Just when you thought you had the hang of digital government, agencies are now being told to adapt to post-digital government. But what exactly does post-digital government entail? DEAN LACHECA dives in.

After more than 20 years of digital technology investments, it’s time for Australian government organisations to prepare for when digital transformation is no longer a driver for change.

The transition to digital government has accelerated rapidly in Australia in recent years and many are now moving into a “post-digital” era, where the business case for further investment reaches beyond improving experience and administration to focus on delivering enduring mission outcomes.

According to Gartner, up to 90 per cent of government organisations are either in the process of scaling digital government or have already scaled digital across the main functions of their organisation. So why should any more money be spent on technology?

Resetting ambitions

The journey towards post-digital government allows organisations to reset their ambitions and focus on their public purpose. Gartner predicts by 2026, over 75 per cent of governments will gauge digital transformation success by measuring the enduring mission impact, rather than only looking at hours saved, efficiencies or citizen satisfaction.

But they can’t get there by just continuing to do the same things. Enduring mission outcomes will be delivered by embracing empathy with citizens and stakeholders, leveraging insights to both anticipate optimal engagement and effectively react to the unexpected, while working within an orchestrated ecosystem of traditional and non-traditional partners.

Cognitive empathy

A striking observation from a witness at the Robodebt Royal Commission was a lack of empathy shown towards its victims. While not mentioning empathy directly, one of the report’s recommendations was that Department of Social Security management should promote closer engagement with stakeholders, ensuring any advice to ministers is well-informed as to the likely impact on clients and the (likely) views of clients and stakeholders.

With this in mind, how do we get to the heart of what really matters to the individuals involved, going beyond just delivering a digital service or a transactional engagement? The answer is to develop cognitive empathy capabilities in government organisations, building a more complete and accurate understanding of stakeholders as people. Also, the critical moments that are going to make a difference and how we have an impact on them.

To build cognitive empathy capabilities, start by identifying direct and indirect stakeholders and understanding the journey they are going through during a particular transaction or engagement. This will help you to chart how the emotion changes at different points, and what creates frustration, distrust, discomfort or engagement.

From there, take a need-driven approach to all stakeholders involved, including your own organisation, and address those needs as effectively as possible. This approach allows you to identify critical moments, optimise stakeholder engagement, and know when you need to be reactive or proactive.

Human-centred design (HCD) is an approach that encapsulates this and is used by Australian government organisations at both the federal and state levels. It involves problem solving with empathy as a cornerstone, putting the end user at the heart of the solution. For example, HCD has been recommended for Australian Public Service (APS) professionals and their organisations, the Queensland Government offers a toolkit for the use of HCD in service design, and the Victorian Government offers an HCD handbook.

Leveraging data insights

To pivot the experience towards the optimal outcome, post-digital government requires hyperpersonalised services that combine these empathy insights with real-time, actionable operational insights during the decision-making process. Gartner predicts over 60 per cent of government AI and data analytics investments will drive real-time operational decisions and outcomes by 2024.

Former NSW Minister Victor Dominello’s recent honorary ACS fellowship was in recognition of what can be achieved by investing in whole-of-government data analytics capabilities and breaking down the siloes of government organisations. These data sharing initiatives and the development of the ServiceNSW app gave NSW Government the critical capabilities to deliver much-needed services during the pandemic.

The accelerating adoption of AI is offering new pathways to data insights. Governments are using AI to capture new data that was previously not available and unlock the value of existing data. But to have a real impact, the new real-time data insights must be operationalised into the organisation’s ways of working.

Orchestrating ecosystems

Governments have always operated in some form of an ecosystem, often orchestrated around the department or agency. But digital ecosystems are changing the way society works and shifting the expectations of citizens. An ecosystem orchestrated around a shared problem, or outcome, is more likely to innovate and deliver the enduring mission outcomes desired by all government.

To orchestrate these ecosystems requires careful assessment of stakeholder value and incentive – which could be anything from establishing a shared platform, offering access to a subset of government data, enabling comprehensive engagement with the citizens involved, or shared facilities and resources, like those offered by the WA Government’s innovation hubs.

Each of these new and enhanced capabilities required to successfully transition into a post-digital government era require new supporting technologies that will need to be incorporated into your technology roadmap going forward. Governments don’t invest just because it is a good idea, so you must be able to link these technology roadmaps to the mission outcomes focus of the post-digital era.

*Dean Lacheca is a VP analyst at Gartner focused on supporting public sector CIOs and technology leaders around the transition to digital government.