This presentation was given to the GovCamp 2013 event in Canberra, Australia on 6 June 2013. You can read about the event here: http://www.govcampau.org/.

I don't like people making assumptions about what I know or believe. People shouldn't be managed on the basis of their age. The Facebook generation doesn't consist of a bunch of young nerds, hiding in their bedrooms.

50% of Australians used Facebook in May 2013. Once you take out those that are less than 15 and over 80, Facebook users outnumber non-users by about 2:1.

Australians understand technology, are early adopters, and use technology every day.

The next three slides come from the excellent Sensis report on social media usage in Australia. It can be found here: http://about.sensis.com.au/IgnitionSuite/uploads/docs/Yellow%20Pages%20Soci...

65% of Australian Internet users use social media, 45% at least once per day.

Social media is used at home and work and in between. It is becoming ubiquitous.

You can't stop your staff using social media by blocking it on your network. 67% use their smartphones for social media and you can't block these (generally speaking).

The Internet permits quite selective sourcing of news and views. This can be self-reinforcing and risks a move towards extremes or siloed thinking. We we'd to be aware that our staff may not see things as we do.

People expect to be connected. Preventing connectivity risks disengaging them.

People will share quite widely on social media channels. However, many are reluctant to allow government departments to mutually share information about them. I think this will change over time, particularly if we can demonstrate how this can help them.

While many people are skeptical about what they read on line. Yet, in the absence of correcting information, wild rumors can go viral quickly.

Today people are generally as comfortable with information technology as they are with driving a car. We need to recognize this and utilise it.

The tolerance for technology failure can be measured in seconds. If we don't provide good technology for our staff, they'll ignore it and use something else.

If you need to read the manual to do a new thing, it's too complicated. The processes we expect our staff to use must be intuitive and user friendly.

Google, Bing and the Internet generally have come to mean that people expect to find the information they need quickly.

Work is no longer 9-5 for many if not most people.

People rely on their networks for information and advice, perhaps more than other sources.

To engage the Facebook generation, we need to make work more like life. People need data (the measurements of a new sofa) and information (reviews on alternatives sofas) to make decisions about their options. We need to provide both to our staff.

People expect choice in technology. Within reason, we need to accommodate this desire. If you have better technology at home than work, you will feel like work is place you go to be dumb.

Flexibility is required at work in both hours in, places at and times in which, work is done.

Recognizing the strength of networking means that we need to facilitate and support it.

To make work like life we need to improve the support mechanisms we provide for our staff. Online training needs to be in place to allow staff to find what they need to do their jobs when they need the information, not just when we formally provide it.

As leaders, we should utilise our resources to flatten the path ahead of our staff, removing the minor obstacles, particularly those that are trivial but really annoying - those that tend to divert their attention.

Recognizing the need to promote networking, we need to enable internal consultation, both with technology and by creating an appropriate environment. Ideas should be welcomed and properly considered. Access to senior leadership allows people to feel they are valued and provides an opportunity to learn about new ideas from people who are interfacing with the stakeholders of the organization.

Good leaders provide direction. They tell people what needs to be done and provide the resources for it to be done. They don't dictate how it must be done.

Explained very well here (http://ricks.foreignpolicy.com/posts/2011/09/09/an_elusive_command_philosop...), Auftragstaktik is a means of leading that ensures subordinates know what the leader's intent is and what outcomes are sought. They are then free to do what is required to achieve the outcomes and don't have to go back to the leader to get further instructions if the situation changes. They ate empowered to innovate.

Perhaps obviously, the role of the leader is to orchestrate the outcome, combining the work of the various parts of the organisation. It isn't his or her role just to be the best in a single technical field.

Good leadership requires selecting and supporting staff who need to be steered in the right direction but move under their own steam. If you have to spur them on all the time, something needs to change, quickly.

Innovation is good in the public service but more often than not it will be about adopting technologies and ideas pioneered in other fields to new uses or for new purposes in the pursuit of public service outcomes. We should strive to be first to be second, in most circumstances.

Establishing a culture that allows people to learn by their mistakes is very important but also very difficult. It may be one of the most difficult challenges we face as it moves us into uncomfortable places, within the critical gaze of the public and the media.