Читать книгу Digital Government Excellence - Siim Sikkut - Страница 11

The professionals featured in the book have not been chosen because they happen to be known on the digital government circuit. They were chosen because they have been remarkable as leaders in this field and because they have shown a remarkable track record of leading digital government to progress in their countries. Another criterion was that the person would be insightful as an individual and as a leader, and effective as a manager. Somebody we could really learn from.

Some of these professionals had to start their government's digital journey from scratch. Some of them had to restart it or make a turnaround in strategy and delivery. Some of them had the hard job of continuing the track of excellence and bringing it to a whole next level. They represent a mix of backgrounds in terms of their government's digital maturity.

These leaders have not been chosen because their country is necessarily high-ranking in some digital government benchmark or another. Instead, they were chosen for the relative change they managed to make in their leadership term—the countries represented have been the fastest-improving ones in the global digital government space during their time in the role.

Some of them have been called government chief information officer; some have been chief digital officers. Some have been deputy ministers at the same time; some have been CEOs or directors general of digital agencies. The titles do not matter. They all have had the same kind of job—to lead the digital transformation and across the relevant government, not just in a department. Thus, all of them have had large-scale coordination challenges as part of their problem set. Their experience in this area should be particularly valuable, because coordination issues and how to best tackle them are among the biggest questions in each digital transformation leader's mind anywhere.

All of the twenty have inspiring stories to tell and real-life experiences to share. Each has a unique story, but there are many recurring themes.

None of the interviewees achieved excellent outcomes alone, and they are the first ones to acknowledge it. We could make another book on digital government excellence about the stories of remarkable number-twos or most-valuable experts. Or ministers and country leaders, without whom sometimes also nothing can really happen. Yet, this book is about the actual digital leaders only. Let us start with them, because they have had the ultimate leading duty despite ministers and teams around them.

The interviewees have been largely selected from national governments, given my own background as a government CIO in central government and bias of interest in this level. There are just a few very notable exceptions of people who were simply too remarkable to leave out.

It so happens that most of the professionals featured here have left their governments now—but their insights are just as relevant today. By the way, it so happens that several of them left during 2021, the year of preparing this book—I had started with about half the interviewees on-the-job, half already past that. Most of those already outside of government work as advisors globally, sharing their practical experience and thinking with next governments and organizations. Thus, they can be available also for you!

There could surely be many more digital government leaders to include. These twenty are by far not the only remarkable digital government leaders with lots to share. Yet, they are some of the most remarkable ones for sure—given their results and given their insights that you can read right now.