Change Management in Local Government: Proven Strategies for Driving Real, Lasting Impact

Local government change management fails 80% of the time, largely because it’s treated like an afterthought. This guide offers a framework to help agencies overcome cultural inertia, bureaucratic slowdowns, and outdated systems with examples from states already seeing results.

This comprehensive guide examines the key barriers to successful change management in local government and highlights the hidden costs of inaction. 

We also outline a strategic framework for local government change, including the role of purpose-built solutions and how to navigate politics to achieve a successful transition and lasting success.

What is change management in government?

Change management in government is the process of implementing new policies, adopting ideas, integrating technologies, and streamlining public-sector processes.

This essential process is broad in scope, encompassing everything from creating a clear implementation roadmap and defining precise goals and outcomes to setting the stage for a smoother transition. 

It provides vital guidelines for engaging stakeholders effectively, managing diverse groups and their often-conflicting interests, and setting strategic priorities. 

It also includes tracking conformance post-rollout to ensure long-term success and consistent delivery of public services.

Why change management in local government is uniquely challenging

Change management in the government sector is inherently different and challenging, primarily due to the unique operating environment and core objectives of local governments.

This unique context introduces different kinds of challenges that directly impact the outcomes of change initiatives if not properly managed.

These constraints burden change managers, who must navigate culture, politics, regulatory frameworks, and diverse stakeholder interests.

Structural constraints of local governments

• Conflicting demands and expectations from citizens, interest groups, opposition members, and local businesses make it more challenging to establish objectives and priorities that are acceptable to all. 
• Short political cycles and frequent leadership changes do not incentivize elected officials to prioritize long-term initiatives over short-term ones. 
• Complex, hierarchical structures with multiple layers of approval that slow momentum or grind things to a halt.
• A strict, rule-bound environment that discourages flexibility and innovation.
• Budget cycles, constraints, and funding pressures promote a “do more with less” mindset. 
• Multiple stakeholder-dependent approvals limit autonomy in resource allocation. 
• Difficulty attracting top talent that can champion and lead change initiatives. 

Biggest barriers to change management in government

The most significant change management barriers to successful digital transformations and change management in government include:

Cultural resistance: The “no desire to change” problem

One of the biggest barriers to successful change implementation is cultural inertia. It’s a plague built on the premise that “we’ve always done it this way.”

Furthermore, many government jobs reward employees based on their experience and job grade, rather than on performance or outcomes, perpetuating a culture where employees do not push boundaries. 

Therefore, the desire for change is inherently absent unless leaders institute new incentives dependent on outcome-based performance and increased responsibility. 

Fear of “phasing out”

There’s also an innate fear that changes could lead to layoffs and phasing out, as some employees lack the crucial skills.

All these cultural issues create opposition to change projects and force local governments to be tethered to legacy systems that have high procurement and operating costs. 

Only 10 legacy systems alone cost the federal government up to $337 million yearly. 

Procurement red tape that kills change management momentum

Change initiatives, such as digital transformation, require purpose-built, state-of-the-art technology or services. The procurement red tape in the public sector makes this a more difficult task than it needs to be. 

Each stage of the procurement process, from needs assessment to final approval, typically requires sign-off or approvals that lead to delays and, in some cases, total bureaucratic gridlock.   

Local government leaders may also be cautious when making vendor choices, opting for “tried and true” solutions or prioritizing cost over other critical factors. 

Other ways the lengthy procurement cycles may affect change management and kill momentum include:

• Lack of urgency and delayed implementation. By the time approval is received, the problem may have expanded in scope or changed significantly. 
• While waiting for approvals, change champions may be deployed to other agencies or pursue opportunities outside the public sector, which can make continuity challenging. 
• Budget cuts can terminate or reduce the scope of change initiatives.

Misunderstood change management roles in government

There’s a great misconception that change managers are only meant to train employees for the new system or employee engagement. 

This simplistic view underestimates the scope of change management and the strategic value that change managers bring to the entire change process. 

As a result, change management activities lead to suboptimal implementation, limited ROI, or poor outcomes. 

To overcome this challenge, government entities must elevate and embrace change management roles as an integral part of the change management process from project ideation to risk assessment and benefit realization. 

Policy ownership is fragmented and often ignored

Policy management and ownership are often decentralized in the public sector, resulting in a lack of accountability and alignment during change initiatives.  

This is one of the key reasons policies are an afterthought during digital transformations and change projects. 

What you’ll observe is that, though new technologies are introduced, new regulations are passed, or internal workflows are automated, the underlying policies that power these operations and processes often remain outdated, manually managed, or contradictory across departments or agencies.  

Compounding the issue is the lack of clarity on policy ownership when new policies affect multiple agencies or departments. 

The result of this confusion is silos where policies are not harmonized or consistently applied across the organization. It also leads to conflicting directives and duplication of effort across public sector organizations.

These issues highlight the need for centralized ownership, which requires adopting new digital tools to track policy changes. Esper, one of the best tools for local government change, automates the management of operational policies and becomes invaluable in this context.

