Step 1: Understand your collaborator

Talking Points: To design an open government process with other types of stakeholders, you will need to listen to their feedback, be empathetic to their constraints, and stay open-minded about ideas that may not align with your own. Archetypes, or composite profiles, can help you to imagine who your collaborators are, and how best to work with them.

Instructions: Reflect on other open government influencers who you have collaborated with, and imagine yourself in their positions. Who are they? Create an imagined profile of them below. Answer these three questions:

  • What title best represents the job they do?
  • What can they do well? What is the greatest barrier to doing their job?
  • How might they build their own core competencies - skills, attitudes and knowledge - to address these barriers?


The Resource-Constrained Civil Servant

You want new provisions to be adopted, but lack the budget (or control over it) to make it happen. You can:

  • Strategically map open government objectives to broader, high-priority agendas.
  • Consider funding opportunities through non-state funders. Research opportunities and develop a process to apply for funds.
  • Flag desired changes as early as possible, and then again continuously, to change minds slowly but steadily over time.