Why culture beats any technology

It is summer, so probably not the right time for a long posts. But a short note on what is happening around and what do we see as blocker for the Government (given that we spend a lot of time there), but it applies to any type of organizations.

What was evident so far, still stays very much relevant: there are Governments that take and experiment and go full throttle and then there are Governments that are still in "I do only what I have" type of mind-state that looks for a no change at all. I know it sounds strange but there is no middle ground - or let me be precise - there are Government that think they can do both, they are talking about innovation, services, AI, whatever but when it comes to the operational part they do not move at all (or they move at snail mail type of speed).

And at the end, maybe that could surprise your or not, the biggest issue with the change is not technology, money, plans, activities, solutions but people and culture. You cannot break the glass and move forward if people to opt for change and they are not trying to be part of it, waiting for someone else to be a first mover. That doesn't work. That could work if you have tens of years to observe what is happening and what could be the best way to move forward but in today's terms - you are too late. We see that winners are the ones that are taking the responsibility and opportunity to be first, to experiment with new things and look for a quality change in the way of how services are delivered.?

For example, what we learned so far from Estonia? Great services are not technology project but a culture transformation.?

"A key lesson businesses can draw from Estonia's digital transformation is the need for a culture of innovation and change.", link to the article, Joseph Soares, former advisor to the Prime Minister of Canada in Forbes, 14.08.2023?

If you deep dive in their services, you will find some really great examples of how technology is used: they are pioneers in the way how security and encryption is done and how they implemented identities and then used that as a platform to deliver services. But going forward and implementing e-Voting? Moving to the line where more than 50% of all votes lately were casted online? That is pure culture shift.?

So let me be short here: if you cannot find the people in your own organization (Government) do not spend time building the capacity and capabilities because probably you will spend too much time and energy with potentially nothing at the end, find yourself a partner (partners) that will help you develop and experiment now, and them build capacity, scale, people through the process.?

And that is. It is that simple. You need more people and organizations in your ecosystem. Throwing more money to the existing setup will not work. You will spend all your resources and will not do any transformation. You services are going to continue to be a pale version of your brick and mortar stuff. You need to do it differently. Be aware of the time factor. Twenty years of small changes that you call digital transformation is not a transformation - it is a slow agony of things that do not work as expected and do not bring change that everyone expects. World is moving way faster than 20 years ago, approach to change should too.?

And one thing at the end, the one that we should all remember: at the end of the day, all of us, Government officials, vendors, partners, individuals - we are all citizens that want to utilize great services. So… why we don’t have them in the first place? One of those millennial questions :). I promised a short post, so will stop there, but you can bet on what is going to be a topic for one of the next posts.