‘Rebooting Communications’ Includes Tech and Talk, Leaders Say

State government’s shift a year ago to continue to function amid the COVID-19 pandemic wasn’t just a matter of giving everyone laptops and letting them work from home.

“It’s not just the challenges of remote work — it’s also the challenges of fast and furious things, developments moving so, so fast,” said Loree Levy, deputy director of public affairs for the state Employment Development Department.

Levy spoke Wednesday in a breakout session of Government Technology’s California Virtual Public Sector CIO Academy on the topic “The Need for a Communications Reboot.” Levy was a panelist, along with Andrew Armani, retired agency information officer and deputy secretary for the California Government Operations Agency and AIO for the Business, Consumer Services and Housing Agency; Ashish Jain, chief technology officer for the California State Teachers' Retirement System; and John Goddard, director of External and Legislative Affairs for AT&T. The moderator was Phil Bertolini, co-director of the Center for Digital Government.* 

The breakout focused on communications from and within government in a time of societal upheaval, when new demands for government services and new obstacles to their implementation collided. To that point, panelists agreed, messaging is key.

Leaders — CIOs, agency spokespeople and managers of products and programs within government — have adapted to the new distributed workplace by, predictably, embracing new communications technology in all its forms.

Levy, for instance, has upped her use of texting and phone calls with her teams, sometimes late into the evening, she said. “Urgency” is one reason, she said, but added that one must temper that urgency with “intentionality” in communicating “to make sure we’re connecting.”

For Jain, he’s seen some bumps along the way with people working, communicating and collaborating remotely. He said there are “a few things we need to dial in on Zoom,” for example. And he noted the more frenetic pace of online meetings: “You’re ending one meeting at 2:59 and going into another at 3 o’clock.” 

And Armani, a veteran of 30 years in the technology industry, noted that while the tech has filled some gaps, working remotely leave us missing “that dynamic, that connection” of talking with someone face-to-face and in person.   

Moderator Bertolini, a veteran of public-sector IT governance and former state CIO for Michigan, noted: “We want to be with people again.”

Other than a nod to fashion for on-camera meetings — “sweatpants and slippers on bottom, nice blazer on top,” one panelist said — the content and style of communication is also changing, with more people using graphics in their presentations.

Armani noted that he’s adapted to the on-camera style of communicating by speaking more slowly and clearly, since the visual cues a listener gives in person may be lost on screen.

“I have to work a little bit harder to get that message across,” he said.

Jain noted that having smaller on-camera meetings of subgroups, rather than a virtual room full of co-workers, may help some participants relax and open up more than they might otherwise. Sometimes a more intimate group “helps people feel more comfortable.”

Jain similarly offered some practical advice mixed in with some concepts: empathy, understanding, flexibility, regular check-ins and celebrating small wins together. 

AT&T’s Goddard urged understanding and compassion as we all adapt to new ways of communicating and working.

“Let’s be patient with ourselves,” he said.

*The Center for Digital Government, like Techwire and Government Technology, is part of e.Republic.