Are Civil Servants Too Old and Selfish for Gov 2.0?
Also published on GovLoop – Social Network for Government.
Maybe we should give up on this quest for a “government 2.0″ or “open government.” Maybe the people in senior positions are, well, just that – too “senior.” Or maybe it’s that most public servants just aren’t that interested in being collaborative, transparent or participatory.
Of course, you know me well enough to understand that I don’t espouse that view at all. But the title of this post is a paraphrase – possible an even more accurate labeling – of a blog post by Stephen Dale in which he asks “Are Civil Servants Made for Social Media?” Here are some excerpts from his thoughts:
“…thinking of the UK demographic of public sector employees, I think that majority of the decision makers fall into the Baby Boomer category (born 1940’s to early ’60’s) than Generation X (born 1960s- 1970’s), and it’s these decision makers that are primarily responsible for blocking access to social media in their departments. They see no impact or consequence of blocking social media because they don’t use it, either for work or personal use. Regrettably, they are limiting the opportunities for their departments to engage with the increasing number of citizens of all ages who are using social media, and risk creating departmental ‘ghetos’, isolated from the conversations that may have some direct relevance to them.
In addition to this generational issue, I also had an exchange with someone yesterday in which they said, “it is ungodly hard to move a collaborative project forward in gov – as Nick Charney has said, some people are wired to share. Most, I’m beginning to think, are not
“So between these two proposed issues – government employees nearing retirement who don’t get (and don’t want to get!) social media and an entrenched bureaucratic culture that’s wired to hoard vs. wired to share information – are we fighting an uphill battle? Are the forces of inertia and stagnancy stronger than the momentum and velocity of the Gov 2.0/OpenGov movement such that people will grow tired and give up the fight?
I hope not…but I am seeing signs that some are growing weary.
What do you think? Where are you?
Thank you for visiting the Generation Shift blog! I look forward to interacting with you as we work together to promote the power of four generations, social media and flexible work environments to transform the public and social sectors.
Ari Herzog | April 6th, 2010 at 10:09 am #
Not to rant against your thoughts, Andy, but I’m quickly growing tired of the echo chamber that social media / web 2.0 / government 2.0 / the internet are the only constructs for collaboration, transparency, and participation.
You raise good points, but the web is secondary if a person opts to not collaborate, be transparent or participate with others. Perhaps the fault lies not with, e.g. social media, but with the social establishment of education and tradition not being up to speed.
When high school and college-level introductory political science classes focus on the past and not the present, that’s one place to tap to evolve and grow up.
Don’t blame the civil servants for being old and selfish. Blame the establishment that brought them there; of which the web is but a tool of today, not the tool they learned to use in their younger days when collaboration, transparency, and participation meant something else that Jefferson and Lincoln practiced.
Andrew Krzmarzick | April 6th, 2010 at 5:56 pm #
Thanks for your thoughts, Ari.
So you ARE “quickly growing tired.” That’s part of my point. People, like you, who were early leaders in the push for “government 2.0″ are feeling a sense of fatigue. They are abandoning the original push to use social media as a tool to foster open government.
The web isn’t secondary. It might not be primary either. But it IS an critical driver and tool in engaging more people in the process of governing as it mitigates time and distance. It is a key part of empowering people – an empowerment that will lead to a culture shift.
If a rock (i.e. “the establishment”) is to be moved, the people pushing cannot give up. In fact, we need more people to generate a critical level of culture-changing force…and we need a fulcrum. We are the force. The web is the fulcrum. But I fear some folks are giving up or moving on. Are you?
I don’t blame the civil servants. Anyone who reads me regularly knows that I feel just the opposite – I celebrate them! And I intend to keep pushing and educating…amassing enough people who are willing to use web-based tools that, when couple with traditional methods of communication, can move mountains.
Scott Horvath | April 7th, 2010 at 10:03 am #
I agree with Ari in that social media tools are not the only tools available to enable “Gov 2.0.” Why not use a regular 1.0 site? Bulletin board for discussions? E-mail updates for notifications on topics of interest? Just because you don’t have a social media presence for your agency doesn’t mean you can’t be Gov 2.0′d.
