Canadian Government Executive - Volume 22 - Issue 10

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18 / Canadian Government Executive // December 2016
Middle Management John Wilkins
What will it take to better leverage digitization for develop-
ment? World Bank President Jim Yong Kim says, “We must con-
tinue to connect everyone and leave no one behind because the
cost of lost opportunities is enormous. But for digital dividends to
be widely shared among all parts of society, countries also need to
improve their business climate, invest in people’s education and
health, and promote good governance.” In short, the analog must
catch up and realign with the digital.
Tech-savvy managers needed
What is the role of digitization in public service? What potential
improvements could digital technologies bring to public adminis-
tration? Which enduring issues will still remain? What practices
and research are needed to function in the emerging digital envi-
ronment?
Middle managers are a key group for establishing technological
relevance within government. Asking public servants to engage
in innovation means giving access to technological platforms that
enable connectivity, inside and out. It also means coaching them
to use tools in ways that add productivity to their jobs. Tweeting
suggestions up the chain of command can be an innovation en-
abler. But it is not a panacea and depends upon wise leaders who
recognize good ideas.
Enabling middle managers to stay technology-relevant prompts
behaviours that better navigate data and communications. For
example, corporate systems can facilitate scheduling of telecon-
ferences across time zones, looping in senior managers and stake-
holders to promote collaboration and enrich dialogue. Mobile
devices can also access enterprise apps that improve mission ef-
ficiency and citizen apps that foster public engagement.
Governm o capital-
ize on good practice — innovation, collaboration, incentives, train-
ing, metrics. They redeem and multiply the benefits of cultural
change and comparative advantage. The managerial challenges
are threefold:
1. Motivating public servants to contribute intellectual property
to the cause;
2. Accessing promising external ideas that advance internal pro-
cesses; and
3. Melding ideas and resources to improve the capacity to innovate.
In times of growing demand and constrained resources, govern-
ments must find and deliver innovative technological solutions to
operational problems. Cognitive governments learn from interac-
tions with data and people, continuously reconfiguring in pursuit
of better outcomes.
John Wilkins is Executive in Residence: Public Management
at York University. He was a
career public servant and diplomat.
When Marshall McLuhan coined the phrase “the me-
dium is the message” in 1964, personal computers,
mobile phones, and the Internet did not exist. We
appreciate today his foresight in predicting how
thinking is influenced in this fast-paced, complex digital era.
Nicholas Carr wrote in The Shallows: What the Internet is Doing
to Our Brains: “[Media] supply the stuff of thought, but they also
shape the process of thought. And what the Net seems to be do-
ing is chipping away my capacity for concentration and contem-
plation. Whether I’m online or not, my mind now expects to take
in information the way the Net distributes it: in a swiftly moving
stream of particles.”
The march and impact of technology are inexorable and con-
stantly changing. Deloitte’s top-ten predictions for Canada in 2016
are mind-boggling:
1. Mobile touch commerce will increase 150% to one million users;
2. Mobile games will become the leading platform with 37% of
sales;
3. Mobile ad-blockers will place less than 0.1% of the market at
risk;
4. Millennials will use mostly laptops, not just their smart-
phones;
5. Virtual reality headsets will become a massive market;
6. Women will occupy less than 25% of IT jobs and education;
7. Movie theatre admissions will slide another 3%;
8. Traditional pay-television markets will continue to erode;
9. Cognitive technologies like Artificial Intelligence will grow
25%; and
10. Gigabit-per-second Internet connections will surge to four
million.
Start the revolution without me
The Digital Revolution
has liberated informa-
tion monopolies and con-
sumption. The market-
place of ideas is booming,
supported by innovation
hubs, communities, and
networks. Social media
are having an impact on
virtually everything — citizen and stakeholder engagement, polit-
ical discourse, policy making, service delivery, social activism. It is
important for public managers to know and apply these new tools.
But digitization is not evenly distributed. Whilemore people glob-
ally have access to mobile phones than electricity or water, the an-
ticipated digital dividends of higher growth, more jobs, and better
public services have fallen short of expectations. Despite tripling to
3.2 billion Internet users in a decade, 60% of the world’s population
is offline and remains excluded from the digital economy.
At the Speed of Thought…
Middle Managers and Digitization
“Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind.” — ROMANS 12:2
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