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# Distributed government is the path to a truly open, empathetic, inclusive civil society
Luke Fretwell

Society has reached a point in the organizational and civic evolutionary cycle where [distributed government teams](https://distributedgov.com/) will play an undeniable and critical role in the future of highly effective, empathetic and inclusive public services.
Society has reached a point in the organizational and civic evolutionary cycle where [distributed government teams](https://distributedgov.com/) will play an undeniable and critical role in the future of highly effective, empathetic, and inclusive public services.
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Just to clarify: Are we talking about the U.S. here? How generalizable to other contexts (if at all) are your statistics and arguments?


As civic leaders wrestle with and seriously address the issues of our times — disasters, pandemics, climate change, health and wellness, economic empowerment — distributed teams is the obvious solution for delivering responsive and resilient government services.
As civic leaders wrestle with and seriously address the issues of our times—disasters, pandemics, climate change, health and wellness, economic empowerment—operating through distributed teams is the obvious solution for delivering responsive and resilient government services.

## Defining distributed

John O'Duinn, author of[ Distributed Teams: The Art and Practice of Working Together While Physically Apart](https://www.amazon.com/dp/1732254907/ref=cm_sw_su_dp), has written the definitive book on why distributed teams are important, and how they can be even more effective than their physically collocated counterparts.

While antiquated terms like 'telework' and 'remote' continue to be flippantly used, O'Duinn makes clear [distinctions](https://oduinn.com/2020/02/25/distributed-team-vs-remote-work-and-work-from-home/) between key terms, such as 'distributed teams,' 'virtual teams,' 'virtual employee,' 'remote work,' 'remote employee,' 'work from home,' 'work from anywhere' and 'telework'.

And the subtle differences in each drastically impact our perceptions and assumptions around distributed teams.

How O'Duinn describes 'distributed':

All humans on the team work together, even though they are physically apart from each other. This is not a collection of individuals who each do solo heads-down work from different locations. Instead, this is a group of humans who coordinate their work with others on their physically distributed team. Because everyone on the physically distributed team is "remote" from someone, it is clear that everyone on the team has equal responsibility to communicate and coordinate their work with coworkers – regardless of whether any individual human is working from a building with the company logo on the door, from home, from a coworking space, a hotel or a parked car! Example usage: “I work on a distributed team”, “my team is distributed”.
In this chapter ...
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This is a placeholder for us to revisit when the chapter is complete. It's a reminder to add a brief "preview" of the chapter, an overview for readers, but that's not possible until we have a clear sense of the entire scope of the thing.


## Why distributed is important
## Defining distributed
In his excellent book on the subject, [Distributed Teams: The Art and Practice of Working Together While Physically Apart](https://www.amazon.com/dp/1732254907/ref=cm_sw_su_dp), author John O'Duinn, explains why distributed teams are important and how they can be even more effective than their physically collocated counterparts.

Distributed takes a holistic approach to work and what society values, and areas civic institutions must address if they are to stay relevant.
While people may flippantly use antiquated terms like "telework" and "remote," O'Duinn makes clear [distinctions](https://oduinn.com/2020/02/25/distributed-team-vs-remote-work-and-work-from-home/) between key terms, such as "distributed teams," "virtual teams," "virtual employee," "remote work," "remote employee," "work from home," "work from anywhere" and "telework."

Here are key reasons why distributed teams are critical, especially for government:
And the subtle differences in each drastically impact our perceptions of and assumptions about distributed teams.

* Representation: Geographically distributed government workforce more closely matches the needs and concerns of the wider population.
O'Duinn describes "distributed" this way:

* Resiliency: Ability to maintain operations regardless of whereabouts, especially if physical locations or regions have been compromised for a prolonged period of time.
> All humans on the team work together, even though they are physically apart from each other. This is not a collection of individuals who each do solo heads-down work from different locations. Instead, this is a group of humans who coordinate their work with others on their physically distributed team. Because everyone on the physically distributed team is "remote" from someone, it is clear that everyone on the team has equal responsibility to communicate and coordinate their work with coworkers—regardless of whether any individual human is working from a building with the company logo on the door, from home, from a coworking space, a hotel or a parked car! Example usage: "I work on a distributed team," "my team is distributed."

* Recruiting: Talent pool is expanded to include people of diverse backgrounds, ages, abilities and experience.
_XXX_
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Placeholder for potential material: Why is this distinction important to both you, the author, and to your intended readers? This would be a nice place to answer that question.


* Cost savings: Leasing and maintenance of physical buildings become flexible expenses as agencies shift to partly or fully distributed.
Distributed work has an undeniable appeal. A 2019[ Owl Labs survey](https://www.owllabs.com/blog/remote-work-statistics) highlights the varying benefits of the distributed model.

