Open civic organizations

Note: This is a working document. If you have questions or feedback, use the comments feature or email me at luke@govfresh.com.

Context

The open civic organizations (OCOs) concept was born from my experiences founding, building, and supporting:

• Government-focused technology services, product, and media companies
• California wildfire disaster response/recovery efforts
• Open source and community hacking projects
• Digital government innovation experiments

Paradise lost

In November 2020, Paradise, Calif., was burning. Sitting at my kitchen island, I culled through Twitter and Facebook accounts and the Butte County homepage, using this information to build and update pages for an official response and recovery website. The team we provided the same support for during the Sonoma County Tubbs Fire had asked the company I co-founded, ProudCity, to help again.

During the first days of the fire, I worked closely with Jake Bayless, a public information officer, web administrator, programmer and analyst for Santa Rosa, Calif. Jake had been called to Paradise based on his professional background and firsthand experience with the Tubbs Fire. Jake called ProudCity, we immediately set up a test site and the two of us began building, using a Trello board to project manage what needed to be done and what each of us were working on. We held quick, regular check-ins – sometimes multiple times a day – to see how we could unblock one another. It was reactive and hacky but, all things considered, it did the job.

Eventually, the site was moved to an official Butte County domain, but we still maintained it short-term until key staff were onboarded to manage it and other tasks full-time.

Going Alpha

In the winter of 2020, I was part of a small team selected to re-imagine how the State of California could deliver digital services. The project, called California Alpha, lasted three months and recruited nine professionals from government and private sector to work together for the duration.

Days after Alpha ended, COVID-19 struck. State employees on the project were called in to lead the digital response team. By all accounts, the way they worked – and delivered – would never have happened had Alpha not been stood up when it was.

Alpha wasn’t a navel-gazing innovation exercise, as some had thought. It was the proving ground for what would be the state’s single source of truth on all things COVID, delivered in an open, agile way that met the moment.

Alpha evolved and is now the California Office of Data and Innovation, supporting state agencies on digital service delivery projects.

Crises averted

How did it come to be that Jake and I, neither of us Butte County government officials – or residents even – were the first digital responders building the foundation for what would serve as the single source of truth for, at that time, California’s largest wildfire?

What would have happened in California during the COVID pandemic if Alpha wasn’t serendipitously stood up when it was?

These experiences, and my work with civic organizations – government, nonprofit, business, community – not operating to their potential, have led me on a path to a better way. One that changes the dynamics of our civic organizations from reactive to proactive, from stasis to generative, from subpar service to optimal mission delivery.

Working in technology, particularly with open source software, there are many similarities between that and mission-based service work that sustainably builds better societal solutions.

By applying a holistic and generative approach to operational work, we can build civic organizations that are sustainable and resilient, and operate not in continuous (minor or major) crisis mode, but in harmony with the communities they serve.

OCO for all

The OCO framework empowers organizations of all sizes, types and resources to implement a way of serving their communities that inspires people internally and externally. The critical component is a commitment by everyone – government, nonprofits, business, community at large – to honor their roles and continuously challenge and hold themselves so they serve in the most effective and rewarding way possible.

Intro

We count on civic-minded organizations to support all aspects of a functioning civil society. OCOs are designed to blend mission-minded work with the intentional flow of modern operational practices. By adopting a generative civic delivery framework, organizations can fully realize their impact potential.

Civic

Examples of civic organizations:

• Government
• Academia
• Nonprofits
• Open source projects
• Communities of practice
• Mission-driven companies

Challenge

Status quo civic organizations are some or all of the following:

• Wayward, inefficient, rigid
• Lack sustainable workflows
• Difficulty managing resources
• Rely only on internal input
• Don’t inspire their people
• Struggle to build a shared sense of purpose
• Don’t fully fulfill their missions

Solution

OCOs:

• Are intentional, productive, agile
• Have seamless, fluid workflows
• Optimize resources
• Leverage external communities
• Inspire pride in individual contributions
• Build purposeful camaraderie
• Realize their mission potential
• Share code, documentation and insights

Open civic organizations

Simply defined, OCOs are:

Mission-minded people
powered by open, agile flow,
joining together,
learning from one another,
building a better civic experience
for the communities they serve.

