Did You Set Out to Deliver the Strategy and to Sequence the Various Initiatives, Which Had Been a Puzzle First?
How Did You End Up in the CEO Role of Digital Israel after Two Years in the Team?
What Was the Expectation or Task Given to You as You Became the CEO?
Given the Horizontal or Matrix Nature of Governmental Strategy, How Did You Build Up the Collaboration with Ministries to Ensure the Delivery on Their End?
Was There Ever Pushback from Some Ministries?
How Did You Manage to Ensure the Delivery of the Plans? How Did You Help Ministries along the Journey?
One of the Keys to Make It All Happen Was to Build Out a Great Team. What Was Your Approach in This Area? How Did You Bring Your Team Together?
What Did You Do to Keep the Good People?
Can You Tell a Bit More on the Culture You Were Building for the Team?
What Were Your Guiding Principles as a Leader?
What Were Your Most Effective Management Routines?
Looking Back, What Do You See as Your Biggest Achievements in the Job?
Are There Things You Regret or Things You Think You Failed At?
When 2020 Came, You Decided to Move On—Why Did You Make This Decision?
What Were the Remaining or Next Challenges for Digital Israel as You Left?
How Did You Make Sure That What You Started Would Stick and Last?
Looking Back Now, What Were Your Biggest Learnings in This Job—Anything You Wish You Had Known at Start Already?
Did You Ever Learn How to Fix Bureaucracy, as You Had Initially Set Out to Change Government Ways?
If Despite It Being Hard, Someone Still Wants to Do This Kind of Job, What Skills Are Necessary for It?
What Are Your Three Summary Takeaways from Your Digital Government Leadership Role, as Recommendations to Any Peer on How to Be Effective in This Job?
Notes
26 CHAPTER 18: Taavi Kotka How Did You Enter Public Sector and the Government CIO Role in Estonia? What Was Your Main Motivation Still to Take the Role—Besides the “Golden Handcuffs” from the Exit? What Made the Minister or Secretary General Choose You, and What Were You Called In to Do or Deliver? What Were the Things That Needed to Be Done? What Was the State of Play in Digital Government in Estonia in 2013? What Was the Institutional Setup Like—Including the Mandate for Your Role? What Did You Set Yourself as Some Concrete Objectives to Achieve? What Were Your First Steps or Actions in the Role? How Were You Able to Deliver on Your Objectives from There On, Also Given the Small Size of the Team? How Did You Influence Other Government Departments to Get Onboard the Initiatives? Can the Tank Method Also Backfire? With the Usual Incentives Not Available, How Did You Motivate Your Own Team to Deliver? How Did You Choose the People to Your Team? What Was the Factor You Looked For? Who Was Your Most Valuable Hire? How Did You Advance the Culture in the Team? What Were Your Routines to Ensure That Delivery Was Happening? What Were the Things You Kept Saying to the Team Again and Again? What Are the Things You Regret from Your Time in Office, or Things You Failed At? What Do You Consider Your Biggest Achievements While in Office? Did You Manage to Make Any Difference? What Made You Stay in Government Longer Than Planned, and What Made You Leave after Four Years after All? How Did You Make Sure That Your Work Would Last? Knowing What You Now Know, Is There Anything You Wish You Had Known When You Started? Is There Any Skill That Can Be Learned to Be Ready to Take Such a Job? What Are the Key Things to Do to Be Effective as a Government CIO or in a Similar Role? Notes
27 CHAPTER 19: Tim Occleshaw How Did You Enter the Digital Government Leadership Role in New Zealand? What Was Your Motivation to Apply? What Was the Institutional Context of Digital Government Steering in New Zealand at the Time? Did You Hesitate at All about Whether to Apply For, or to Take the Job? Did You Have Any Conditions Going in or Asks for the Role? What Was the Expectation to You, or the Ambition Laid Out for You to Achieve? What Was Your Team's Mandate and the Mechanisms or Levers to Achieve These Aims? What Was Your Initial Plan or Essential Steps in the First Three Months of the Job? What Was the Time Frame for Your Strategy? What Was the Gist of the New Strategy?
