 Fel gŵr wneud, James Llan, I'm Natasha Veninsar and I run the Executive Briefing Program at Edgeserv, so I'm going to tell you today, give you a little bit of a known view of what Edgeserv does and tell you a bit about the briefing program. I'm going to talk to you about the Skills to Digital Change research that we did and talk to you about what that means in terms of cultural change, why collaboration is so important and the key is the digital leadership. Felly, first of all Edgeserv our aim as a Not-of-A-Profit As a not-of-a-profit, we exist to help public good organisations get the most out-of-it. Success for us is enabling our customers to achieve their digital independence. And who are our customers? We work with local authorities. We work with wider public sector organisations, charities and universities. So the common theme is all our customers are public good organisations. And as a not-of-a-profit, it gives us a great opportunity. So how we can help you? We can help you understand your problems. We can help you see how clouds can help solve some of those problems and work with the technical detail of that. To give you a greater independence managing your IT estate going forward. But I'm not really here to talk about our services. I'm here to talk about the executive briefing programme. So the great thing about being a not-of-a-profit is that we're able to reinvest back in the markets we serve. So our executive briefing programme is all about putting digital education at the heart of the digital revolution. We provide research, peer learning and independent opinion. We're steered by a group from across the local government, education and health. There might be a few familiar faces there. They help us decide on the priorities of what we cover and guide us in our research. So why skills for digital change? Well, the steering group really wanted to cover this because we realised that we've got to have a problem when it comes to people and technology. So often programmes start with the technology. But we've got these things of technology, people and process and they all need to work together. And actually people, they should be the most important part of that. So we decided to look at what a digital skills gap is there, how can we really be addressing that and how much are our people-people, the HR and organisational design people involved in digital strategy? So the research, we did a couple of round table discussions. We brought together HR and IT people, which seemed to be an amazing thing to do. A lot of people at the end of those discussions said, why do we not do this? Why do we not put HR and IT people in rooms together? Because it was unusual. We did in-depth interviews with individuals who were looking at digital transformation in their own organisations. And we worked with the PPMA, the Public Sector of People Managers Association. They supported us throughout the research. We did a survey for their members. The report itself is available on our status on our website. So our starting point, first of all we had to say, well, what is digital is a confusing term. Digital is used by different people in different ways and we needed to understand what it was we were talking about. Because we wanted to talk about digital with a big D. So Joss Crease, our principal analyst, his definition of it, digital is a complete change of roles, structures, governance services, processes, risk models, policies, styles and cultures as a result of technology. It's important that we're looking at a big organisational change. It's not just about technology. It's about rethinking how you do things as a total organisation. And I just got one more definition for you there. This is Dyllis Wynn. She's an HR professional and part of our steering group. Digital is about applying different styles of thinking and working. The technology supports a different way of working, but it's not about the technology itself. I think that's really important and that was the crux of what we were trying to get to. So a few headline survey findings. Over 40% of councils like any specific plan to address internal digital skills gap. Over 25% of HR professionals report they have no role in leading or even influencing digital planning in their council. And over 60% do not promote digital skills and recruitment and employment performance measures. We were quite alarmed by those statistics. However, through the more in-depth research, we did find some real pockets of innovation and great practice to share. So what are we talking about? What are we talking about digital skills? Are we talking about applications, breadsheets, software development, channel shift? Those sorts of things did come up, but really know that wasn't the crux of it. What we're really talking about is skills for change. So can we adapt new ways of working? You know, with a lot of councils going to hot desking, to remote working, agile working. That's a very different style of management and a different style of working. Can we be more customer focused, more outcome focused? Can we have good change in project management skills? Is there a commercial awareness because although we're not businesses, we need to work in quite a business-like way if we're going to survive in the future with all of the cuts. Are we able to prioritise our resources? Do we have strong leadership? Are we enabling an environment that really allows our employees to see the art of the possible that is there with technology? And are we encouraging lifelong learning? What it came down to is that most people said that with the right attitude you can learn most stuff. But it's, and most technology, you know, yes, some is more or less intuitive. And I'm sure you'll find that the applications in the government are perhaps a little less intuitive than perhaps buying something from Amazon. But still, there is a sense that people can learn. What's the differences though? What it comes down to is culture because we have a culture problem. So it is widely understood now that digital is a good thing. We want to innovate. But there's a real reluctancy to