Leadership’s Challenge:
It’s Turf, not Technology

CHICAGO — When it comes to solving the problems of state and local governments and delivering services to citizens, technology isn’t the answer.

That was the somewhat surprising consensus among the diverse group of public officials gathered in Chicago for Governing’s Managing Technology 2007 conference. One after another, a wide range of public officials involved in technology decision-making reiterated that it’s not having the most innovative technology that’s important — it’s the proper management of that technology that helps governments to innovate and improve services.

“We have the technology we need,” said Teri Takai, president of the National Association of State Chief Information Officers and the director of the Michigan Department of Information Technology. “What we need is the leadership, policy, practices and the will to use that technology to help improve the way we operate.”

Chicago Mayor Richard Daley

Chicago Mayor Richard M. Daley, who welcomed the Governing conferees to his city, agreed. “Technology has not turned out to be the magic bullet we thought it would be,” he said, “but it is a valuable tool to help our cities deliver services more efficiently.” Vermont Governor James Douglas made an even more forceful case for the importance of government’s effective use of technology: “We need to innovate if we’re going to be successful in the global 21st century economy,” he said.

Daley discussed how technology has helped reduce crime in Chicago, citing an extensive crime-mapping database used by the police department and the network of security cameras installed in every city bus, in 1,000 rapid transit stations and at 400 other locations. But Daley emphasized that it is knowing how to use the technology — and the data it provides — that really has enabled Chicago to reduce crime.

311 LESSONS

Daley’s message comes through loud and clear in another Chicago initiative: its 311 system. A growing number of cities have developed 311 phone lines that function as “one-stop shops” for citizens with non-emergency needs and questions about government services. But Chicago is at the vanguard of using the data from its 311 system to improve city management.

“The funny thing is that it’s based on very simple technology — land-line telephones,” said Ted O’Keefe, Chicago’s 311 city services director. “It’s the use of that technology on the back end that makes all the difference.”

O’Keefe joined representatives from several other 311 cities in a daylong discussion of their systems, including exploring how localities can use 311 to encourage better performance by agencies. Jane Brennan, executive director of 311 for New York City, agreed that technology isn’t the challenging aspect. “Setting up a 311 system, training operators, working with agencies — that’s the easy part,” she said. “You need to develop metrics and measures with agencies to make sure the calls that come in get resolved.”

For Chicago, that means mining 311 data to generate information that city managers can use to improve city services. For example, the city uses citizen complaints about graffiti not just to clean it up but also to deploy additional officers to problem areas.

“It’s about getting timely, accurate data in the hands of administrators who can make a difference and actually reallocate resources,” said Lydia Murray, who currently serves as chief of staff to the director of the Chicago Transit Authority but who formerly oversaw performance management for the mayor’s office. “Implementing a 311 system is about much more than taking calls and closing service cases,” she said.

There’s enormous potential for a city that effectively uses the data from its 311 system. “This will be the most significant project your city or county has undertaken in 10 or 20 years,” said Michael Major, Denver’s director of 311 operations. “It’s not an easy project; it’s a long-term project.”

MORE THAN AN IT IMPLEMENTATION

Of course, big projects like that can be challenging to manage. Just ask Los Angeles County, which is implementing a multibillion-dollar enterprise resource planning system it began in 2002. There were some inherent obstacles. With more than 100,000 public employees, L.A. County is larger than 42 states. And different county agencies each have different IT departments. As county CIO Jon Fullinwider said, “If we were going to fail, L.A. would be a great place to fail in.”

The county began its ERP implementation by having each department describe its needs. Very soon, it became clear that trying to address everything at once would never work. The county realized it needed to break the project into several phases. “Multi-year, multimillion-dollar projects fail,” said Fullinwider. Budgeting and resource commitments become unpredictable over multiple years, he added. That’s why breaking L.A. County’s ERP project into distinct smaller parts was key.

The county also found that the project was more than an IT implementation. Although the project started in the technology department, it moved to the auditor-controller’s office. “If you want to have a failure,” Fullinwider said, “have your technology department be in charge of implementing ERP.” That, he said, is because such enterprise-wide technology projects ultimately aren’t about software or systems. “Fundamentally, ERP success is not about technology. It’s about executive leadership and good management.”

Too many governments, however, still chase the newest technology, thinking later about how to best use and manage it. Gene Akers, senior director for the Center for Advanced Technologies at Auburn University-Montgomery and former assistant director for the Alabama Department of Finance, warned that “you see so many places putting e-government facades over their existing business processes.” For example, they may receive a service request via email, but then they convert it into a paper document by printing it out, and then process the document the same way they have for years.

“The back-end engineering is most often an afterthought to implementing new technology,” said Akers. “Agencies don’t take the time to examine their business processes to see how technology can really improve the way things work. And it’s not always a tech issue as much as it is a cultural issue. You’re dealing with the way people have done business for many, many years. That’s why it takes strong leadership.”

TECHNOLOGY AND CULTURE CHANGE

Minnesota CIO Gopal Khanna underscored that point as he discussed his state’s initiative to break down silos and improve its efficiency and ability to deliver service. “Two percent of my job is about technology. Ninety-eight percent is about culture change,” Khanna said.

So how do you bring about culture change? It comes down to people — and communication, said Fullinwider. “We’ve been putting too much emphasis on technology and not enough on encouraging the creativeness of our staff,” he said. “Over the years, I’ve come to realize that technology wasn’t going to be the focal point that allowed my organization to be successful. It was the value of technology as a way to fundamentally change the way you think about problems.”

Still, it isn’t easy. “We get these people in the room together, and they’re talking,” said Nashville Mayor Bill Purcell. “But they’re still people, and there are real financial decisions being made. You have this concern of falling back into this world where everybody rows his own boat.”

Teri Takai agreed. “It’s unrealistic to expect that collaboration on cross-boundary issues is going to be easy, or that people are going to like us. You get a lot of head-nodding when you talk about collaboration. But when you get down to it, it’s very hard. If, as a leader, you want to be the best-liked person in the room, don’t go out leading cross-boundary initiatives.”

And yet, those cross-boundary discussions are critical to government’s effective use of technology to improve efficiency and the quality of services.

“We’ve got to change the culture of government by putting an emphasis on service,” said Russ Saito, the head of the Hawaii Department of Accounting and General Services. “Government has got to become a service-oriented institution. We need to improve the processes for delivering services to citizens — not just beef up new technology.”

News from the conference:
• Keys to Technology Success: Management, Leadership

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