Dr. Peter Pirnejad is an award-winning government professional specializing in modernizing government operations, citizen engagement, operational efficiency, civic technology, and collaborative governance. Dr. Pirnejad shares how his experience at Foster City, City of Palo Alto, and Oracle have all helped form his resilient mindset while navigating the hardships of COVID-19. He later dives into what motivates him, and the importance of finding a “Why”. Stick around for an even deeper look into Peters life as he shares personal stories and tips to overcome sudden change.
00;00;00;00 - 00;00;23;25
Narrator
We're in an era of rapid change where resilience is vital. The Davood for Thought podcast dives into the most important topics in government and technology today. Our host, Davood Ghods, sits down with his vast network of colleagues to dish on the tech challenges that affect us all. Follow this podcast on your favorite platform and join the conversation by sharing it on LinkedIn, Twitter, or Facebook.
00;00;23;27 - 00;01;09;25
Davood Ghods
Hello, everyone. Welcome to Direct Technology's Davood for Thought podcast. I'm Davood Ghods and I will be your host today. The way I stay up with the pressing topics of tech and government of today is to tap into the panel of experts I've had the honor of connecting with over the years. Today we have Dr. Peter Pirnejad on the podcast. Dr. Peter Pirnejad is an award winning government professional specializing in modernizing government operations, citizen engagement, operational efficiency, civic technology and collaborative governance.
00;01;09;27 - 00;01;55;07
Davood Ghods
He's an experienced community builder and organizational leader. He's best known for his leadership in civic technology, performance dashboards and leading sustainable practices. Wow, that's impressive. His professional experience includes many high level roles at Fosters City, Oracle, City of Napa, and City of Palo Alto, to name a few. Dr. Peter Pirnejad. Without sharing more about your background, I want to welcome you to this episode of our podcast and ask you to tell us about your vast experiences and what you're currently working on.
00;01;55;14 - 00;02;22;08
Peter Pirnejad
Welcome. Thank you, Davood, and thank you for the invitation and it's a pleasure to be here with you. Yeah, a little bit about me. I've been a public servant my entire career. I've really enjoyed the time. I've been spending learning all facets of kind of public engagement, community building, improving civic discourse, helping elected officials kind of meet their agenda.
00;02;22;11 - 00;02;48;29
Peter Pirnejad
Over the last 23 years, I've served in a variety of public sector capacities, and I also took a short stint for over two years working at Oracle. Currently, I'm sitting on two boards with Seb Start. I sit on the board, which basically is an accelerator that focuses on state and local government and then also with Alliance for Innovation.
00;02;49;02 - 00;03;18;26
Peter Pirnejad
It's another innovation nonprofit focus on both policy and technology innovation. And I'm using this opportunity to really think deeply and talk to those thought leaders about what I consider an inflection point in local government. So this is timely for me. This is this is a great opportunity to kind of dive a little deeper into where I see government changing and where we can come together to help contribute to a positive change.
00;03;18;28 - 00;03;51;27
Davood Ghods
Excellent. So with your experience at different public sector entities and local government experiences that you have, what emerging trends are you seeing in the city and business fields that we should all be paying more attention to?
00;03;51;29 - 00;04;34;03
Peter Pirnejad
Well, that's a really good question. And it's it's loaded. We should probably have a separate podcast just dedicated to that. But in short, you know, I think there's so many disruptions in local government that need to be addressed. And I think there's there's three legs to this chair. There's the community. There's civic leaders like those elected, and then there's the administration. And each of them have needs very distinct needs. And what we're seeing is a disappointment of the three areas that really need to be aligned in order to have good governance and I think technology can help bridge some of those gaps, because in the midst of COVID, where we went from and a local government being very high touch, in-person type of collaboration to remote, and that caused disruption.
00;04;34;05 - 00;05;04;17
Peter Pirnejad
At the same time, we had social unrest around Black Lives matters and the trust of local policing. Added to that, we had a real disruption with social media and kind of the, I would say, some of the disruption around social media and the use of social media to advance local government collaboration and what it's done to civic discourse.
00;05;04;20 - 00;05;32;15
Peter Pirnejad
All that together has really created a lot of change that government administrators are needing to deal with. And so where I think technology can help address some of this is bring everybody to the table. We've had a lot of conversations recently with thought leaders in this space around how technology can help improve and enhance civic discourse when things are remote and things have keyboard courage.
00;05;32;15 - 00;06;01;16
Peter Pirnejad
You know, people have this improved courage, this resounding interest to really attack local government leaders for problems that may or may not be at their control or in their control. And so I feel like there's there's an opportunity or maybe even as far as seeing an obligation of local government to rethink its governance process and deploy new tools that can help manage this.
