That is: we are too slow. We public servants are tasked with modernization. Data modernization, process modernization, policy modernization, you name it. But we are under constraints that don’t allow us to go fast. I can name the constrains affecting the IT department. That is, we don’t own the services and infrastructure that allow us to push modernization projects. We need vendor permissions in order to manage data infrastructure. Add to that, we also need internal permissions to access data files. And permissions take time.

I believe this is a reality across the organization. We are slow. By itself, I don’t think that is a problem. If we believe that slow is the right speed to modernization, that is ok. The problem is that we want to go fast. We are being hurried and hustled by the heads of our organization, who are being hurried and hustled by other stakeholders. All is reasonable. Heads and stakeholders want to see projects and our organization thrive. They want things done. The problem is, even when we want to, we public servants can’t go faster. And I believe this produces organizational conflict. You can feel the pressure.

The million dollar question is: how do we modernize our organization under these constraints at the speed heads want? I believe this is a hard ask. And I don’t have an answer. But if we pull it off, if we do manage to push for modernization, it’s an epic achievement.

We are one of 3.000 medium sized public health organizations in the US. And we know the drill: modernization will happen. The CDC and other federal agencies are pushing for it. Will we make modernization happen during our time at the CDPH? My intuition is that we will remain in a steady course, and modernization will happen slowly.