Why they matter

OCOs matter because they:

• Scale impact
• Deepen trust
• Are more resilient
• Streamline for service
• Deliver with intention
• Give meaning to the work
• Inherently prioritize ethics
• Optimize limited resources
• Cultivate public innovation
• Condition for collaboration
• Empower individual growth
• Foster a sense of community
• Build trust and contribute to the public good

How they work

OCOs work:

• Openly
• Iteratively
• Asynchronously
• Collaboratively
• Constructively

Values

OCO values:

• Joy
• Equity
• Impact
• Humility
• Diversity
• Inclusivity
• Community
• Meritocracy
• Transparency
• Accountability
• Collaboration
• Experimentation
• Self-organization

Culture

The core culture components for successful OCOs are:

• Open
• Agile
• Flow

Open

While inherent in open source communities, openness is a practice that has been adopted in a number of civic organizations, including government agencies.

Open organizations are publicly accessible, inclusive and offer many collaboration avenues. They allow for some form of ‘write’ access.

“An organization that engages participative communities both inside and out – responds to opportunities more quickly, has access to resources and talent outside the organization, and inspires, motivates, and empowers people at all levels to act with accountability,” writes former Red Hat CEO Jim Whitehurst in Open Organizations: Igniting Passion and Performance, “Contributors work together as a community, building on each other’s work, to arrive at the best solution to a complicated problem.”

Open organizations are:

• Inclusive
• Accessible
• Transparent
• Collaborative
• Symbiotic, generative

Agile

In 2001, 17 software development practitioners convened and developed The Agile Manifesto. Today, the manifesto and its accompanying principles are widely used in varying degrees and forms to manage not just technology projects, but work of all kinds. It is not just a project management framework, but an ethos of building iteratively and adapting accordingly because, more often than not, what is planned for doesn’t always unfold in the manner you expect.

The Agile Manifesto:

We have come to value:
Individuals and interactions over processes and tools
Working product/service over comprehensive documentation
Customer collaboration over contract negotiation
Responding to change over following a plan
While there is value in the items on the right,
we value the items on the left more.

(We changed ‘software’ to ‘product/service’)

Key excerpts from the “Principles behind the Agile Manifesto”:

Our highest priority is to satisfy the customer through early and continuous delivery of valuable software.

Welcome changing requirements, even late in development. Agile processes harness change for the customer’s competitive advantage.

Business people and developers must work together daily throughout the project.

Build projects around motivated individuals. Give them the environment and support they need, and trust them to get the job done.

Agile processes promote sustainable development. The sponsors, developers, and users should be able to maintain a constant pace indefinitely.

At regular intervals, the team reflects on how to become more effective, then tunes and adjusts its behavior accordingly.

Flow

Psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi socialized (and popularized) the idea and fundamentals of creative fluidity in “Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience.”

With flow, people (and organizations) find:

• Purpose
• Intention
• Harmony

“The ability to control what happens in consciousness moment by moment, each person has to achieve it on the basis of his own individual efforts and creativity,”

writes Csikszentmihalyi. “The best moments usually occur when a person’s body or mind is stretched to its limits … to accomplish something difficult and worthwhile. Optimal experience is something we make happen.”

And Wikipedia defines flow as “the mental state in which a person or organization* performing some activity is fully immersed in a feeling of energized focus, full involvement, and enjoyment in the process of the activity.” ( we added ‘or organization’)*

Csikszentmihalyi’s flow channel diagram best illustrates the relationship between challenges and skills and keeping both the individual and organization working with a sense of commitment to their respective areas of work.

Source: Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience

Competencies

OCOs must cultivate and maintain core competencies. Dedicating resources and emphasizing the importance each is culturally and operationally important.

These include:

• Brand
• Delivery
• Community
• Narrative

Brand

We refer to brand as how people, especially the intended communities, viscerally connect to the mission. Subtle and direct branding plays an important role, internally and externally, on adoption and engagement.

Important OCO brand components:

• Mission
• Style guide
• Design system

Delivery

All civic organizations provide some form of product or service. How effective they are depends on how well they manage delivery.

Key elements of delivery:

• Product ownership
• Project management
• Research, design, development

Community

OCOs cultivate togetherness so they can serve based on open, regular, direct, authentic encounters with their communities.

