GOVERNMENT OF JERSEY
Building a culture of innovation The Government of Jersey’ s transformation programme has people and communities at its core – both when it comes to who it serves and the people that run the service, an approach focussed on challenging the status quo.
This approach centres on creating environments where people can work authentically.“ The environment allows me to be myself,” Martin says.“ When you are yourself in an organisation, you are performing at your best.”
The team is deliberately composed of people who challenge conventional thinking, bring creative approaches and refuse to accept that things must continue as they’ ve always been done. These disruptors, in the best sense, are essential for transformation in Martin’ s eyes. But disruption requires careful management.
“ Taking everybody with you is a real challenge,” Martin shares.“ Everyone’ s got their own particular way of doing things, so we’ re acting as a change agent, finding a fine balance between wanting to shake things up and taking people along on that journey with us.” The Government of Jersey uses workshops to identify key issues and create shared understanding. It also leverages the benefits of coming from and working among a tight interconnected community, with lots of people sharing experiences and wanting equally to fix issues affecting the island’ s population.
“ We’ re encouraging people to tap into their inner creativity, acknowledging that it’ s okay to – and that we will – fail safely and to be open about that failure,” Martin emphasises.“ Failure doesn’ t mean we’ re not trying hard enough, it means we’ re pushing the boundaries of where we need to go. We have to be able to do the best that we can with the knowledge that we have and be prepared to pivot on that basis as well.”
This is where cross-collaboration and ownership is most important, he adds. Encouraging teams to push boundaries, they are given permission to experiment and fail safely.“ Having open and transparent conversations – and also being human – is really important,” he adds.
“We’ re encouraging people to tap into their inner creativity, acknowledging that it’ s okay to – and that we will – fail safely, and to be open about that failure”
Martin Carpenter, Health CIO, Government of Jersey
116 December 2025