(highlight:: Strategically Engage Government By Timing Your Outreach & Getting Connected to Gov Alumni
Transcript:
Speaker 3
So I think it's a matter of timing, and it's a matter of networking. Now in terms of timing, I can tell you something out of my own experience. The best time to approach is actually the second year after elections. Why? Well, the first year is the year that everybody needs until they find direction and, you know, find themselves oriented into the new offices and know a little bit how the city works. The second year is the year when they are open to new ideas and want and need desperately to do something new, which gives you the time to go into pilots, but it takes approximately a year Until you come up with, you know, with the first pilots. So in the third year, you will establish the pilots and do evaluating by the end of the year. And in the fourth year, it's about when you plan the rollout. And the fifth year, at least here in Austria, is when you have elections again and nothing happens. But at this point, the mayor or vice mayor needs something to present to the people. So this is why I always say by the end of the first year, you should knock at the door and better have a good idea. And this brings me to the last part. Yes, of course, it is very important to have your partners within administration. But then when you find out that they're going to retire or, you know, they change the swift jobs, let them advise you. Everything is more valuable than the advice of a retired civil servant. And nothing nobody is more open to advising and passing over their reflections. At the moment, when they either leave or just shift places within administration and can be more open about things than they were even before. So I think that it's about networking and realizing that these people, if they change, if they move on, are still your best partners and ask them to advise you and ask them to help you networking, Because these are the ones who are going to introduce you to their successes and to other people within administration.)
- Time 0:31:18
-

(highlight:: Openness and Structure in Fostering Cross-Sector Innovation
Transcript:
Speaker 4
I also agree with your point around participatory governance mechanisms. The more that we can build in at the outset of an administration, continual feedback loops and opportunities for different individuals and communities to participate in decision-making The better. It's just going to, I think, the former mayor of Seoul, whose life was lost last year, did a fantastic job of creating those touch points where citizens were constantly able to bring Ideas into the bloodstream of the Deanna of the organization. I would say that I think to me, I think there are two really important sort of opportunities here. The first is around openness and the second is around structure. I think cities generally do a pretty poor job in sharing their concerns on real challenges with folks outside of city government. In many ways, we incentivize that. We have a press that jumps on officials if they talk openly about problems. And the takeaway there is, let's keep our heads down and try to figure out how to fix it. Before anybody finds out, we have a real problem here. And the challenge for a social entrepreneur is that you're not actually getting any meaningful timely data feed on an emergent challenge within local government that you might actually Have a solution for. And so I think opening up about challenges, opening up our data, opening up our service delivery and talking more about where we're not getting the outcomes that we want and where we Want to find new and better ways to do it is absolutely essential. And I'll give you a great idea or a great example of that. We have a program here in the states where we help hundreds of local governments get better at using data and evidence and decision making. In the first few years of this work, we focused on opening up data and we saw great success. Cities all over the country opened up their data. But the reality is that it's still not readable and legible or actionable to social entrepreneurs and community level activists. And so in the second phase of work, we realized that we needed to build on that open data through curation and convening and bringing that data in actionable ways to communities of problem Solvers and saying, hey, sit with us, think with us, help us understand how you might be able to fit in as a solution to the challenges that we're seeing here. And it was a very open and structured way to take an asset that local governments have and bring it to people and encourage and evoke decisions, I think is number one. Lori Lightfoot, the mayor of Chicago recently said, gosh, you know, in COVID, we've created all of these street aries. We've turned our sidewalks and our streets into restaurants and I've got a Chicago winter coming on strong. And what on earth am I going to do? And she said, I'm not finding the answer that I'm looking for within the bureaucracy. And so she used a challenge and opened it up and called for solutions from the community. I think those types of mechanisms that allow us to open up our problem solving to different problem solvers are critical. Secondly, I would talk about structures and formalizing the pathways in. I think too often people like Sasha show up on a on a city hall doorstep and they're almost not legible. They're not coming at the right moment with the right solution in a way that people within government can understand it and do anything about it. And and I have, you know, the the challenge of knowing the right person finding Maria in city hall and knowing, you know, that takes agency and frankly, probably connections to get to Her. So how do we create structures and signpost them obvious ways for people to come and present their ideas to local government?)
- Time 0:34:39
-

(highlight:: "Data travels at the speed of trust": Trust as an Essential Component of Building Relation
Transcript:
Speaker 2
A concept called, and in today is called relationship. It's about the relational structures. When I introduce myself at the beginning, I shared where I'm from, my clans and introducing and making that stage of that fundamental value of relationship. And this also includes the speed of trust that we know that data travels at the speed of trust, trust conversations need to happen. These difficult situations of building relationships need to happen. And so really building off of empathy and compassion and knowing that the power of storytelling for us is very essential in this aspect.)
- Time 0:45:57
-

