Gangnam District Government Agile Adoption Accelerates Project Speed↑

May 4th, 1st Agile Work Report Meeting Held… Accelerating the Promotion of Pledges, Priority, and Current Projects through Practical Reporting

Gangnam-gu (District Mayor Jo Seong-myeong) held the 1st Agile work report meeting on the 4th to enable fast and flexible district administration.

“Agile,” meaning “nimble” or “quick,” refers to a global management innovation trend that has emerged since 2020. It aims to break down barriers between departments and expand individual decision-making authority so that the organization can respond flexibly and swiftly to changing situations.

Not only private companies but also the Ministry of the Interior and Safety recently selected “data-driven agile government” as one of the three main strategies in the “2023 Government Innovation Comprehensive Plan.”

The district plans to increase the regular work report meetings, which were held annually at the beginning of the year to share major New Year tasks, to once every quarter and share excellent cases and difficulties arising from the promotion of pledges, priority, and current projects. To hear the voices from the field more vividly, practical staff or team leaders will report directly instead of department heads.

At the 1st meeting, which reported on the promotion cases of pledges and priority projects from eight departments, rapid responses to current issues stood out. In the case of the project “Securing Safety on School Routes in Protection Zones for the Transportation Vulnerable,” active efforts to improve the school zone pedestrian environment, where pedestrian space is insufficient but vehicles travel in both directions, received positive evaluations. To obtain residents’ consent necessary for designating one-way traffic and constructing new sidewalks, business briefings for building owners and meetings with residents opposing construction were held, resulting in the early completion of the construction.

The response to the drug beverage incident in the Daechi-dong academy district that occurred in April was selected as a representative case of interdepartmental cooperation. Immediately after the incident, an emergency countermeasure meeting was held, and the local community center, health center, and business departments collaborated to conduct special patrols targeting 80 schools and the Daechi-dong academy district. They posted banners at 177 locations and displayed drug eradication promotional content on 2,065 media devices, including official SNS and digital billboards, to prevent further victims.

Additionally, the district supports the victim’s aftercare through the Gangnam-gu Youth Psychological Support Center and the Korea Anti-Drug Movement Headquarters. The district plans to solve current issues and innovate district administration through quarterly report meetings.

Jo Seong-myeong, Mayor of Gangnam-gu, said, “We have introduced the agile method into district administration so that employees can continuously develop the capacity to actively respond to changing administrative demands. We will create an efficient organization that can promptly resolve inconveniences by actively reviewing the voices of residents.”