Local gov camp parked its bus at Newark during May to deliver an interactive and insightful day to all that attended. The theme was LGR and with less than 2 years to go for many of us it gave a timely view of the focus needed to get to the vesting day and insight to consider planning for the 1st few years as new authorities.
The key themes throughout the day were the 3 pillars of people, process and technology.
Many sessions gave insight into how transformation opportunities can be interwoven into the core changes that are going to happen, after all for nearly everyone working in local government we just want to make things better for our communities and our staff.
Improving service is one thing but it can’t be at the expense of ignoring being safe and legal – typically infrastructure security.
The session by Perago challenged us to consider what we need to stop doing and highlighted the challenges around decision-making that many are well experiencing identifying who the decision-maker is and creating capacity for the right people is going to be a big challenge that will continue to need to be addressed over the coming months.
It was acknowledged that DDaT professionals and digital leadership will need a seat at the top table, due to the risk, complexity and the fact that if IT stops – the business (bus) stops.
Kate from Cumberland Council had attendees listening intently as she shared some warts and all experiences, though it is clear that the challenges are all worth it as progress is slowly made to shape teams and systems into the new normal. A fascinating point was about people’s skills and whilst many in county organisations often have depth of knowledge due to tighter role remits, the breadth and flexibility of District/Borough Council staff is also highly valued.
Frameworks and digital blueprints were shared with discussions around considering digital maturity models introduced with a great session from Gartner and from Robert at Strategy IT Ltd. Who talked about the essential role of the Enterprise Architect and the conversations and decision presented to senior leaders.
Our key takeaway loops back to the 3 pillars of people process and technology. The technology can’t work without the process being identified, agreed and understood; the technology is needed to drive us forward but none of it will be successful without the people.
As we move through the LGR programmes, the success of change will be shaped not only by what we deliver, but by how colleagues experience that (bus) journey along the way.