In this month’s episode of the Authorium Podcast, Co-CEOs Kamran Saddique and Jay Nath talk with Secretary Amy Tong, California Secretary of Government Operations, about the challenges governments face in navigating complex processes, responding to rapidly evolving issues, and overcoming siloed data systems that contribute to limited decision making capabilities. Throughout her career in state government – including her previous role of State Chief Information Officer – Secretary Tong has provided leadership and an innovative spirit in the interest of serving Californians. She offers recommendations for government leaders to drive transformative change. Listen to the full episode now.
Here are four can’t miss moments from this month’s episode:
1) Secretary Tong’s Inspiring Journey in Public Service
Secretary Tong describes her family’s humble beginnings of immigrating to the United States nearly 40 years ago. Her parents’ work as college professors directly impacted her drive to serve other people. She takes us through her journey from COBAL programmer to leading government operations for the fifth largest economy in the world. Find out what motivates her to continue to serve in state government year after year.
“You can do so much more if you just have a mindset to be efficient, to be intentional…you can achieve so much more, despite the challenges you’re facing.”
2) Key to Innovation: Understand the Why
When looking for ways to improve and modernize state government processes, Secretary Tong puts herself in the shoes of end users – the people of her state.
Take for example, a safety net program. When residents attempt to access services, they typically want fast results. Before making any changes, Secretary Tong meets with program staff to understand the current state of things. She asks the agency to describe step-by-step how to access services. When a process is described in 10 steps, but only three or five of those steps resonate with an end-user, she digs deeper to understand why.
Even after decades of state service, she relies on fundamental questions to ensure that the State doesn’t apply technology to an archaic process that is simply inefficient. Before looking into automation implementation, she and her teams seek ways to improve efficiency, remove red tape, and cut out unnecessary steps to reduce the burden on those accessing critical services.
3) Big Problems Benefit from Big Partnerships
Just because a problem exists under the purview of government doesn’t mean that it must be solved solely by internal staff. Secretary Tong shares how Requests for Innovative Ideas (RFI2) enable her state to tap into the skills, expertise, and creativity of people working in technology, academia, and partner efforts to take on the biggest challenges facing Californians.
One key feature she recommends her peers to reconsider is the prescriptive approach that governments often use when asking for outside help. From her experience, she’s found that by making requirements too specific, too lengthy, or too burdensome, industry leaders are actually disincentivized to help solve problems that they may be very well-equipped to address. Alternatively, the RFI2 initiative has enabled over 70 procurements and reduced procurement timelines from 18 months down to three.
“Having this type of a problem statement without a lot of prescription – you’re asking the community, the industry, academia included, to bring you a solution – is invigorating. It is having the opportunity to help the State solve a problem. Not only from a process aspect, we become more efficient, we bring up this level of entrepreneurship spirit in the community. I think that’s the part that I’m most proud of.”
4) Focus on Outcomes, Instead of Requirements
Artificial Intelligence (AI) has been around for some time, but the introduction of ChatGPT significantly escalated the conversation around the capabilities of the technology. In government, teams need to balance the benefits and risks of using new technologies. One way that California stays focused is to ensure their teams identify problem statements and focus on outcomes.
Instead of prompting teams to “go play with the latest technology to figure out how it works,” California looks to a problem statement, such as “what can we do as State government to look for ways to enhance State service to all Californians using Generative AI.” By focusing on intended outcomes, they’re approaching technology in a responsible manner.
When asking the State departments for a sticky problem – such as traffic congestion related to the 2028 Olympics or vulnerable user (pedestrian or bicyclist) safety on the roads, for example – teams can leverage Gen AI to process at the huge amount of transportation data to see if there are new insights to be gleaned. Then, real people can use those insights to consider possible process improvements.
To hear more from Secretary Tong listen to the episode and share it with a colleague.
