January 20, 2026

AuthentiCity FM, Episode 22: Process Intelligence and Making the Invisible Visible with Jerry Driessen

1 hour 18 minutes

#citymanagement #disruption #processintelligence

Your organization runs on invisible processes. Purchase orders that skip protocol. Approval chains scattered across three different systems. Workarounds that became standard practice so long ago nobody remembers there was ever another way. You know things aren't efficient. You can feel the friction. But you can't fix what you can't see.

Jerry Driessen is a data nerd and former CIO of Hennepin County and CTO of San Jose, who spent 30 years doing change management from the inside. Now he's working from the outside with process intelligence technology, and he's convinced the disruption potential has finally caught up to what systems thinkers have been trying to do manually for years.

This isn't another dashboard showing what happened last quarter. Not another consultant asking you to map workflows with sticky notes on conference room walls for six hours. Process intelligence creates a digital twin of how work actually flows through your organization. Procurement leaks, invoice systems involving five teams across four platforms, the real path money takes from requisition to payment. It shows you exactly where the breakdowns happen and what it's costing you.

The conversation moves from Charles Lindblom's "science of muddling through" to technology that lets you see the muddling in real time. From bounded rationality and satisficing to understanding the full system. From hoping people follow the process to actually seeing whether they do. Jerry talks candidly about why he made the leap to Celonis after three decades in government, what happens when you can finally see inefficiencies you've been living with, and the privacy considerations that come with making the invisible visible.

We dig into whether this technology amplifies what's already broken or creates space for something better. Whether trust and transparency matter more than dashboards. Whether understanding your processes is efficiency theater or genuine stewardship. And why local government might be the level where innovation actually takes root when you can see clearly enough to act.

We're still balancing on that pogo ball from Episode 21. But now we're talking about actually seeing the ball, the surface beneath it, and every wobble in real time. You can't navigate what you can't see. Process intelligence changes what you can see and what you choose to do about it.

00:00 Introduction to Disruption and Episode Guest

02:10 Jerry's Career Journey and Insights

05:35 Transitioning from Government to Consulting

07:20 Understanding Process Intelligence

11:07 The Role of AI in Process Mapping

14:03 Invisible Systems and Their Impact

14:56 AI's Role in Government Efficiency

18:58 Challenges in Government Technology Implementation

22:09 Embracing AI in Local Government

25:01 Balancing Efficiency and Public Service

27:43 Navigating Bureaucratic Challenges

30:58 The Importance of Transparency in Government