Your persona
Your responses indicate that you're comfortable with how technology is used by government, and the associated challenges and opportunities presented by legacy technology.
Perhaps you use tech terminology regularly in your professional practice, either in the work you produce or in the content you digest. As a trailblazer, you could be well-positioned to experiment with engaging others as well as continuing your own individual competencies.
Build your skills and knowledge
Challenge yourself to explain intricate tech concepts to non-technical colleagues or stakeholders in a clear and concise manner. Develop communication skills to bridge the gap between technical and non-technical audiences.
Contribute to tech discussions: actively participate in tech discussions and online and offline forums. Share your insights, answer questions, and facilitate conversations on complex tech topics.
Dive deeper into APIs by learning about API design principles and authentication methods. How are these technologies relevant to the work you do?
Go beyond identifying cloud service types and explore major cloud providers' architecture and deployment models (e.g., AWS, Azure, Google Cloud).
Carve out time for professional development. Diarise a chunk of time each week where you can take an Apolitical course, explore community articles, or anything else that aligns with your motivations.
Create a community of practice
Share this assessment with colleagues. Discuss your outcomes and strategise which priorities align best with your departmental objectives.
Think carefully about who you work with. Can you identify anyone who might be a source of information or inspiration for further developing your knowledge, skills and abilities in the technology that underpins your government or department? An informal chat with a specialist colleague about their work could help bring the context to life, and as someone who is comfortable and engaged, you could play a role in supporting engagement between technical and non-technical colleagues.
If you feel ready, nominate yourself as a tech champion or superuser in your workplace. Alternatively, identify a colleague who is in the early stages of developing their competencies in this area - perhaps you could support or mentor them.
The Apolitical community is full of discussion around different aspects of digital and data. Community members regularly post questions and ask for advice. You could read and respond to any queries you feel well-placed to answer. Or, you could use this as a way to post your own discussion question and connect with others. Why not post a question or answer a peer on Apolitical’s Q&A function to get you started?
Keep exploring
If you’re looking for inspiration for structured skill development, take a look at our Learning Plans where we have stitched together disparate educational resources into rich, diverse, cohesive and enlightening learning journeys which can have a transformative impact on both our professional and personal lives.
Apolitical articles cover a breadth of topics. Take some time to explore what's out there, and consider engaging with the article creator by using the comment function. Keeping tech sustainable could be a good place to start.
Got something to say? If you're interested in submitting an article, here's everything you need to know to post an article.
What's next?
Not sure if this is the right persona for you? This diagnostic and its suggested outcome have been designed for illustrative purposes and may not reflect your level of awareness or competency.
Find a guide to the statements covered plus the scenario questions here: Technology Self-Assessment and Scenario Summaries.
Explore the other personae using the links below:
Leadership:Technology Explorer, Technology Consolidator, Technology Trailblazer
Non-Leadership:Technology Explorer, Technology Consolidator, Technology Trailblazer
⬅️ Government Skills Impact Tracker | Digital and Data Skills Hub ➡️