World events, eh? A Biden election victory, mad claims of voting fraud in the world’s biggest democracy, a COVID vaccine breakthrough and #TheCronx filing a s114 notice. Not to mention a stain on UK politics and the civil service being ousted from the Eagle’s Nest.
It’s been a week. So much so that I wore a shirt for the first time in eight months. Hey, I’ve got a wardrobe full of the things.
2020 has managed to feel simultaneously like the longest and shortest year ever; things from weeks ago feel like last year, while a whole summer seemed to just pass by in a blink. This week felt a bit like that too. I had to keep checking on what day it actually was, and come Friday I had to tear myself away from the keyboard, tempted only by the promise of beer and a take-away.
A whole swathe of scoping meetings kicked off this week to dig into how we use this clever box of tricks we’ve bought from the Placecube crew. And finally I got to see how it all fits together, although it would have been great to have spent more time on this. So many questions to answer…
Alongside this it’s been really exciting to start seeing our roadmap emerge from high-level conversations into a tool we can use to help shape our future. At first it felt a bit too abstract for me to connect with. But suddenly it just clicked — this wasn’t a straitjacket to dictate how we work, but a guide that we can adapt as we need; informing when technology decisions are strategic and when tactical.
It was good to find some gaps in my schedule this week to use for some proper thinking time (or Focus Time as Microsoft insists on calling it). This meant digging out the Datastudio big guns and diving into how well our Intranet is performing.
Once again I ended up writing an over-long document to show how we could make some easy wins. I suspect it’s that self-validation thing again. I’m also aware that I’m probably a bit too invested in GovIntranet as a solution so I’ll have to watch that. Having said that, I don’t believe jumping platforms will make a big difference. And GovIntranet rocks.
Our new recruit, Akansha, joined us at our team meeting this week so all the crew could welcome her.
We started with an icebreaker from my Oxford days; each person gives an example of something that has stressed them, something that has lifted them and a ‘shout out’ for someone. It went down well so we may make that a standing item.
It felt like we had a lot of ground to cover. In looking to create head space for the team we’re kicking off two mini-projects; a single content workflow to allocate work more evenly and get an overview of demand, and automating third party job adverts that bring in income but tie up content designers in doing meaningless admin work. That head space is needed to move us from being a purely reactive service into more proactive, quality work and gaining capacity to do the big projects, like moving platform.
I was really pleased to get a last-minute invite to the newly relaunched LocalGov Digital South West Peer Group, and even more pleased to get three of the Service Design crew to come along too at next-to-no notice.
We were kicking around the practice of service design and the issues faced in making it a real force for change in an organisation. The more we talked, the more it felt like Dorset’s arrangements weren’t typical; high-level support, a dedicated Service Design team and clear roles.
While it’s felt like I’ve been Cheerleader-In-Chief for Dorset since I started (yeah, OK. Maybe before I started), it was interesting to catch up with Vicky afterwards and hear her reflect how it felt like Dorset was ahead of the game on this stuff.
In a failed attempt at being profound, I likened this to selling a house; when you live in it all you can see are the stains on the carpet and the cracks in the walls, but a buyer will see it for what it looks like with fresh eyes — a great house. Damn, now I’m using house sale metaphors. Maybe it’s down to wearing a shirt.
The upshot of the Peer Group is that we’re looking to put together an event (or a week of events?) around Service Design, which could be really great in pulling the region together and swapping experiences.
And back to the Great Relocation Saga….
Last week we were pushed to considering putting our house back on the market due to problems further down the chain. Weirdly, stirring the pot like this seems to have kickstarted some action, and it’s now being suggested we could be in a position to exchange contracts next week and complete in mid-December. Equally, we might be doing neither. Who knows?
Moving house sucks.