* Sustainability: Decreased carbon footprint as fewer people are commuting.
Here are just a few:

* Work/life balance: Government employees spend less time commuting and invest more energy into their families and communities.
* Remote workers earn salaries higher than $100,000/year, 2.2 times more frequently than on-site workers.

* Economic empowerment: Financial employment benefits are distributed across multiple local communities rather than centralizing to one.
* Remote workers say they're happy in their jobs 29% more than on-site workers; 71% of remote workers say they're happy in their job, and only 55% of on-site workers say they're happy in their job.

## Increased empathy
* 34% of U.S. workers would take a pay cut of up to 5% in order to work remotely.

In addition to the above reasons, distributed government teams can tap into a stronger sense of empathy — a value inherent in the role of authentic public service.
* 42% of remote workers plan to work remotely more frequently than they currently do in the next five years, and that more than half of on-site workers want to start working remotely.

Once you truly experience distributed culture, you have a stronger understanding of what digital services really mean and how they can make or break the end user experience. If public servants don't place themselves in digital environments of their own, their ability to have complete empathy for those they serve is lessened.
* 55% of remote workers would be likely to look for another job if they were no longer allowed to work remotely. And 61% of remote workers would expect a pay increase if they were no longer allowed to work remotely.

Distributed digital government service teams have more potential to have empathy for their end users. Immersing yourself into a distributed team is the ultimate digital service user research experience.
* 68% of remote workers say they are not concerned working remotely will impact their career progression, while 23% say they fear it would.

## We have the means
* The top reasons remote workers choose to work remotely include: better work-life balance (91%), increased productivity/better focus (79%), less stress (78%) and avoiding a commute (78%).

We now have low-cost, high-reliability tools — G Suite, Slack, Trello, GitHub and Zoom to name just a few — that fully empower asynchronous, instant collaboration. Training on the tools is of course important. Just as important is the training on how to work in and lead distributed teams, fostering a culture of distributed work, and implementing policies to support highly effective distributed teams.
* Remote workers say they work more than 40 hours per week 43% more than on-site workers do. However, on-site workers are also working longer weeks because it's required of them, while more remote workers are doing so because they enjoy what they do.

## Government is doing this
_XXX_
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Placeholder for additional material: Can you offer any kind of summarizing thought/perspective for this section, something that bridges to where you'd like readers to follow you next? As it stands, the section just sort of ends abruptly with a string of statistics. What should we make of them? What do they suggest viz. distributed government?


[18F](https://18f.gsa.gov/) has actively socialized the benefits of distributed teams and how this model has made its teams more effective. Some documentation on their recommended best practices:
## Why distributed is important
Approaching work from a "distributed" perspective means taking a more holistic approach to work, one that better accounts for a society's values. And accounting for those values is something civic institutions must address if they are to stay relevant.

* [18F's best practices for making distributed teams work](https://18f.gsa.gov/2015/10/15/best-practices-for-distributed-teams/)
Here are key reasons why distributed teams are critical, especially for government:

* [Leading dynamic and distributed teams](https://product-guide.18f.gov/we-do-product-well/leading-dynamic-and-distributed-teams/)
* Representation: A geographically distributed government workforce more closely matches the needs and concerns of the broader population.

* [Making a distributed design team work](https://18f.gsa.gov/2016/04/27/making-a-distributed-design-team-work/)
* Resiliency: Distributed teams have the ability to maintain operations regardless of whereabouts, especially if physical locations or regions have been compromised for a prolonged period of time.

* [3 ways to manage research projects remotely](https://18f.gsa.gov/2017/09/27/three-ways-to-manage-research-projects/)
* Recruiting: Working in a distributed fashion expands your talent pool to include people of diverse backgrounds, ages, abilities and experience.

The COVID-19 pandemic has forced government at all levels to fast-track distributed work, and many are planning for its indefinite use.
* Cost savings: Leasing and maintenance of physical buildings become flexible expenses as agencies shift to partly or fully distributed.

The U.S. Defense Department has [said](https://www.defense.gov/Explore/News/Article/Article/2284622/work-effectiveness-is-a-product-not-a-location-dod-official-says/), "a big DOD success story during the pandemic has been that employees who are teleworking have increased their productivity over what it was when they were required to go to an office. The department is looking to preserve that productivity and resilience after the pandemic is passed, and part of that challenge will be to embrace this new normal and have a cultural shift in thinking and attitudes across the force."
* Sustainability: Fewer people commuting means decreased carbon footprint from travel.

## Vendors are doing this
* Work/life balance: Government employees spend less time commuting and can invest more energy into their families and communities.