00;06;01;18 - 00;06;32;10
Peter Pirnejad
What I consider this paradigm shift in how local government operates and bringing these three stools back together so they're aligned. The community, the elected officials and the administration. Right. I like how you put it on those three legs of a stool and bringing everybody to the table is really the goal of this podcast. I mean, direct technology is an I.T. consulting firm that does a lot of consulting in different areas.
00;06;32;13 - 00;07;10;07
Peter Pirnejad
But we also want to serve the community, and that's one of our goals by having these podcasts, by bringing leaders to the podcast and asking these questions and seeing how they have solved it in their experience, solved some of the problems. So you touched on the disruptions that we experienced. I think you would agree that adjusting to the pandemic was really challenging for almost all organizations, and now everyone is thinking of what would be the next major disruption like the pandemic and how are they better prepared for it.
00;07;10;09 - 00;07;44;13
Davood Ghods
So resiliency is a big topic of conversation these days. And we have direct technology have a service called Resilience as a service. What are some examples of resilience? You have seen in your past experiences and what is the one thing organizations should be doing to improve resilience?
00;07;44;15 - 00;08;11;23
Peter Pirnejad
Another loaded question. Well, absolutely. Another another podcast. So resilience has really been a focal point for at least the last year and a half, just dealing with COVID. And shelter in place has forced government agencies to adapt and and those that have not been able to adapt have really stopped providing service until they were able to figure out how to operate in a post-COVID environment. And even today, we talk about not springing back, but springing forward, using this this disruption to innovate and create a new level of service use.
00;08;11;25 - 00;08;42;13
Peter Pirnejad
In the last year and a half, we've seen government agencies that have really struggled with the with the idea of remote public service. You know, how might you provide public service remotely maybe to the to the private sector like Amazon? They jumped on the opportunity and they saw huge spikes in sales and engagement with their customers that were willing to do everything from shop online for groceries to increase the number of purchases they made through online platforms.
00;08;42;15 - 00;09;10;00
Peter Pirnejad
But from the local government perspective, where they don't have that level of infrastructure in place, it was much more complicated. And what would normally take years of governments to need to really figure out how to provide remote services. They had to provide those services quickly. So you went, for example, from paper and pencil plant checks for building permits to remote plant checks in a matter of months rather than years.
00;09;10;03 - 00;09;47;09
Peter Pirnejad
You saw online payments pick up quickly because there was no ability to take payments for like business license, recreation classes, rentals, etc.. You saw opportunities for remote EOC, emergency operation centers that normally would be coming together in person to deal with the like emergencies resulting from COVID or vaccination centers. All those services had to be provided digitally and one thing I would stress is that we haven't really seen the end or we haven't really seen what the new normal is going to be yet.
00;09;47;11 - 00;10;15;22
Peter Pirnejad
So I don't know if the next disruption is actually the current disruption. We haven't really finished seeing what the current disruption is going to going to leave us and what what's the state of government once actually the dust settles. I know there will be a lot more remote work government agencies because of some other phenomenon that's been happening on top of COVID, which is something referred to as the silver tsunami in local government.
00;10;15;22 - 00;11;04;18
Peter Pirnejad
For the last ten years, we've been warning that there is a wave of retirements coming. People that would have retired in 28 held on because of the recession and tried to build their four one KS back up and now they have nowhere to go. I mean, they've really extended the life of their professional career and now they've retired and we're seeing huge waves of retirement and now we're seeing a lot of next generation city leaders, local government leaders step into roles where maybe they weren't as prepared in the midst of a pandemic, in the midst of social unrest, social media frenzy, kind of a unraveling in some respects of how government has always worked.
00;11;04;20 - 00;11;32;15
Peter Pirnejad
So they're stepping into a real kind of a hurricane of events. And so with all that, I think the dust really hasn't settled for local government, whereas it has in a lot of respect for the private sector, for government, the change is still very much in the midst of of change. We're seeing still cities grappling with remote work, how to actually provide that.
00;11;32;17 - 00;12;22;18
Peter Pirnejad
They're grappling with the provision of security in the midst of trying to create a remote work force. They're dealing with connectivity between various platforms that aren't connected. They're not integrated because they've had to shift their their practice. So the opportunity for technology to step in is huge. And sitting on the board of city staff, we've seen an increase appetite for not only VCs invest in startups, but we've seen more risk tolerance for startups to really explore and try to find where the opportunities for innovation are within this disruption, within this this new normal that's still kind of forming.
