Government 2.0

In our increasingly networked world, issues and problems quickly spill outside the organizational and even geographic boundaries of governmental institutions, and online networks are increasingly beating public institutions at their own game. Forming and reforming around social issues, economic production, even national defense and terrorism, these networks have become gathering points of knowledge that can convert into rapid action. Governments, which once defined citizens’ roles and responsibilities, are finding that citizens are turning to these communities and organizations to marshal resources and launch solutions. To remain relevant, governments will need to be agile, open and collaborative in their approach to solving pressing public problems.

Governments, and the structures that support them, have been created to function as the perpetual guardians of perpetual issues – structured for stability rather than innovation. Organizational silos, now much reviled, were created for sound administrative reasons. Countless checks and balances helped discourage hasty change to the underlying legal and financial authority. But political and bureaucratic authorities became highly vested in protecting their turf. While political systems of government have evolved, the structures that support them have not.

The time has come to leapfrog into a future where organizational structure matters less and less because information, the lifeblood of decision-making, is freer than at any time in our history. If decision-making itself can be shared in new ways, then the ‘touchpoints’ between citizens and the state – namely, public services – can become conduits for creating new kinds of public value.

The World is Changing - is Government Keeping Up?

Given the size, complexity and political nature of government, the fear of failure usually prevents agencies from taking calculated risks on adopting new approaches and tools. Innovation requires painstaking preparation and consultation. Plans and priorities must be detailed enough to foresee every possible scenario and satisfy all doubters. The nature of public interest demands such meticulous planning, as failure would undermine the public’s essential confidence in government.

Because government tends to be very risk-averse, agencies usually try to avoid involving outside parties in their attempts to introduce new technologies and processes. This reluctance to consult with “outsiders” exacerbates the assumption that only policy makers can understand the “risks” and “accountabilities” of government. The belief that “governments are different,” and that solutions appropriate to corporate settings can’t work in government, is self-fulfilling. It isolates government and reinforces the view that solutions must evolve slowly and respect the existing structure and organization of government – to the point that the ersatz “solution” has negligible impact.

But the world is moving on …

The real lesson for governments around the world is how knowledge, information, talent and energy begin to be moved, shaped and channeled in new ways - inside, across and outside of the boundaries of government. The big question is this: what roles and responsibilities will government, citizens, not-for-profits and business assume in a society where knowledge is everywhere, where hierarchies are anachronisms, and where the state is no longer king of the jungle but part of an ecosystem energized by mass collaboration?

Mass collaboration has the potential to transform most spheres of government, but public service delivery is an especially promising area: mass collaboration can help government and the citizenry develop better, more timely and personalized service at lower costs with better outcomes. Many years of public opinion research shows a direct relationship between the direct service citizens receive and how they view their government.

Politicians have intuitively grasped the mantra that services to citizens must be improved. They do recognize that views of government are most often shaped by the direct experience of receiving benefits and services. Without well-designed services, the policy outcomes politicians seek as stewards can never become real. Today’s governments are the providers of benefits and services and citizens are the consumers. In the future, the power of the web and the experience that consumers are building in other non-governmental domains will enable those consumers of government services and benefits to become prosumers – shaping the policy and the structures of programs, benefits and services to meet their needs and deliver better outcomes.

To learn more about the IOG's research in this area, and how we can help you successfully meet the demands of our increasingly "linked-in" world, please contact us.