Many government contractors and vendors are fully distributed. [CivicActions](https://civicactions.com) is a 90-person government digital services firm serving federal, state and local governments throughout the United States. There are many others — particularly[ newer, more innovative government and civic technology vendors](https://digitalservicescoalition.org) — operating in the same way. Being able to work in physically distributed teams allows government agencies to work with the best vendor for that project, not just the best nearby vendor.
* Economic empowerment: Financial employment benefits are distributed across multiple local communities rather than centralizing in one.

## Survey says
## Increased empathy
In addition to the above reasons, distributed government teams can tap into a stronger sense of empathy—a value inherent in the role of authentic public service.

A 2019[ Owl Labs survey](https://www.owllabs.com/blog/remote-work-statistics) highlights the varying benefits of the distributed model.
Once you truly experience distributed culture, you have a stronger understanding of what digital services really mean and how they can make or break an end-user experience. If public servants don't place themselves in digital environments of their own, their ability to empathize with those they serve is lessened.

Here are just a few:
Distributed digital government service teams have more potential for empathy with their end users. Immersing yourself into a distributed team is the ultimate digital service user research experience.

* Remote workers earn salaries higher than $100,000/year, 2.2x more frequently than on-site workers.
## We have the means
We now have low-cost, high-reliability tools—G Suite, Slack, Trello, GitHub and Zoom to name just a few—that better empower asynchronous, instant collaboration. Training on the tools is of course important. And just as important is the training on how to work in and lead distributed teams, fostering a culture of distributed work, and implementing policies to support highly effective distributed teams.

* Remote workers say they're happy in their jobs 29% more than on-site workers — 71% of remote workers say they're happy in their job, and only 55% of on-site workers say they're happy in their job.
## Government is doing this
[18F](https://18f.gsa.gov/) has actively socialized the benefits of distributed teams and demonstrated how this model has made its teams more effective. Some documentation on their recommended best practices:

* 34% of U.S. workers would take a pay cut of up to 5% in order to work remotely.
* [18F's best practices for making distributed teams work](https://18f.gsa.gov/2015/10/15/best-practices-for-distributed-teams/)

* 42% of remote workers plan to work remotely more frequently than they currently do in the next 5 years, and that more than half of on-site workers want to start working remotely.
* [Leading dynamic and distributed teams](https://product-guide.18f.gov/we-do-product-well/leading-dynamic-and-distributed-teams/)

* 55% of remote workers would be likely to look for another job if they were no longer allowed to work remotely. And 61% of remote workers would expect a pay increase if they were no longer allowed to work remotely.
* [Making a distributed design team work](https://18f.gsa.gov/2016/04/27/making-a-distributed-design-team-work/)

* 68% of remote workers say they are not concerned working remotely will impact their career progression, while 23% say they fear it would.
* [3 ways to manage research projects remotely](https://18f.gsa.gov/2017/09/27/three-ways-to-manage-research-projects/)

* The top reasons remote workers choose to work remotely include: better work-life balance (91%), increased productivity/better focus (79%), less stress (78%) and avoiding a commute (78%).
The COVID-19 pandemic has forced government at all levels to fast-track distributed work, and many are planning for its indefinite use. For example, the U.S. Defense Department has [said](https://www.defense.gov/Explore/News/Article/Article/2284622/work-effectiveness-is-a-product-not-a-location-dod-official-says/), "a big DOD success story during the pandemic has been that employees who are teleworking have increased their productivity over what it was when they were required to go to an office. The department is looking to preserve that productivity and resilience after the pandemic is passed, and part of that challenge will be to embrace this new normal and have a cultural shift in thinking and attitudes across the force."

* Remote workers say they work more than 40 hours per week 43% more than on-site workers do. However, on-site workers are also working longer weeks because it's required of them, while more remote workers are doing so because they enjoy what they do.
## Vendors are doing this
Many government contractors and vendors are fully distributed. [CivicActions](https://civicactions.com) is a 90-person government digital services firm serving federal, state, and local governments throughout the United States. There are many others—particularly [newer, more innovative government and civic technology vendors](https://digitalservicescoalition.org)—operating in the same way. Being able to work in physically distributed teams allows government agencies to work with the best vendor for that project, not just the best nearby vendor.

## Distributed government

For government to authentically deliver meaningful public services of the future, it will need to embrace the inevitable relevance and importance of distributed teams.

If government leaders truly value representation, resiliency, sustainability, work/life balance, hiring the best and brightest, economic empowerment, instilling exponential passion for mission-driven work and the many other possibilities for civic innovation, embracing the distributed mindset is the new requisite of how we will define the next phase of public service.
If government leaders truly value representation, resiliency, sustainability, work/life balance, hiring the best and brightest, economic empowerment, instilling exponential passion for mission-driven work and the many other possibilities for civic innovation, embracing the distributed mindset is the new requisite for defining the next phase of public service.