I also agree that schools need improvement by continually integrating these types of tools [new media...not just social media since there are certainly more things to come]. But education doesn’t stop with the degree. We need to have more robust training opportunities for the working class (a non-generational based class) that teaches employees what these tools are, how you use them, how they’re being used now, and how they could be leveraged to improve that whole sense of collaboration and open government. Not only that…how about simply improving customer service between the government and agency?
There’s a larger part of the boomer generation that are using these tools more and more. Look at the demographics for Facebook and Twitter? It’s not just teenagers or college kids. The fastest growing demographic of many popular social media tools are 35 – 55. Even in my own office, it’s exciting to see people embrace social media and fall in love with it even though they probably wouldn’t have ever tried it…unless it was because of people constantly telling them about these tools. Educating your employees to use these tools, and not just educating the “younger” people, is key. If you can educate employees who wouldn’t normally use such tools then you’re not only empowering them, but building a base of ambassadors within your organization to educate others.
Dennis McDonald | April 8th, 2010 at 11:24 am #
I agree – some people are “wired” to share, others aren’t, and there are many ways to collaborate. I’ve learned that you have to accommodate a mix of styles on a project. Some people will embrace a collaborative tool like Basecamp, some folks will loathe it because they won’t give up email and document attachments, and some people will loathe it because it’s not the best project collaboration tool around. You may have to deal with all three groups at once and this I’m finding is a metaphor for many larger efforts; focusing too narrowly on “web 2.0″ techniques at the expense of the more mundane tools can be a big mistake.
Of course as a Baby Boomer myself I resist ageist generalities but the fact is that I often come across examples of young Luddites and old “show me something shiny” fanboys. Stereotypes suck!
Nick Charney | April 12th, 2010 at 9:46 pm #
Ari – I completely agree with your comments about the structure; it is by and large self replicating. The question I am asked most frequently is why I bother given the constant resistance I encounter. Moreover, people tell me that I am a “glutton for punishment”.
The rate at which people internalize the systems norms must in some way be related to their exposure to the system as a whole.
While this isn’t something I touched directly in my latest blog post (entitled The Age Old Question) it does seem related to the conversation above, especially when we look at the age data I graphed.
Cheers.
Tatiana | April 13th, 2010 at 1:41 pm #
Hey! Stop baiting us poor, old Boomers or we may be prodded to respond along the lines of the “Arrogance of Youth” which would be detrimental to our ever rising blood pressure
On a more serious note, I gave dozens and dozens of presentations over a period of 4 years promoting the use of our internal departmental wiki. I also spent those 4 years seeing who got on board and who didn’t. My personal observation is that age really is not a factor.
Some people “got it” right away. They could see the advantages and just jumped right in. This group included “little old ladies” with minimal tech smarts but lots of vision.
Some people were victims of “perfection paralysis”. Many were won over when they realized that colleagues would actually collaborate and help them to make things better. Others just couldn’t take the leap of faith required but they mostly kept that to themselves.
Some people had to be convinced that this wasn’t an additional daily burden. I have a lot of sympathy for this group as they have been doing “more with less” for a thousand years now. Once they saw how the wiki could be integrated into their daily lives and actually ease their burden, they jumped on board. Perhaps this group tended to be an older crowd just because those are the people that had been burned time & again by “the next new thing”.
Some people hated it because it wasn’t their “tool” or “wiki engine” of choice. This group was relatively small, relatively young and relatively vocal. They definitely couldn’t see the big picture.
Some people hated it because it didn’t meet their “standards” for communication in both official languages. The wiki became another battle ground because they wanted all communications to be “of equal quality, simultaneously” in both languages. This group was extremely vocal (though even they could not speak in both French & English simultaneously
& had a lot of power.
Some people just hated it. I have a suspicion it’s because using a wiki would have revealed that they had nothing positive to contribute. This group was also very vocal and tended to band together with the other “haters”. I guess from their perspective, it was a direct threat to them and so they expended their energy to keep it out.
