DEVELOP AND AGREE A STRATEGIC VISION FOR THE USE OF DIGITAL RESOURCES WITHIN THE FIELD OF GOVERNMENT COMMUNICATION (v FINAL 25 April 2014) Author: Anthony Simon, asimon@no10.x.gsi.gov.uk Government communication must have digital at its core as it's an essential way to inform, plan, deliver and measure activity. Government Communicators should have confidence in using digital technology and methods to: gain insight into our audiences, develop the best ideas, implement plans provide maximum impact 1) This paper sets out a strategic vision for the use of digital resources, and how it can best be used for Government communication purposes. 2) The objective of this output is to propose a vision that can be agreed by Directors of Communication across Government and will allow the integration of digital and social media to take place. 3) The vision will underpin the other outputs of this project, and will support them. This output will support the other outputs, rather than supersede them. 4) The pan-government Digital Comms Capability Review which was published in late 2013 gave some clear direction and strategic vision to the use of digital and social media in Government comms. The Digital Comms Action Group, which was formed in January 2014 to take forward and implement its findings, has also been involved and consulted in this output. 5) The strategic vision from this has been approved and agreed by members of the Digital Comms Action Group. The approval of the GCS project board and Directors of Comms are now sought. It is proposed that the first part of the strategic vision in a single sentence would be: Government communication must have digital
at its core as it's an essential way to inform, plan, deliver and measure activity. 6) This is designed to be short enough to be easily understood and be shared. It also ties in with Government Digital Strategy (of being digital by default )and the Government Service Design Manual. This has the tag-line of Build services so good that people prefer to use them. A similar approach should be used for government comms. It should be clear that when government uses digital channels and techniques successfully, then they are actually preferred by users. 7) The second part of the vision gives the core principles around what is expected from digital communicators so they can embrace the vision: Government Communicators should have confidence in using digital technology and methods to: gain insight into our audiences, develop the best ideas, implement plans, provide maximum impact 8) It explores confidence as what is required from comms staff for the following reasons: - The Digital Comms Action Group identified improving confidence as an important theme to be tackled by the vision. It is regarded as a key factor in overcoming the perceived risks of using social media as highlighted by the Digital Comms Capability Review. Confidence comes through awareness, practice and learning. These are themes that are addressed across all outputs of this project. - Makes it clear it s not just about a single technical skill but a range of practice across different technologies and methods. - Confidence is a two-way thing. It comes from the effort of the individual but only with the active support from their management - It can take time and effort for confidence to grow. This is something that should be considered by departmental and GCS leadership. 9) Insight, Ideas, Implementation and Impact. Confidence is required in using digital technology and methods around the four Is which are the main themes of GCS output. It therefore makes it clear that digital should be integral to all parts of communication, and is not specific to certain parts of comms only.
10) Guidance and advice will be provided to comms professionals as part of this project, giving examples of good practice and where people can go for more advice and support. This will be made available online via the GCS website. 11) Definition of Digital. The term digital can be used for a range of different activities in government. This can include the provision of services and transactions (e.g. tax online, local council services). In the context of government communication its meaning is related to several tools and techniques. They can be based around the four Is : - The use of digital and social media to engage and inform audiences. This includes social media channels such as Twitter and LinkedIn as well as owned platforms for publishing information (mainly the GOV.UK platform) (Implementation and Impact) - The creation of content (including text, pictures and rich media) that is particularly effective in a digital and social media environment (Impact and Ideas) - The use of digital to inform and listen to audiences to gain knowledge and understanding about the most effective ways to communicate. (Insight and Ideas) - The use of digital tools to enable better organisation and productivity at work such as online project sharing, meeting arrangements. (Impact) - The measurement of the impact and outcome of digital activities to enable evaluation to take place. (Insight) 12) Capgemini Consulting and the MIT Center for Digital Businesses have published a paper on setting digital visions for organisations. ( The Vision Thing : Developing a Transformative Digital Vision ) This makes it clear how different companies have developed strategic visions and sets out some good practice for any organisation facing this sort of change programme. Importantly it states that A bottom-up approach does not deliver successful digital transformation. Only the top layer of a company can create a compelling vision of the future and communicate it through the organisation. It states that there are two main areas of digital transformation the What and How. The what represents digital intensity The How
represents transformation management intensity, a measure of an organisation s vision, governance and skills. See appendix A for their chart showing how digital should thrive in both areas. It shows the Digirati being in the highest box where there is a high level of competence for the What and How. This is where Government communications needs to be. It also stated how most organisations express digital strategic vision as either digitizing operational processes. digitizing customer experience or a mixture of the two. The vision in government needs to combine the two. In comms there is an inherent mixture of operational processes and digitizing customer services as it s the public and other audiences that all comms is set up to serve. The strategic vision of government communications having digital at its core should go across both areas. The report states that the creation of a vision is never a completely linear process. Its research finds that Digerati companies go through three steps to formulate their digital visions: - Define a clear target - Engage the organisation - Evolve the vision over time This project deals with the first two points, it is important that the vision is revisited at the end of the coming year to ask if it needs any amendment or clarification. 13) The strategic vision will be underpinned by the manifesto for change which was articulated in the digital communication capability review. This set out three guiding principles to anchor change. These are: i. To keep up with the way information is accessed, digital communication in government should be a core skill for all, not a specialist area, by end of 2014. Digital communication skills must include a firm grasp of planning, objective setting and measurement / insights. ii. Communications leaders, Digital Leaders and GDS must work more closely together a more collaborative approach is needed to get the most out of GOV.UK. and other GDS services.
iii. We mustn t let a risk-averse culture block innovative and impactful digital comms attitudes to risk need to be balanced, pragmatic and informed by business need. These principles should be taken in conjunction with the strategic vision and are the main drivers in ensuring the change can take place. Each of the three guiding principles is being addressed by several Outputs of this project including: - Output 2 (enable culture change to place digital at the centre of all comms activity) - Output 5 (identifying skills gaps, and developing staff capability) - Output 6 (develop a structure for an integrated comms team) which enables communications leaders and digital comms leaders to work more closely together. - Output 8 (create an integrated approach for comms)
Appendix 1 - Digital Capability matrix (What v How). Digirati level is required for Government comms. What How Source: The Vision Thing : Developing a Transformative Digital Vision Capgemini consulting and MIT Center for Digital Business