Digital Government Excellence. Siim Sikkut
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in our organization, in SDO, they had less ego and were very down-to-earth when it came to the services that they provided. That they would be very open-minded to listen and hear others to be ready to revisit our services and processes.
What Were Your Regular Practices or Routines to Act on These Values or Make Delivery Happen?
It was important to be there myself with the team as necessary. One of the things in our office was that the walls were made of glass so that everyone could see each other. The team could always reach me; I was always there: whether in the office or WhatsApp or any of my social media accounts. This enabled me to put more pressure on them to deliver. Because they knew I would always be there if needed.
Speed was our pressure. I needed the team who could run with me. They needed to believe in me under the pressure. They needed to see that I was there 24/7, so I did reply to their requests, emails, calls immediately as soon as I could.
We had a policy in the meetings that anyone could attend any meeting. Register at least half an hour before, and we would make sure you have a seat. If it is with external members, listen in during the meeting—if you have anything to ask, ask at the end. This opened more doors for the people to understand what happened around them. Imagine you are in this organization and working very hard, then suddenly there is a new project or success, and you hear about in the newspaper or radio only. This will kill the enthusiasm in your heart that made you every early morning come to work and join this organization. So I made sure that everyone in the organization believed and felt that they were an important part of the of the organization.
We also needed to be happy employees to make the lives of people happier. That is why we took leisure trips together or went to events, also outside the country. Or we would go biking or sailing. Some of these things were going on every weekend, also with families. Happy employees could present this vision to the others, and they would believe it more if they saw it in us.
In the last years, we implemented the tribe and holacracy models.2 That changed the mood for later-stage deliverables. People who used to punch in at 7 am and punch out 3 pm, they started working as if they were new people—as soon as they saw that each one of them was valued and could contribute. I had to send people dinner to their office or ask them to go home!
We went for the tribe approach to have a very fast way to deliver even small deliverables all the time. It was also a way to make sure that management needed to interfere only if necessary. No need to interfere if things were going right anyway. This was also a way to allow for experimentation, to have teams go and have a space to implement and test what works.
What Were Your Biggest Achievements as the Director General, in Your Own View?
Building a livable digitalization and our Smart City blueprint.
I am proud of having had and built this strong team in Smart Dubai that was a team like never seen before in Dubai. They came from different nationalities, from different entities, but believed in the same goal. They were like fire, every day and night, just to make sure they implemented things. They were really building things for themselves. Like one of the teams that worked on registering the buying and selling of cars in the city. They tested it with their own cars: one sold his car to the other guy through the system. I saw how powerful and happy these tiny teams of enthusiasts were when they achieved a change, even if small.
We surely also achieved for Dubai making a mark on the global digital transformation agenda. It was a huge achievement to become one of the cities that has managed to transform its own systems and experiences in this way.
My third accomplishment is a very personal one—understanding and believing in myself that I can change my own skin to grow this organization and at such a speed.
What Prompted You to Move Ahead from Smart Dubai after Five Years in 2021?
I had been working and in government mostly for the last twenty-eight years; I never had a break. Even for summer vacations, I took one week at best. My mom had started to need me more as she was getting older, and I did not want to lose the chance to be close to her. My daughter is grown now; she is twenty-two and started her own business. I also wanted to start a new journey with myself, therefore.
I learned from Smart Dubai that I need to be open-minded and transparent also with myself to see where are the nodes that I need to expand in my own way of thinking and my own body. I started on a personal growth journey—with meditation, lots of yoga, learning new things about my own self. Started a new hobby of tennis; I had never held a racket before! I am still a member in many areas of the city management, but my main time is for me now.
How Did You Prepare for the Handover and Making Sure Your Initiatives Would Live On?
New management groups surely come and have their own agendas; they will change the work at the end of the day. But I made sure that the teams themselves were mature enough to deal with such change so that the systems could adapt.
What Were—or Are—Going to Be Next Challenges for the Team and Smart Dubai?
There still is delivery to be done to meet the initially set deadlines.
Also, I tried to push in the last five years that IT is not just IT. Normally IT is seen as a support function, right? In Smart Dubai, IT is a digital platform that can change the whole perspective of the business—it can push you up or kill you. Either satisfy your client or lose your client.
In my role, I was not just paying attention to the deliverables per se, but the philosophy and way of life across government about how to see IT people. That they are not there to provide you cables and Wi-Fi and troubleshoot—they are the masters of reshaping the business. This idea of IT still needs cultivating to last.
What Do You Wish You Had Known When You Started the Job? What Do You Think You Learned the Most?
I learned to be more open-minded and not to judge things upfront, especially when new technologies or ideas or systems are being presented to me. Before, I used to shut down often in these cases. In Smart Dubai, I learned to listen, to allow others to elaborate more, to showcase and to convince others. If they are convinced, then the issue is with me and not with the technology or idea itself.
So, I pushed myself more into practicing this new way of thinking or seeing things in a more open-minded and in less judgmental way. I also see it more in my own life now, as my daughter has grown up from being a teenager to an adult and starting her own business now. I have learned to let her go by supporting her and trusting her.
What Do You Think Are the Key Skills One Needs to Do Your Kind of Role Well?
To be passionate, first of all. Passionate about the sector or area that you want to grow in.
Be open-minded.
When they say that we need to have new skills such as coding or understanding of data, these you can learn in any school or training. One of the major issues that we will face is how to work in teams and to let go your own perspective. We—and especially our kids—they need to understand the need to work in collaboration with others. We cannot work in isolation from others. The moment you say, “I want to work in collaboration with others” you need to have this kind of setup in the brain to accept the others, their ideas, or their ways. Even if it conflicts with your own ideas, you need to reach to a point wherein we can both survive or live or work in the same space.
What Are Your Three Recommendations from Your Experience—What Does It Take to Do a Digital Government Leader's Job Well?
Have the project or program close