Additionally, equip change managers with the authority they need to shape strategy, influence decision-making, and work directly with senior leadership to clarify policy ownership and ensure alignment. 

Real cost of poor change management in local government

Poor change management organizational culture is costly for local governments. 

Firstly, local governments lose time when they complete important tasks manually due to the absence of the right technology. 

Even when the technology exists, staff prefer manual methods because of skills gaps, government change resistance to technology adoption in the public sector, and inadequate training.

For example, staff of the North Carolina Alcoholic Beverage Control Commission used to spend hours dealing with rulemaking drafts via email, which caused delays and limited collaboration.  

Secondly, duplicate efforts across departments often arise from a lack of coordination and alignment. Multiple departments or agencies might independently develop similar solutions or collect the same data. This leads to redundant work, wasted funds, and conflicting information available to stakeholders. 

According to the GAO, the cost of government inefficiency, including addressing fragmentation, overlap, and duplicated efforts across 1,460 matters in federal programs, resulted in $725 billion in cost savings. 

Success story: Effective change management in the government sector

The State of Tennessee embarked on a comprehensive transformation initiative, beginning with a pilot program in 2019, which was then expanded statewide in 2023.

The Office of the Attorney General, in partnership with Esper, has automated the review of rules filed by all 23 state agencies, a process previously handled manually for decades.

Other departments, such as the Department of Human Services, Environment & Conservation, Health, and Commerce Insurance, have successfully mapped their rulemaking workflows within Esper to eliminate manual processes. 

Some of the outcomes include:

• Support for retrospective review, a vital component of rule-making in Tennessee.
• Automation of critical review processes in the Attorney General’s office.
• Improved agility; The Department of Mental Health & Substance Abuse was able to transition effectively to remote work.

Tennessee’s adoption of a purpose-built change management tool offers valuable insights for other government entities, including:

• Phased Implementation: Starting with pilots and gradually expanding, as Tennessee did from 2019 to statewide adoption in 2023.
• Leadership buy-in to promote cultural shifts: Strong support from the top, as seen in Governor Bill Lee’s support.
• Embrace Purpose-Built Solutions: Platforms designed specifically for government regulatory and policy management can effectively address complex workflows and compliance needs.

You can read more government policy change success stories here. 

Strategic framework for change management in local government

We’ve addressed the barriers to effective change management in local governments and their attendant costs. But what’s to be done? We recommend a phased approach. 

Phase 1: Foundation building for government change management

The first step for local government change management is a thorough assessment and audit of the existing policy management processes.

The audit must assess both internal and external policies to ensure you have a comprehensive understanding of the current regulatory landscape and internal guidelines. A tool like Esper helps in this regard, providing AI tools to simply research and policy analysis. 

The audit should also highlight the bottlenecks and inefficiencies that stagnate the policy management process. From these insights, establish baseline policy adoption metrics to quantify future success. 

During the first phase, it’s also essential to address procurement planning early, to ensure that a budget is allocated for the required technologies or software, such as a new policy management tool.

Phase 2: Pilot-driven change management approach

According to McKinsey, stimulating understanding and conviction is one of the building blocks to influencing people during change management projects. 

A pilot project enables you to demonstrate and convince all stakeholders of the potential transformations, albeit on a small scale. The success of the pilot program strengthens your arguments when justifying scaling the project.  

Start with low-risk, high-impact areas where success is more readily achievable. 

The goal is to build internal champions and outcome-based evidence from these pilots. For example, the new digital workflow for permit applications, which reduces processing time by 30% is a remarkable success story that supports your argument for more investment.

During the pilot phase, it’s also essential to gather stakeholder feedback from end-users, agency heads, and all relevant parties. 

It’s essential to document all your lessons, wins, testimonials, and project impacts to serve as evidence of progress and to establish best practices for future engagements. 

Phase 3: Scaling change management across government

After running a successful pilot, the focus shifts to scaling implementation to more departments or processes, leveraging the lessons learned and best management practices from earlier stages to achieve similar success. 

For instance, you can apply the successful digital workflow from permit applications to driver’s license renewals and all other related processes. 

To ensure effective and broader implementation, it is important to conduct comprehensive training programs that equip all personnel with the necessary skills for new processes and systems. 

Furthermore, install protocols and governance mechanisms to ensure the organizational changes are permanent and yield their desired results. An example is creating a cross-departmental steering committee. 

Finally, continue to measure progress and communicate it to relevant stakeholders, and ensure that you address concerns early. 

Why generic business tools fail in government change management

Local governments face unique challenges that render generic business tools inadequate for effective change management. 

Unlike private sector entities, public sector organizations operate under stringent rules, requirements, and budget constraints that demand specialized solutions. 

Compliance imperative

Firstly, you must consider compliance and security requirements such as FedRAMP and local government-specific laws when choosing cloud-based services. 

Generic tools often lack the robust, government-grade security protocols, data encryption, and authorization controls required to protect sensitive citizen data.

Non-compliance has serious consequences, including severe penalties, reputational damage, and legal repercussions.

Need for an audit trail

Secondly, audit trail and transparency needs are non-negotiable in government. Every action, decision, policy, and even seemingly routine administrative change must be meticulously recorded and easily auditable. 

