Stephen Hale

Head of Engagement, Digital Diplomacy

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Tuesday 29 September, 2009

New head of digital engagement for the Foreign Office

You might have spotted that the Foreign Office are advertising for a new Head of Digital Engagement.

It's a new job, created to take the digital diplomacy project on to the next level.

You might also have noticed that my own job title contains the words "Head", "Digital" and "Engagement" in a slightly different order. This is a different job - it's for our head of department. When the position is filled, it could change the dynamic of the team I work in. And my responsibilities (and job title) might have to change too. A lot will depend on who we recruit.

It's a great job. If you've done brilliant work elsewhere, and you're excited by the challenge of doing things that haven't really been done before, then you should apply.

Posted at 08:19 29 September 2009 by Stephen Hale  |  Comments[2]

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Hi Stephen ... I hope you are well. I notice that you are open to sharing etc ... so I thought I would share what has worked for me ... in terms of creating a 2 way engagement between organisations and the people they serve. Please feel free to use it as you see fit So here goes ... For past 4 years I have work on innovation projects trying to find a practical answer to this question ... Can an organisation use social networking to have a 2-way engagement with the people it serves? The pattern emerging for me is that culture lies at the heart of the matter. Most of the organisations I have experienced tend to focus ... at various levels on Job title’s, Good practice and Business units. Most social networking sites I have experienced tend to focus on people sharing what works for them without telling anyone else what to do. This means No job titles, No good practice and No business units. This creates a culture gap making it very hard to create a 2-way engagement. For example ... on-line people want to connect to people within the organisation ... but these people can only give the views of the organisation ... not their personal views ... which reduces the point of networking. I don't think this culture gap is going to change ... nor in fact should it. So can it be bridged? I feel yes ... but only by finding something that is a win / win for everyone. That win / win seems to revolve around people sharing what works for them in a way that enables this content to be used by organisations to develop good organisational practice. This is staying true to the on-line culture while connecting to the organisational need for good organisational practice. Onward and upward on the path to digital engagement ... kind regards Jon by the way ... I did apply for the job

Posted by Jon Thorne on November 02, 2009 at 04:26 PM GMT #

also Stephen ... just wanted to share 2 sites I am working on to increase digital engagement between organisations and the people they serve. They are RespectExchange.org ... where people share nuggets on feeling respected and organisations get additional input in terms of designing their own good practice for equality and diversity. RespectExchange.net ... where carers share nuggets and organisations get additional input for their research into designing good organisational practices Let me know if you have any questions Kind regards Jon

Posted by Jon Thorne on November 02, 2009 at 04:33 PM GMT #

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