(highlight:: Strategically Engage Government By Timing Your Outreach & Getting Connected to Gov Alumni
Transcript:
Speaker 3
So I think it's a matter of timing, and it's a matter of networking. Now in terms of timing, I can tell you something out of my own experience. The best time to approach is actually the second year after elections. Why? Well, the first year is the year that everybody needs until they find direction and, you know, find themselves oriented into the new offices and know a little bit how the city works. The second year is the year when they are open to new ideas and want and need desperately to do something new, which gives you the time to go into pilots, but it takes approximately a year Until you come up with, you know, with the first pilots. So in the third year, you will establish the pilots and do evaluating by the end of the year. And in the fourth year, it's about when you plan the rollout. And the fifth year, at least here in Austria, is when you have elections again and nothing happens. But at this point, the mayor or vice mayor needs something to present to the people. So this is why I always say by the end of the first year, you should knock at the door and better have a good idea. And this brings me to the last part. Yes, of course, it is very important to have your partners within administration. But then when you find out that they're going to retire or, you know, they change the swift jobs, let them advise you. Everything is more valuable than the advice of a retired civil servant. And nothing nobody is more open to advising and passing over their reflections. At the moment, when they either leave or just shift places within administration and can be more open about things than they were even before. So I think that it's about networking and realizing that these people, if they change, if they move on, are still your best partners and ask them to advise you and ask them to help you networking, Because these are the ones who are going to introduce you to their successes and to other people within administration.)
- Time 0:31:18
-

(highlight:: Openness and Structure in Fostering Cross-Sector Innovation
Transcript:
Speaker 4
I also agree with your point around participatory governance mechanisms. The more that we can build in at the outset of an administration, continual feedback loops and opportunities for different individuals and communities to participate in decision-making The better. It's just going to, I think, the former mayor of Seoul, whose life was lost last year, did a fantastic job of creating those touch points where citizens were constantly able to bring Ideas into the bloodstream of the Deanna of the organization. I would say that I think to me, I think there are two really important sort of opportunities here. The first is around openness and the second is around structure. I think cities generally do a pretty poor job in sharing their concerns on real challenges with folks outside of city government. In many ways, we incentivize that. We have a press that jumps on officials if they talk openly about problems. And the takeaway there is, let's keep our heads down and try to figure out how to fix it. Before anybody finds out, we have a real problem here. And the challenge for a social entrepreneur is that you're not actually getting any meaningful timely data feed on an emergent challenge within local government that you might actually Have a solution for. And so I think opening up about challenges, opening up our data, opening up our service delivery and talking more about where we're not getting the outcomes that we want and where we Want to find new and better ways to do it is absolutely essential. And I'll give you a great idea or a great example of that. We have a program here in the states where we help hundreds of local governments get better at using data and evidence and decision making. In the first few years of this work, we focused on opening up data and we saw great success. Cities all over the country opened up their data. But the reality is that it's still not readable and legible or actionable to social entrepreneurs and community level activists. And so in the second phase of work, we realized that we needed to build on that open data through curation and convening and bringing that data in actionable ways to communities of problem Solvers and saying, hey, sit with us, think with us, help us understand how you might be able to fit in as a solution to the challenges that we're seeing here. And it was a very open and structured way to take an asset that local governments have and bring it to people and encourage and evoke decisions, I think is number one. Lori Lightfoot, the mayor of Chicago recently said, gosh, you know, in COVID, we've created all of these street aries. We've turned our sidewalks and our streets into restaurants and I've got a Chicago winter coming on strong. And what on earth am I going to do? And she said, I'm not finding the answer that I'm looking for within the bureaucracy. And so she used a challenge and opened it up and called for solutions from the community. I think those types of mechanisms that allow us to open up our problem solving to different problem solvers are critical. Secondly, I would talk about structures and formalizing the pathways in. I think too often people like Sasha show up on a on a city hall doorstep and they're almost not legible. They're not coming at the right moment with the right solution in a way that people within government can understand it and do anything about it. And and I have, you know, the the challenge of knowing the right person finding Maria in city hall and knowing, you know, that takes agency and frankly, probably connections to get to Her. So how do we create structures and signpost them obvious ways for people to come and present their ideas to local government?)
- Time 0:34:39
-

(highlight:: "Data travels at the speed of trust": Trust as an Essential Component of Building Relation
Transcript:
Speaker 2
A concept called, and in today is called relationship. It's about the relational structures. When I introduce myself at the beginning, I shared where I'm from, my clans and introducing and making that stage of that fundamental value of relationship. And this also includes the speed of trust that we know that data travels at the speed of trust, trust conversations need to happen. These difficult situations of building relationships need to happen. And so really building off of empathy and compassion and knowing that the power of storytelling for us is very essential in this aspect.)
- Time 0:45:57
-