Generic business tools typically offer limited or insufficient audit capabilities, making it challenging to track changes and who made them.

Government information, including policies and procedures, must often be readily accessible to the local communities they serve.

Multi-stakeholder approval workflows

Multi-stakeholder approval workflows are innate to government operations. Decisions often require sign-off from numerous departments, elected officials, legal teams, and even public input.

Generic tools do not accommodate these complex, layered, and often legally mandated approval processes.

Purpose-built solutions for government change management

Purpose-built government change management solutions are superior alternatives to generic business tools. 

These alternatives are specifically designed to meet the needs of government agencies. They address the very limitations that make generic tools inadequate.

One such example is Esper, a highly configurable, cloud-based platform built specifically for government policy collaboration and management.

Esper incorporates approval workflows tailored to the multi-stakeholder, often complex, decision-making processes inherent in government. 

It supports the drafting, review, and publication of policies and regulations with features like version tracking, stakeholder feedback mechanisms, a database of regulations and laws, project management tools, and more. 

Esper provides the functionalities required for comprehensive government change management.

How to deal with the politics of government change management

There’s always some form of politicking required for any successful change management project in the public sector. Managing this political landscape well is crucial for success. Here’s how:

Make change management about better public service, not technology

Even though technology is a crucial part of the change process, it’s smart to decenter it from the conversation. 

Place more emphasis on what the intended local government transformation seeks to achieve and the expected ROI of a successful implementation, like faster permit approvals, more transparent access to information, or better service delivery.

Build your coalition before you need it

There’s no other way to put it: successful change in government requires broad support. 

More importantly, you need warriors in your corner who will advocate for the change project even when you’re not present. 

Proactively identify, engage, and win over key stakeholders well in advance of the change project being announced. Involve employees too. That’s how to build a coalition for change in government. 

The primary goal of your engagements with these stakeholders should be to help stakeholders take ownership of the project from the outset. The engagements should also facilitate collaboration and help you to build an army of influential allies for the future and now. 

Finally, we recommend providing tools and talking points for your advocates, ensuring consistent messaging that adheres to your intended points. 

Use policy change to demonstrate early wins

One way to win politicians over is to support their initiatives, and no better way than showcasing faster and clearer policy rollouts, leveraging tools like Esper to track who reads what and when.

Making policies visible through a centralized, searchable platform like Esper, citizens can readily find the information they need, understand their rights and obligations, and see that their local government operates with transparency.

Measuring success in government change management

When measuring success, focus on performance metrics for local government that can quantify the impact of the project on core government functions. 

Here are some tips on how to measure success in government change initiatives:

Metrics that matter to city councils and county commissioners

When it comes to metrics that matter to local governments, opt for outcomes over outputs, as the National League of Cities suggests. Output counts numbers, but outcomes measure impact. 

Examples of outcomes include:

• Process efficiency metrics like average permit approval time and operational budget savings.
• Risk reduction metrics such as a decrease in the average number of outdated procedures revealed during the audit and a reduction in citizen complaints.
• Public satisfaction and transparency indicators, like increased citizen satisfaction with online services or complaint resolution.
• Staff engagement and adoption rates. 

Long-term impact of effective change management in government

Effective change management in government must extend beyond project completion and yield long-term impact, such as: 

• Streamlined processes and engaged staff which lead to more efficient and responsive services for citizens.
• Consistently updated policies and procedures that are adhered to, which lessen reputational and legal risks.
• Agile systems and trained personnel enable the government to respond more quickly to crises and emergencies.
• Increased public trust and transparency.

Key metrics for policy change success

Here are some key metrics you can adopt:

• Time to policy adoption: Measures the efficiency of the policy-making process and is an indication of speed and agility. 
• Reduction in policy disputes or outdated versions
• Staff attestation rates: An indicator to show the percentage of your employees who have formally acknowledged reading and understanding new or updated policies. 
• Transformation maturity: To assess the progress of change initiatives against your strategic goals.

First steps for change management in the government sector

We’ve established the critical need for effective change management. Local government leaders might wonder where to begin. Follow the steps below: 

1. Evaluate your organization’s capacity and willingness to make transformational changes. 
2. Look for small, low-risk initiatives you can tackle to demonstrate immediate, tangible benefits.
3. Identify and engage influential stakeholders to build a coalition of advocates. 
4. Explore purpose-built platforms for change management in the public sector, like Esper. These platforms offer features tailored to complex multi-stakeholder approvals, audit trails, and public accountability standards.
5. Look for opportunities to digitize, streamline, or clarify existing policies for quick wins. 

Takeaway: Transform your local government

Change management is crucial for public sector entities seeking to enhance core government functions in a manner that ensures positive outcomes. 

Overcoming inherent government-specific barriers to effective change management requires a structured and strategic approach, along with the adoption of purpose-built solutions designed to address the unique complexities of the public sector.

Explore how Esper’s purpose-built platform can empower your government to achieve lasting transformation. Schedule a Demo to see how other local governments are using Esper.