A Meeting of the Minds: The Center’s New Advisory Council

The IBM Center for The Business of Government is honored to announce the formation of a new advisory council. The members of this Council are former international, federal, and state and local government executives, and leaders from academia and nonprofit partners.

The Council met last week and discussed a variety of topics that ranged from improving civic education and enhancing government performance management to facilitating effective intergovernmental relations and leveraging the Center's content using storytelling and AI.

A main role for the Council will involve lending insights and perspectives to inform updates to the Center’s research agenda.  Every year the Center re-evaluates our research agenda topics with government, academic, and nonprofit leaders to identify key areas of need for expert perspectives on how the public sector can transform to improve efficiency and effectiveness.  The current set of research topics includes:

• Restoring Trust in Government
• Addressing Equity
• Developing Actionable Insights
• Attaining Effective Outcomes
• Driving Agility
• Accelerating Digital
• Fostering Resilient Institutions
• Reimagining the Government Workplace

The council discussed enhancements to the research agenda that could benefit government. Topics for consideration include:

• Collaborative governance and strategic foresight
• Civic education and understanding the role of government
• Intergovernmental relations and whole-of-government approaches
• Customer experience and the use of AI in government
• The need for a smooth transition in government

We will continue thinking about these additional topics and how they may dovetail with the government priorities that evolve over time.  We plan to issue a new research agenda early next year.

The Council also offered a number of important perspectives on content channels to best share thought leadership, including:

• Storytelling and communication to convey the importance of government work to the public. Effective storytelling and communication can convey the value of government programs and initiatives to the public.

• Using AI to help harvest and organize thought leadership content. Explore ways to use AI to make the thought leadership resources more accessible and engaging.
• Creating a repository of government success stories and case studies to share best practices and inspire innovation. 

• Identifying trusted voices and partners to amplify a message.  This could include good government partners such as associations, nonprofits, and the media.
• Developing a framework for categorizing and communicating complex government issues. This might include frameworks similar to the UN's Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
• Consider hosting additional challenges or competitions to generate new ideas and innovations in government practices.

These ideas may lead to enhancing current channels framed on our website, newsletters, social media, and partners’ websites, newsletters, and social media.

We look forward to learning more from this esteemed group over time and continuing to work with our many good government partners, authors, thought leaders, and colleagues.  We welcome ideas for improvement from all of the Center’s partners working in or with government.