2020 07 24 — Weeknotes
2.29 — the digital & IT staff conference
Tuesday afternoon was the second of the SOCITM Strategy Day meetings, I’m starting to get my head around the different themes and what we are trying to achieve this year. Was good to see the team from across the County again and really good to hear about, and be part of, the thinking of how SOCITM moves forwards. Some really exciting things coming up over the next 12 months, as we prepare for more normality post Covid-19. It is going to be an opportunity to make the most of the new world that Covid-19 leaves behind, mixing online and face to face opportunities in a very hybrid manner. Lots to think about.
Tuesday morning I attended our Corporate Leadership Team as Clive was on leave. It was a recovery CLT and the majority of the meeting was hearing updates from the four themes of recovery before the October Cabinet meeting. Really good to hear all the different threads and how we will ensure that we bring these together to benefit our communities.
The Digital & IT staff conference is a really good opportunity to get the team together, we try and do this on a regular basis to celebrate our successes and think about the future. For this session we did it virtually and it really was a great team effort. The last one of these (and the first one!) we did when I was fresh into Hounslow as an opportunity for me to get to know the team and find out what makes them tick. In that first session, which was a face to face session in Hounslow, we talked a lot about what frustrates everyone, what we were trying to achieve and our values / ways of working.
The sessions this week were an opportunity to celebrate our successes, especially during the pandemic, and build upon the previous sessions. We had a video from our AD of Customers, Libraries and Registration services to the team, thanking them for everything they had done during the pandemic — Sue was responsible for setting up the front end of the Community Hub and our two teams worked really well together. She spoke to the team and thanked them for everything they had done and reminded them that everything that they have done over the past few months have made an actual and real difference to the lives of people in Hounslow.
We also launched a reshaping exercise of Digital and IT to ensure that we are able to deliver on the digital strategy, we are not set up in the right way with the right skills etc, currently. The reshaping, more formally changes the ways we work (introducing OKRs (Objectives and Key Results) more service design and agile ways of working) our attitudes; behaviours and culture (linking with the corporate values) and ensuring we have the right structure and posts to deliver. For me (the team have already heard this) structure is the least important thing in the mix here, as we will be working across our silos within Digital and also across the Council in multidisciplinary teams.
One of the best things for me at this session was hearing from Hannah, Jo, Hirva and Joy who have been working on the Childrens Data Services project. This was the first project where we have actually worked in different ways, introducing agile and service design methodologies. All four of them told their story of being involved with the project from four different views. They had all found it hard to start with, being thrown in to new ways of working, but then totally threw themselves into it and found the whole things really rewarding. Very different to the usual way that Hounslow did things or how they had engaged with the business before or how they ran projects for systems.
I actually found them talking really emotional. Nine months ago I joined and started to talk to everyone about these new ways of working and how we were going to change and here we are actually started to happen. It will make a difference to the residents of Hounslow and will make it easier for us to move things forward, knowing we are doing the right things in the right way. I was really proud of the work we have started here.
Digital Community Experience kick off meeting was the final meeting of the week. This is the project that we have launched to reset the relationship we have with our community. To reimagine how we provide those services and ensure that we are being proactive in our approach, using data and technology better and I think is the framework for future engagements. There is an element here of technical architecture work but the majority is to set the vision for the future. It was a great meeting — managers from across the Council coming together with FutureGov to meet for the first time, to hear about the ways of working and to ensue that we get the right thing as a result of the work. A key piece for me is to ensure that we link with the rest of the work going on across the council. We have a real opportunity here to do something bold and innovative to improve how we do things.
Have really got my running mojo this week… Four days in a row and managed a couple of 6k runs! I’ve impressed myself this week — may have a day off today though…
Tune of the Week: Jessica Lange — Life On Mars (From American Horror Story) https://youtu.be/2zX0lxiM8Xo