After 4 years, the wiki is still gaining ground and I’m hoping that the tide has turned for internal departmental collaboration. Government wide adpotion is going to face all the same problems and it’s going to take a lot longer but I believe it is a battle well worth fighting.
Thanks for the discussion!
Andrew Krzmarzick | April 13th, 2010 at 4:04 pm #
@Scott – When I was at the Graduate School (USDA), that’s exactly what I did – mapped their more traditional methods of communication/marketing and asked, “How can we re-purpose, enhance or complement this activity with social media?” Also, this past Thursday, I delivered a workshop on social media in government for the National Labor Relations Board. I began in much the same way – what are you doing now? Then I asked: “Who are you trying to reach?” If your target group is being reached with current methods, great! Keep doing it. But if you are trying to reach a target group that is not currently hearing your message AND who is likely using social media and mobile technology to engage with news and information, then take the steps toward social media. To your point about training, you can find my other training workshop slides, tailored to different groups at the Federal, state and local level, at http://www.slideshare.net/akrzmarzick. I always start my presentations by talking about “Generation C” – a generation to which anyone can belong…with technology being a bridge across the age cohorts.
@Dennis Per my comments to Scott – I believe a balanced, blended approach to communications is the best bet…and that people of all ages will have varying opinions in adopting new tools.
@Nick Thanks for the prompt to check out your comments here…I responded in greater depth to your post over on GovLoop.
@Tatiana Welcome to the fray! I love how you’ve broken the adopters and (mostly) resisters into the various segments. You should give them clever names as Steve Radick has done with his “Gov 2.0 Personality Types”…and as we do with our GovLoop Gov 2.0 Personality Quiz on Facebook – fun ways of identifying the many personalities and perspectives on a team…that probably have less to do with age and a lot more to do with genetics!
Thanks, everyone!
Who Are You Calling Old and Selfish? « RecoveringFed | April 13th, 2010 at 6:12 pm #
[...] (Friday Afternoon edge-taker) Who Are You Calling Old and Selfish? April 13, 2010 Are Civil Servants Too Old and Selfish for Gov 2.0? That’s the title of an interesting blog post and discussion on Generation Shift. When I saw [...]
Steve | May 27th, 2010 at 10:27 pm #
I agree with Ari in that social media tools are not the only tools available to enable “Gov 2.0.” Why not use a regular 1.0 site? Bulletin board for discussions? E-mail updates for notifications on topics of interest? Just because you don’t have a social media presence for your agency doesn’t mean you can’t be Gov 2.0′d.
I also agree that schools need improvement by continually integrating these types of tools [new media...not just social media since there are certainly more things to come]. But education doesn’t stop with the degree. We need to have more robust training opportunities for the working class (a non-generational based class) that teaches employees what these tools are, how you use them, how they’re being used now, and how they could be leveraged to improve that whole sense of collaboration and open government. Not only that…how about simply improving customer service between the government and agency?
There’s a larger part of the boomer generation that are using these tools more and more. Look at the demographics for Facebook and Twitter? It’s not just teenagers or college kids. The fastest growing demographic of many popular social media tools are 35 – 55. Even in my own office, it’s exciting to see people embrace social media and fall in love with it even though they probably wouldn’t have ever tried it…unless it was because of people constantly telling them about these tools. Educating your employees to use these tools, and not just educating the “younger” people, is key. If you can educate employees who wouldn’t normally use such tools then you’re not only empowering them, but building a base of ambassadors within your organization to educate others.
Craig Thomler | June 14th, 2010 at 2:58 am #
In the last week I have had two 50+ public servants in my office saying that they were Luddites and had resisted social media for a long time.
They both, independently, said that they but had come to realise that traditional media was in significant decline and that most people under the age of 40 used a very different set of communications mediums.
They were both interested and willing to learn about new media channels.
I think that many old dogs can learn some new tricks – but it has to be in their own time and way.
Gov 2.0 is a generational change, but we can certainly bring many in older generations along with us in time.