For consumers, digital transformation has always been about choice. How are you, as a consumer, empowered to make decisions leveraging data in real time? Take Uber, for example. Before you book a trip, you can see where the car is, how much it will cost, and how long it will take to arrive. When you look at services governments provide, whether it’s Social Security, public health, or unemployment, they’re very much driven by analog processes that are dependent on paper forms. The expectation is that you, as a citizen, will need to go to an office and stand in line if you need to get anything done. Out of necessity, the COVID-19 pandemic prompted governments to enable citizens to do more online. All too often, though, all they’ve created is a digital intake mechanism. You might be able to make a request on an agency’s website, but trying to understand where you are in the process or how long it might be before you’re serviced is still very much a black box. We can empower citizens by using technology to give them the same level of visibility with their service requests as they’re accustomed to receiving as consumers. Citizens don’t want to be exposed to bureaucracy; they expect a simple digital experience that hides the complexity. At the end of the day, the goal is for the public sector to offer a better citizen experience. 

I'm a big believer that bureaucracy can actually be put to good use. It's often used as an excuse for nothing happening. But digital transformation is all about culture change, and bureaucracies are really good at bringing about enduring change. Governments have operated the way they have for hundreds of years, and we need to operate in a respectful way that’s not disruptive to the history and heritage of the establishment. We must ensure that we build change management into the implementation of the platform. The problem is it takes time and patience. That’s actually a good thing! You don't want to make a quick decision, only to find you don’t have the buy-in that you need to marshal the entire enterprise behind you. One of my biggest learnings from my last job as CIO for the U.S. Army was that moving fast doesn’t always give you enduring, long-term results. Sometimes moving slowly up front and building consensus can give you massive momentum. Once you build it up, you can actually go much faster.

Digital transformation is all about democratization. My job as a CIO was never to be the person to do everything. I was the chief “inspiration” officer. It’s about how we bring everybody along, show them the art of the possible, and put the tools in their hands. When you do that, you can achieve massive momentum at scale, even though the first few weeks, months, or even years might be pretty hard. And I think that's why we must never underestimate the power of the bureaucracy, because when they are behind it, when they get it, things will happen much, much faster than anything else.