About 30 people from the public, private and third sectors along with some from academia and NGOs gathered at last week’s Digital Leaders Scotland Salon which looked at how to overcome the barriers to digital participation that face many groups in society and impede Scotland’s aspirations for a digital future.
What struck me was the presence again of that big elephant in the room. When I asked how many participants were blocked from accessing the web at work there were far too many nods and wry grins of resignation. One participant had even been blocked from accessing the booking website for the event, which of course was for, err, digital leaders.
Why this should be such a problem really isn’t clear. As the DVLA points out:
This may seem obvious, but how can you pronounce yourself a digital organisation and then stop your staff from accessing YouTube or Twitter which we use to engage with our customers daily? – DVLA Digital Services Blog
Quite. The DVLA highlights the self evident truth that to be a digital organisation an organisation needs to, well, think digitally and build the capability of the workforce to support and deliver digital services. For the DVLA this meant opening up access to social media to all staff on their work computers. This is how you go about about building skills, confidence and competence.
Opening up web access, says the DVLA, allows staff to find answers the questions they want answers to – not just the ones the employer thinks they might need answered.
What a welcome move away from the all too prevalent command and control culture. What’s holding back rest of the public sector?
Ian, I think you’ve answered your own question. What’s holding back the rest of public sector is that senior management don’t want to move away from the command and control culture.
Comments are closed.