Sort of Competence Did You Seek to Add to the Team?
Who Was Your Most Valuable Addition to the Team?
What Do You Consider as Your Biggest Achievements in the GCIO Role?
What Was Surprising for You in the Job, Looking Back Now?
Is There Anything Else You Wish You Had Known When You Started?
What Do You Think Were Your Biggest Failures in the Job?
Was This the Reason You Moved On or What Was behind Your Decision to Leave Office?
What Are the Remaining Challenges on the Table for GC and Your Former Team?
How Did You Ensure Your Initiatives and Changes Would Be Sustained?
Would You Do the Same Job Ever Again, Being Wiser Now, Too?
What Are the Core Necessary Skills to Do This Kind of Job Well?
What Are Your Bottom-Line Takeaways or Recommendations on How to Do the GCIO Type of Job Well?
11 CHAPTER 3: Anna-Maija Karjalainen How Did You Become a Digital Government Leader in Finland? What Was Your Motivation in Taking Up the Offer, Especially Given the Short Time? Did You Have Any Hesitations at All? What Was the Expectation Laid Out to You or What Were You Called In to Do? If You Only Had Ten Minutes to Think, What Gave You the Confidence That You Were the Woman for the Job? What Is the Institutional Background of the Digital Government Setup in Finland? Why Is the Ministry of Finance in Charge of the Area? What Was Going on in the Area of Digital Government in Finland at the Time You Joined? Tell a Bit More—What Are the Suomi.Fi Services? What Was Your Own Strategy: What Did You Set Yourself as Concrete Objectives to Achieve? How Did the Strategy or Your Proposals Emerge? What Mechanisms Did You Have for Coordination and Leading across the Public Sector? Doing Workshops Is a Fine Idea, but It Does Not Have to Lead to Buy-In—How Did You Achieve That? How Did You Choose Your Priority or Where to Focus? Besides Trying to Figure Out the Strategy, What Other Steps Did You Start With in Your First Hundred Days? How Did You See That Change Through Then with Your Team? Were the Meetings Popular and Did You Keep Them as a Routine? What Were the Other Ways You Kept the Team Onboard? How Did You Keep Things in Focus for Delivery? What Were the Principles or Values You Tried to Push Forward to the Team? How Did You Rebuild Your Team? What Were the Competences You Were Looking For? How Did You Find People for the Team? Who Was Your Most Impactful Hire? What Do You Consider Your Biggest Achievement in the GCIO Role? Are There Things You Would Have Done Differently or Things You Even Failed At? What Made You Leave Office in 2021? How Did You Work to Make Your Changes Last or Stick? What Is the State of Finnish Digital Government Today? What Are the Remaining Challenges? What Do You Wish You Had Known When You Started in the Job, If You Look Back Now? What Are the Key Skills Necessary to Do the Government CIO Job Well? Would You Actually Recommend This Job to Anyone? What Makes It Special? What Are the Key Recommendations You Would Have for a Peer on How to Do the GCIO Work the Most Effectively? Notes
12 CHAPTER 4: Barry Lowry How Did You Become Involved in the Digital Government Work? What Was Your Road Then to the GCIO Role in Ireland? Do You Still Miss a Chance to Get Your Hands into Code? How Is the Digital Government Work Led in Ireland and What Was Your Motivation to Join That Effort? What Did the Bosses Expect You to Deliver; What Was the Goal They Gave You? What Was the State of Digital Government When You Came into the Job? Where Did You Start with It? What Was Your Focus in the First Hundred Days? What Was Your Time Horizon with the Plan? What Were Your Levers to Make It All Happen? Besides Setting up the New Governance Model, What Were Your Major Priorities in the 18-Step Plan? How Has COVID-19 Changed the Way You Operate and What You Are Working On? How Have You Managed to Keep the Political Backing Necessary for Delivery and for Keeping a Focus? What Was the Team Like When You Joined and How Did You Build It Further? What Has Been Your Trick to Attracting Them to Come and Work for You?
