSec), libel and slander are basic response guidelines for public affairs officials

·     Need to experience use of social media tools to get rid of people’s fears

·     Need feedback data on usage of social media tools

·     Policy may not always be needed to test different tools à it will follow use of tools

·     Tie it to employee performance measures, i.e. teamwork , sharing on information

·     Social media is an enabler of open government

·     OPM should make it part of the core qualifications to reach SES

·     Need senior leadership to not do business as “business as usual”

·     Need 3 offices to embrace and feel empowered with new tools before rolling out enterprise-wide

·     Positive deviants

·     Pew Research Group (stateofthemedia.org) good source of information for data on media usage

·     1945 act of “simple sabotage” - insist everything goes through one channel, keep meetings running as long as possible, bring up old decisions

·     Push the envelope to test social media

·     US EPA established National Award for Collaboration for field teamwork provides incentive and recognition for employees

o  creates a safe space for employees

o  lengthy research/creation process to replace an existing award

·     Can create mass in small nodes

·     Local/state government interacts with citizens more than federal government

·     Need to understand audiences à research them, start small with implementation

·     Public Affairs within federal agencies implementing social media tools à business as usual for Public Affairs

·     Those without Public Affairs training have the tools, but don’t know the proper policies

·     GovLoop – OpenGov21 can be a platform to keep discussion going

·     No centralized repository of best practices

o  OGD wiki will be launched soon

o  GovLoop will connect to OGD wiki

o  GSA may implement a tool to collect information

o  Data.govloop.com has 50 social media policies

·     NCDD (thataway.org) site has “streams of decision-making” to assess