Ignoring the web is not an option, it is akin to ignoring the incoming tide.
The time that is available to adapt to the changes it will bring should be used to equip the organisation to cope with those changes. As the nature of changes can’t be predicted with any certainty, the organisation should ready itself to be able to cope with any change; to build the Council’s capacity to adapt.
After all, the only thing that is constant is change.
In order to embrace the changes enabled by technology Local Authorities need to adapt themselves.
Local Authorities must learn how to talk with citizens, rather than to them, and understand how to communicate with one voice rather than talk with one mouth. This is also true of learning to work with citizens and businesses, and understanding how to tap into networks rather than just interacting with the existing aggregators of large organisations and pressure groups.
These new skills will be required widely throughout a Local Authority rather than being concentrated or siloed into specific functions of the Council.
The security of a system and the data it holds is always reliant on the people who build it and those who use it. Security standards and practices must be communicated and adhered to in order to be e ffective.
Setting, communicating and ensuring compliance with security standards requires not just the creation of rules, but the sharing of the reasons for security, the risks of data leakage and the establishing of cultural norms that make security part of everyone’s everyday job. This includes making security measures visible, providing understandable examples of the impact of security breaches in ways that bring them to life rather than alienate users through dry or patronising communication and examples of good practice such as how to create good, strong, memorable passwords.
New technology means new ways of thinking and working and new skills will be needed
The August 2010 Socitm Insight briefing on Digital Inclusion contains the following paragraph:
“Finally, public sector workers must have a good understanding of what technology is able to do, and are not digitally excluded themselves. We cannot emphasise too strongly how investment in this area pays back, not only in developing digital capability in the community, but in exploiting technology successfully to deliver services at lower cost.”
To support this, a programme of workshops should be undertaken to educate key staff members and to furnish them with tools and knowledge to disseminate the skills to their teams and throughout the organisation.
Defining the language, tone and manner that staff should use in written online communications with customers.
A council must be authoritative yet approachable, regulatory yet flexible, definitive yet collaborative. These conflicts in how council staff communicate with staff are likely to be resolved by having more than one tone in their written and spoken communications.
At least the following three ‘institutional voices’ should be developed and defined:
Staff will need to be trained in communicating effectively with customers.
Communicating with the public should no longer be mediated only by a Communications Team trained in marketing communication techniques and processes. Communicating with the public should instead be more widely distributed around the organisation.
As well as providing more staff with the skills and tools to engage customers in conversations and understanding of the benefits and pitfalls of conversing publicly, staff must also be given confidence that they will be supported if mistakes are made.
The new role of the council will require new knowledge in order to make good decisions
In order to build the capacity within the local authority to make good decisions about the use of the web you should:
Local Authority staff will be the main agents of change of approach to the web. They must be provided with the correct tools and training in order to drive these changes. If the process of encouraging and nurturing connections between the citizens and businesses of the community is not clear, easy to perform and – above all – rewarding, then it will not happen.
The Connected City 