Communities can be some or all of these:

• Online (web, social media, repositories)
• Offline (citizen assemblies, unconferences, hackathons)
• Communities of practice (internal, external)

Narrative

OCOs show the work. Technology projects publish release notes when making product updates. Some governments post “done/doing” updates, simple bulleted points with reference links to more information.

OCO narratives are:

• Simple (plain language)
• Authentic (little to no embellishment)
• Evergreen (documentation)
• Regular/consistent (weekly/monthly)
• Multichannel (web, email, social)
• Feedback-friendly (online form, email)

Ceremonies

OCOs have ceremonies that foster commitment, operational flow, and camaraderie:

• Swear-ins
• Check-ins
• Retrospectives
• Celebrations

Components

Core components of open civic organizations include publicly available:

• URL
• Team agreement
• Roadmap
• Project board
• Release notes
• Code of conduct
• Documentation
• README
• Repository
• Contributor guides

Roles

Designated roles – not hierarchical titles – in an OCO create a sense of ownership and accountability.

Generally speaking, there are two fundamental roles:

• Maintainers
• Contributors

Maintainers

In open source projects, the maintainers are the people ultimately responsible for the project’s success.

In delivery-driven environments, the product owner plays this role. Play 6 of the U.S. Digital Services Playbook says, “Assign one leader and hold that person accountable.”

The product owner (or maintainer):

“.. has the authority and responsibility to assign tasks and work elements; make business, product, and technical decisions; and be accountable for the success or failure of the overall service. This product owner is ultimately responsible for how well the service meets the needs of its users, which is how a service should be evaluated. The product owner is responsible for ensuring that features are built and managing the feature and bug backlogs.”

Contributors

Contributors play an integral role in ensuring work they’re responsible for is done and supports the maintainer’s vision.

Contributors include:

• Stakeholders
• Designers
• User researchers
• Developers
• Subject-matter experts
• General public

Mantras

Successful teams lean on succinct reminders to keep them focused and motivated.

Example OCO mantras:

• Default to open
• Agile = Resilience
• Flow forward
• Upskill always
• Show the work
• Together is better

Conclusion

More than ever, with expedited emerging technologies and a society in constant flux, mission-driven work must be adaptive, generative and resilient. With leadership and individual commitment to impact, organizations of any size or resource amount can do this. By adopting an open, agile, flow framework of service, people and organizations can achieve optimal experiences for themselves and the communities they serve.

Get started

Reminder

• Getting comfortable working openly is a process
• Learning new tools, ways of working is challenging
• Crucial conversations are hard, but must happen
• With small steps, it’s something everyone can lean into

Questions to ask

• Am I committed to the mission?
• Am I inspired in my role?
• Do we empower individuals to learn/grow?
• Is there strong organizational camaraderie?
• Are our workflows adaptive and responsive?
• What changes can I make that will help others join us?
• Is leadership leading by example?

Checklist

• Swear in
• Set guiding principles
• Develop a team agreement
• Build open project boards
• Start a documentation ecosystem
• Establish communities of practice
• Schedule check-ins/retrospectives
• Share the work

Learn more

• Open civic organizations (website)
• Open civic organizations (deck)

Author

Luke Fretwell is the founder and maintainer of GovFresh, a media and innovation lab working at the intersection of design, technology and democracy. Contact Luke at luke@govfresh.com or visit his website at lukefretwell.com.

Acknowledgments

Thank you to the following who have inspired this thinking and related work.

ProudCity: Kevin Herman, Jeff Lyon, Curtis, McHale, Alex Schmoe

California Alpha: Angie Quirarte, Hilary Hoeber, Art Khomishen, JP Petrucione, Aaron Hans, Kimberly Glenn, Chad Bratton, Carter Medlin, Rebecca Huval, Mike Wilkening

Response/recovery (Camp Fire, Tubbs Fire): Jake Bayless, Christine Foster, Talia Smith, Rebecca Woodbury

Proudly Serving: Morgan Griffin, Marlena Medford, Echa Schneider, Rebecca Woodbury, Kirsten Wyatt

GovPress: Devin Price

General: Kevin Curry (CityCamp), Remy DeCausemaker, Mike Gifford, Steve Spiker, Ryan Wold