00;12;22;21 - 00;12;58;15
Peter Pirnejad
So we bring on anywhere between ten and 15 startups in a cohort every year at the start, and these startups are looking far and wide for areas that they can add value that cities, counties, districts, agencies of all shapes and sizes are struggling to address. And I think there's a huge opportunity for Govtech to step in and not only provide tools for the government sector to help administer, but also for the public sector to help engage with their government partners.
00;12;58;18 - 00;13;23;29
Peter Pirnejad
So I really think the future is bright for civic innovation and government technology. And and I think it's an all hands on deck approach right now. And we need the best and brightest to really step in and provide some thought leadership and some potential value propositions that they can pose to government leaders. I think you touched on adaptability.
00;13;24;01 - 00;13;50;25
Peter Pirnejad
I think organizations need to be adaptable to in order to be resilient. And they've shown that they are those who have been able to stay above water. And what would organizations do in case of a regional or, heaven forbid, a global power outage? How resilient are they? What would they do in case of another civil unrest, as you mentioned, or social unrest?
00;13;50;28 - 00;14;28;25
Davood Ghods
What about in case of a cybersecurity, some type of a technological disruption that would impact a very large region? So all of these are why we ask the question that organizations need to be resilient, and that's how we are helping them through our partners, through direct technology services to stay resilient, have the right technology. We always talk about how we are going to get the project done, but we also ask why we are doing what we are doing. Dr. Peters, what is your why? What motivates you, in other words, in your work?
00;14;28;27 - 00;14;54;06
Peter Pirnejad
Well, I think that the why, for me has always been public service, whether I'm in the public sector or in the private sector or in the nonprofit sector serving on a board. The the idea is always how do we provide better service? And as I mentioned, we're at a pivotal point.
00;14;54;06 - 00;15;36;17
Peter Pirnejad
We're at a paradigm shift in local government where there's so many things that need fixing. There's so many things that need addressing. I think now more than ever, it's its imperative that those with the skills, training, ability, background to stick it out and stay true to their calling, to continue to provide service in the local government sector. And we're seeing a lot of professionals leave the industry because it is so challenging right now, because it is so difficult to provide value when there's so much disruption and so much unrest in the system.
00;15;36;19 - 00;16;06;13
Peter Pirnejad
Oftentimes that government administrators are being blamed for things that are outside of their control. The why for me, I think, is really helping our public administrators, our governance process, helping the electeds, the community, as well as the administrators through this this storm. And there really isn't an end in sight quite yet. We we still are very much in the eye of the storm.
00;16;06;16 - 00;16;40;07
Peter Pirnejad
We don't know if the next variant is going to put us back into a shelter in place. We don't know if schools are going to continue to operate. We don't know if the systems that we have in place are going to be, you know, attacked by cyber attacks. There's so many unknowns. And I think the why for me as well, for many public administrators out there, is to do good, not to make oodles of money, not to have some professional accolade, but really to provide service.
00;16;40;07 - 00;17;10;03
Peter Pirnejad
And hopefully at the end of my career, I can look back and say I made a positive change, a contribution to society as well as to the greater good. You know, And at the end of the day, you've got to be comfortable with that y more than did I make a take a public, a company public or and I think for some of us that serve in the public sector, the Y is is really about leaving the planet better than when we started the way we found it.
00;17;10;05 - 00;17;45;04
Davood Ghods
That's right. That's very admirable. Thank you. The next question is about inspiration and innovation. So you've had teams in different organizations that you've been in. So what inspires innovation on your team? How do you inspire them to be innovative? Innovative?
00;17;45;07 - 00;18;17;28
Peter Pirnejad
Well, I mean, local government is really the best ecosystem to drive innovation. There is no IP, There's no, you know, ideas that can't be shared. We we don't have to sign non-disclosure agreements. We are open. We share ideas. We love to share ideas and borrow ideas from other public administrators. It's a very common practice to go to a neighboring city manager and say, What's worked in your city around homelessness? What have you tried that has really moved the needle on economic development? What's been a good practice around sustainable government and climate change?
00;18;18;01 - 00;18;51;28
Peter Pirnejad
And so the idea that bringing people together to share these ideas in in venues that are oftentimes sponsored by some of our leading private sector partners, companies that are willing to put together events and to host thought leadership of venues that bring our thought leaders in the public service together to share ideas and learn from all disciplines public, private, nonprofit, academic, and really start to think, okay, what is this new paradigm look like?
00;18;51;28 - 00;19;23;20
Peter Pirnejad
What is the new what is this new form of collaborative governance? Look like? What's the recipe? Who's who's had a successful operation that's that's dealt with homelessness then. And right now there's a lot of innovators in the public administration space that are grappling with these questions. And they're having success in some ways. And those successes are being shared and now, 18 months into this pandemic, we're starting to see conferences come back to life.