actually make the changes for that to happen because you do need to work in a different way. You need to have some different values. So, for example, one head of ITT told me that his boss kept talking about agile but was not prepared to accept any mistakes and didn't want anything out in the real one until it was perfect, which, you know, anyone understands agile knows that that is totally not what it's all about. You need to be able to fail fast. You need to be able to try things. You need to be able to get things out into the public domain so that people could actually start using a service and help you refine it. And that's really hard for somebody in that sort of position to be fighting against that sort of mentality. So, you know, how do we create the right environment for change? So, Wush City Council, sorry, County Council, are doing some great work and Neil Crump, one of our contributors, he said, you know, you need to create the right environment for digital and the art of the possible to enable people to find solutions for themselves. And he's got some great tips that I want to share with you for trading that cultural shift. So you need to work in collaboration with the wider workforce in order to design solutions. Those people doing the job, they're the ones that are going to understand about the service they're trying to deliver. You don't tell people, you coach people so they can find out for themselves. Embrace agile thinking, make projects small and be prepared to make mistakes. But simplify the language. Words like agile and design thinking can scare people away. And work out loud, break down silos with transparency so that everyone is, they know what everyone's doing. I'm working in a digital way. I'm sharing what I'm doing in a digital way. Tools like Yammer can really help with that. I want to centre in on this idea of collaboration and share a case study with you. I'm sure you've heard about the work that we can Council have done. They would digital council in the year 2016 for two different organisations. And everything for them all is about collaboration. The deal is a partnership with the public and it's a partnership with the workforce. And talking to them, they're really infused group of people. And there's a real sense of belonging and a real sense of ownership with what they do. They've gone through a real cultural journey and that's been the real important underpinning. And HR have been really very much at the centre of that. So Sonya Halliwell was the assistant director of HR and OD there. Digital is a culture shift about transforming the way we work across whole service delivery. It's a key enable around everything we're trying to achieve and do. It's not just a policy or a strategy that stands alone. It's something that underpins everything they're doing. But what does this mean for all of us? How do we become digital leaders? Well, some of the things I think I would like to share that came from the research involve HR and OD colleagues from the start. Get the people people in the room when you're trying to make changes. Put users at the centre both internal and external. Accept the democratisation of IT and support departments by giving them the freedom to innovate. Shadow IT is a good thing. It can be a good thing. Not everything needs to be controlled. People need to be able to take on technology and make it solve their problems. Technology is becoming something that every manager needs to be versed in just as every manager had to become versed in recruitment or accounting. Now technology has to become a part of every service. Seek out digital champions and use them. I came across a case study of a council who were rolling out paperless and they ended up having to get a consultant to sit with every single department because they tried to let them do it themselves. It didn't happen. And then I spoke to a few other people and they went, well, weren't these digital champions? Getting people out there who are in your workforce who can be part of teams. Somebody is going to be interested in this tech and they can help to drive that vision forward. Don't assume things are obvious to users. Take away the fear for coaching and support. I think this is particularly relevant with senior management. There is, perhaps it's a generational thing, but there are people that they don't want to admit, they don't know. And so it's better just to say, well, let's not bother them. Let's not do it. And support new ways of learning. Don't just email a man and you'll expect people to get on with themselves. In the report, there's a sort of a double page spread of different training ideas and learning ideas that have come through the research. It is evolving. And then there's a thought I want to leave you with which is from Emma Marinas who's a director and model in the Southwch who was also contributing to the report. The whole world is changing and we need to change too. Because if we don't, it will continue to road our relevance and ability to deliver our services in the way that all citizens are adapting and changing to how they now run their lives. Part of my role and my team's role is supporting leaders and heads of service start looking at things differently. And I think as ICT leaders, that's what we need to be doing. It's about supporting others to really understand the art of the possible and how technology can help. So, like I say, we do have a stand here today. We do have some copies of the report. It's also available for our website. And we're going to be running a workshop also today. One of the areas that we looked at in the report was how members, what skills they have and what skills they need. And we're going to start digging into that bit further when talking about how members can be digital change champions. We're bringing in two councillors here today. Lawrence Wood from Wiccan District Council and Fiona Cooley from Southwch to talk about how, as the ICT community, how can we kind of help members to become digital champions and what sort of role they can play. So I hope you can join us for that at 12.15. Thank you very much.