Jul 15, 2026 · 25 min · 9 segments
In this milestone episode, Civic Innovators welcomes a new co-host: Rob Lloyd, Director of the Center for Digital Government and former CTO of Seattle and San Jose. With over 30 years of civic…
Noam ReiningerHost
And so, you know, one of the things that you said is really understand the work and understand how the work is interconnected across various departments.
For leaders undergoing a modernization effort and they're starting out, they're thinking about new technology and new selection process.
What are some of the things you think they really need to understand on day one? And you started with really unpacking how the work is getting done.
Yeah, I think one of the most important things you have to do with these transformation initiatives is just understand and identify with and respect the deep knowledge and what you're trying to accomplish because it's three levels that you're trying to work at.
And then managers are seeing things from a different lens, which is how do I do my job of orchestrating things across my staffs and accomplish the risk management and the legislative and legal requirements that we have? And then you have at a third level, the strategic outcomes that your city council and your mayors and your city managers are saying, we need to take our communities in a good long-term direction.
And if you put those three things together, you can really have a really strong conversation with your community and your organization saying, what are we trying to accomplish? And then how do we head in that direction? Where are we now? What are the process and systemic changes we have to make? And then how do we keep on going in a good direction long term? And so we don't view things as kind of one offs.
The reason for contesting has to make sense in the broader picture, not just I control this one thing.
And then the system questions are putting that context because the system has to meet that question.
It's it helps us do this one thing that helps us do this greater thing and the series of things and accomplish this this broader direction long term.
Yes, we have some near-term goals, but how does it all orchestrate and weave together that we are going in the right long-term direction? I think to your question, though, also is usually when we set directions, we don't converse first.
And organizations at their best are more intentional and more broad reaching about here's what we're trying to do and here's why and here's your part of the process.
And so, you know, one of the things that you said is really understand the work and understand how the work is interconnected across various departments.
For leaders undergoing a modernization effort and they're starting out, they're thinking about new technology and new selection process.
What are some of the things you think they really need to understand on day one? And you started with really unpacking how the work is getting done.
Yeah, I think one of the most important things you have to do with these transformation initiatives is just understand and identify with and respect the deep knowledge and what you're trying to accomplish because it's three levels that you're trying to work at.
And then managers are seeing things from a different lens, which is how do I do my job of orchestrating things across my staffs and accomplish the risk management and the legislative and legal requirements that we have? And then you have at a third level, the strategic outcomes that your city council and your mayors and your city managers are saying, we need to take our communities in a good long-term direction.
And if you put those three things together, you can really have a really strong conversation with your community and your organization saying, what are we trying to accomplish? And then how do we head in that direction? Where are we now? What are the process and systemic changes we have to make? And then how do we keep on going in a good direction long term? And so we don't view things as kind of one offs.
The reason for contesting has to make sense in the broader picture, not just I control this one thing.
And then the system questions are putting that context because the system has to meet that question.
It's it helps us do this one thing that helps us do this greater thing and the series of things and accomplish this this broader direction long term.
Yes, we have some near-term goals, but how does it all orchestrate and weave together that we are going in the right long-term direction? I think to your question, though, also is usually when we set directions, we don't converse first.
And organizations at their best are more intentional and more broad reaching about here's what we're trying to do and here's why and here's your part of the process.
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