00;19;23;20 - 00;19;59;19
Peter Pirnejad
We're starting to see in-person networking opportunities. And I think there's a huge opportunity to inspire innovation when you bring those people together. And I think companies that are willing to stand behind that and provide a safe venue for these thought leaders in the path of space to share ideas are going to see huge benefits because being part of the conversation about where the pain points are helps the private sector identify what solutions need to be advanced and what the next problem that needs to be solved.
00;19;59;21 - 00;20;29;10
Peter Pirnejad
But that doesn't happen through academic research papers. That happens in-person face to face, talking through the problems being dealt with in Raleigh, North Carolina, and the challenge of these challenges being faced in Seattle, Washington, and bringing those administrate ERs together. Really, there's there's no substitute for that. And to have them actually face to face discuss ideas and bounce ideas off of each other, that's excellent.
00;20;29;12 - 00;20;54;22
Davood Ghods
You know, if government is in federal government, state government, local government, you guys are in the forefront and you're the first responder. So I'm happy to hear that ideas are being shared at that level and best practices are taking advantage of the last two questions to bring those other kinds of personal people I'm sure are going to lock you up if they don't know you already. But what is something that would surprise people about your background or interest?
00;20;54;24 - 00;21;20;25
Peter Pirnejad
Well, you know, it's I don't like talking about myself very much, but but I you know, after, you know, several decades in public service, you tend to take yourself less serious. And so I don't I don't mind taking a laugh at myself and taking a poke at myself once in a while.
00;21;20;27 - 00;21;48;25
Peter Pirnejad
And I think we need more levity now because there's so much anxiety and stress in this line of work. We need some brevity and we need some levity. So I was a competitive gymnast in college, and those those years were the most formidable years of of my life because they forced me to push the limits and try new things that oftentimes put me in harm's way because, you know, you can't learn without failing.
00;21;48;27 - 00;22;10;16
Peter Pirnejad
And that really taught me some powerful lessons that, you know, you can't be scared to take risks if you're going to fall flat on your face. And sometimes our best lessons are learned when we fall and we fail. And as public administrators, I think we need to embrace failure and learn from it and really pick ourselves up and understand, okay, that didn't go well.
00;22;10;16 - 00;22;44;06
Peter Pirnejad
What can I learn from it and how can I do better? And that needs to be embraced. And I think there is this machismo among local government officials that that don't want to admit when things didn't go according to plan. And I think we need to put that bravado behind us and embrace the idea of vulnerability and openness and failure, especially today when we're seeing so many of our institutions that we've relied on for decades crumble under our feet.
00;22;44;09 - 00;23;11;04
Peter Pirnejad
Things can't be taken for granted anymore. We have to be okay with the idea of failing, because otherwise we're not going to be resilient and we won't recover and spring forward. That's right. There's always a need for a sandbox, a smaller big, so it is allowed to fail? Absolutely. Yeah. I think that's one thing that the public sector can learn and adapt from the private sector.
00;23;11;04 - 00;23;36;16
Peter Pirnejad
Obviously, we can't fail in everything in the public sector because power grids are at stake and sewer systems are at stake in this. But there's definitely some room for innovation even within those critical services where we can try try some pilots. And I think the notion of pilots are growing in popularity because you don't have to invest the same amount of time and energy.
00;23;36;19 - 00;24;00;20
Peter Pirnejad
You can try it for a short period of time or, you know, sectioned off a portion of a service and see how a new technology might help advance that. And this last year and a half has been an absolute huge opportunity for governments to innovate because quite honestly, their standard level of service was not going to cut it. You know, you can't provide service in person. So you have no choice. And so, you know, you never waste a crisis, right? So this is a great example.
00;24;00;23 - 00;24;24;16
Davood Ghods
Yeah. Crisis equals opportunity, right. And my last question, where can people find you and keep tabs on what you're working on? How can people support your work?
00;24;24;16 - 00;24;46;13
Peter Pirnejad
Oh, thank you. I would I would love the support. LinkedIn is my platform of choice. I tend to post and write and share thoughts on LinkedIn and I follow a lot of people on LinkedIn as well. I think it's a great platform to really not only share some of the things you're working on, but to embrace the accomplishments of your colleagues. But that's, that's probably the single best place. So if you find me on LinkedIn, a happy to connect with you.
00;24;46;13 - 00;25;14;14
Davood Ghods
Thank you so much for joining us today. Dr. Pittenger. My thanks also to the listeners out there for joining us as well. We will see you in the next episode of Food for Thought, where we will shed more light on the human side of tech.