Action plans & Transparency in matters - Bærum municipality
A new journey in the public sector, user focus and digital citizen services
From the opera stage lights to the everyday lives of thousands of residents
After the years at the Norwegian Opera & Ballet, many of the goals had been achieved. The proportion of online sales had increased sharply, the website had become both visually strong and user-friendly, and the work with digital platforms, communication and audience contact had provided enormous learning. At the same time, the profession continued to develop at a rapid pace – and with it also the curiosity about how digitalization could be used in an even broader societal perspective.
When the position of Digital Manager in the Communications Unit in Bærum Municipality came up, a spark immediately lit up. The opportunity to work with digital services that affect the daily lives of residents was experienced as both meaningful and exciting. Here, it was not about one stage, one performance or one audience – but about an entire local community and an enormous diversity of services and disciplines.
Bærum Municipality quickly turned out to be like a small community within a community. My then manager, Lisa Bang, said early on that it would take at least two years to really understand how the municipality worked. She was absolutely right. A municipality encompasses an incredibly broad spectrum of professional environments, tasks and people. Behind the websites, forms and digital services are employees with high expertise and great commitment in areas such as planning and construction, regulation and geodata, child welfare, school and upbringing, health and care, mental health and substance abuse, home services, culture, sports and volunteering, water and sewage, waste management and recycling, roads and traffic, park and nature management, cemetery management, emergency preparedness, property, climate and environment, HR, political secretariat, citizen dialogue and communication.
As always in the digital profession, some of the work was about technology and solutions. Episerver – which I had already become familiar with back in 2004 – was again an important part of everyday life. But the biggest and most important task was never just the systems. The crucial thing was to get to know the people, understand their work processes and learn how digital services actually affect the citizens' encounter with the municipality.
It was in the meetings with the professionals that the real learning took place. Through conversations, workshops, content work, improvement projects and daily collaboration, the understanding grew of how complex – and at the same time how important – municipal work is. Digitalization in a municipality is not just about technology. It is about accessibility, safety, language, universal design, information, trust and the everyday lives of people of all ages and life situations.
And that's where the work became extra meaningful.
