DCD Blogs/Lessons from the Field
Hello, world!, We are the Digital Collaboration Division for the Government of Canada and we are working to help reimagine the way people work together to solve civic problems. To do this, we are supporting the development of an open source digital workspace for collaboration and co-creation. To learn more about us, check THIS blog written by Chris Allison.
Our team is working hard this year to bring people along on our learning journey and so stay tuned for more blogs and vlogs coming out from our team in the coming months.
The Digital Collaboration Division is made up of lots of people working on different aspects of this project. This blog shares some of their stories and what they have been learning over the last year as we try to figure out how to do this work together.
Derek Alton
GCcollab:
@Derek.Alton
Twitter:
@DerekAlton
Who are you and what do you do?
My name is Derek Alton and I work on the strategic partnerships branch of the Digital Collaboration Division. My job is to reach out to key partners (both within and outside of government) to support experiments in digital collaboration and help share their stories. The hope is that by supporting and highlighting these trailblazers we can enable a growing shift in culture for how government solves problems. These experiments also serve as a testing ground for a new generation of digital tools to help with this work.
What is a highlight/special achievement from the last year?
The biggest highlight for me from the last year was seeing how many people are eager to explore this new way of thinking and working. There is often an assumption (one that I myself held when I came into government) that government is outdated and full of people locked in an old way of thinking that doesn’t fit with the times. This year I got to travel across the country and engage with people from many different levels of government and community organizations. I was constantly blown away by how many people get it and are eager to try new things. People who deeply believe that government has a key role to play in helping pull our society forward in the digital age we now live in. These are people not only with passion but also with ideas and energy to put the ideas into action.
What is a lesson from the last year?
Hands down, learning patience. Though there are lots of people eager to think and work in new ways, the system we are in was designed for a different time and a different paradigm. Therefore, to work differently in the system means to constantly be going against the grain. This stuff takes time and tool development can’t always keep up with idea generation (especially when you have a small team). Because I didn’t know how much time and energy everything would take, I tended to overestimate what I could do and spread myself too thin, this in turn undermined my ability to meet my goals.
What are you excited about for the coming year?
The Pathways project. I get to actively seek out inspiring groups of people trying to do things in new ways, support them and then help them tell their story. Through this we both get to test out a new suite of digital tools, like GCcollab, and also build up a repertoire of stories each with their own groups of trail blazers. This is how we shift culture.
