I’m back
Weeknotes S04 E01
Week-notes
S04 E01
Hi, I am Julie and I am Head of Digital Capability at the Parliamentary Digital Service (PDS). I started writing week-notes way back when around 2.5 ish years ago after talking to my then boss Dan Barrett who persuaded me to give it a go. I recommend writing week-notes because I have met some amazing like-minded people from across Government and the Public / Private sectors who also write week notes and a week note community began. Through this community I also got involved in great things like One Team Gov breakfasts and their Global event which happened last year. I find it really useful to write down what I have achieved each week..but I haven’t written any week notes for 9 months. Why? Because I needed a break, it’s been a tough year at Parliament, thrown in with a bit of imposter syndrome and being VERY busy. I am still not really engaging like I once was in Twitter and the wonderful X Gov / Week notes community that exists out there. But I want to start coming back and I am desperate to start writing again. Why?
1. I am doing a lot of cool stuff and I want to keep track of those things
2. I want to share with others that might be interested in what I do in a hope that we can collaborate and I can keep on learning and hopefully help others too
3. I miss other week-noters and I feel like I have distanced myself for a bit too long
So I am starting season 4.
Here are some things that have happened in the last 9 months, to get you up to speed…..
- Head of Digital Capability — I successfully applied for and got my job (I was temporarily promoted before that)! I need to share how important this is for me. I have a fear of interviews, and not just that normal nerves things that everyone says I have, when I try to talk to them about it. It is a genuine fear, which was born back in 2002 when I was told in my interview feedback for a job I really wanted “you were the worst applicant I have every interviewed.” This put me off applying for jobs and pursuing a career for around 7 years, I avoided interviews. I have gradually come to grips with this fear, having talked it through with my very patient husband many times, colleagues, coaches and hypnotherapists. I now have tools and processes to help me cope. But I still always go through a very emotionally draining pattern of behaviour every time I apply for a job. This was a significant career milestone for me. I am proud of myself for getting here.
2. Culture and Values. One of my focuses in 2019 is to lead on embedding our values (Care, Community, Confidence and Curiosity) across PDS. This year along with the culture and values working group, I have helped to deliver four values days. Days focused on bringing the values to life for my colleagues, by inviting in inspirational speakers, running workshops and a variety of different activities. This group has also delivered a rebrand of the values, behaviours and values training , embedded values in our recruitment and performance management processes, linked the values to our staff recognition schemes, and used our communication channels internally and externally to talk about them and what they mean to us. I have also been representing PDS when working with the House of Commons on their cultural transformation work and creation of their new values. PDS staff are Bi-Cameral, which means we do work for both the House of Lords and the House of Commons, so we will have three sets of values that we are meant to live in our day to day working. We have been thinking about how all these values will align and make sense to colleagues so we don’t all feel bewildered! We have recently analysed a number of data sources to get a sense of the culture in PDS right now. This has shown us where to focus our energies next. Watch this space.
3. Team Health — I am the sponsor of a PDS wide Team Health survey. We send out a quarterly survey to all colleagues to complete, they answer 11 questions about the health of their team. This really helps Team Leads to know how their teams are feeling and helps teams to be proactive in tackling areas of concern before they become bigger problems. This also has a strong link into the culture and values work, because it gives us a sense of how the whole of #TeamPDS are feeling and also highlights things we should be focusing on as an organisation and not just as teams.
4. Capability — My teams focus this year has been on Line Manager capability, new line managers in particular, we have created and regularly deliver a new line managers training course. We have also launched a mentoring framework, which now includes reverse mentoring too. We have launched matrix management guidance and ran some workshops with the areas that do this style of managing. Myself and a couple of colleagues have also been trying to figure out how we might measure the value of training. We are testing this out on one particular training course at the moment, trying out action learning groups to help embed the learning. We now have the DdaT job descriptions in our software engineering team, I would really like to try out the skills assessment process in this area, to help provide individuals with a training plan specifically for their development needs and also create them a career path.
5. Service Change — I have been part of a team working on delivering service change for PDS. We have been through a discovery phase to see if we can move to working in service teams for both Digital and traditional IT /Technology services. My initial remit was to figure out what a Service Owner role was all about, we are now recruiting for our first Service Owner for an exemplar service called “Get kit and Software.” My remit now has changed to thinking about what skills and capabilities will be needed for this new team and when the Service Owner is in post I will be working with them to deliver this. Culture and Values also has a strong link here too, because we are thinking about how we will work in the future.
6. Events / Training — I am sad to say that I haven’t done much this year, but here is what I have done. I have attended Multiplier training by Happy Training. This is a GREAT course and helps leaders to see if they are helping their teams to develop to their full potential or if they are diminishing them — there is lots of self-reflection and it can hit hard at times, there I was thinking I was an OK leader but there is lots I need to work on. I also went to Women of Silicon Roundabout, which I found very frustrating, mainly because of the app being rubbish and poor logistics during the two days, which is disappointing when there were so many amazing females in one space! The best part of the event for me, was the talk by Karen Brady, she is a force to be reckoned with. I also went to Delib’s Practical Democracy event, which had great talks by Mevan Babakar from Full Fact, Kitty Von Bertele from Luminate and Marcus Shepheard from Institute from Government and I got to meet up with Sam and Louise whom I hadn’t seen for ages. I also presented to Marks and Spencer’s digital team with Rosie Hatton about PDS’ Digital Transformation and the lessons we have learned, this was a great experience. I need to do a bit more public speaking, even though it is petrifying.
And as these are meant to be week-notes and not year notes….here are some quick fire things that happened this week….
- I said goodbye to my boss and met my new boss.
- I went to a requirements gathering workshop (I didn’t think we did these anymore)
- I arranged to visit Arup and my old boss to talk about DdaT
4. I caught up with a colleague back from maternity leave. It is great to have her back.
5. I met up with my Culture and Values crew and planned out our next steps
6. I listened to a great pitch on where we go now with Social Media from the two Heads of Content.
Some other stuff
Since Jan 2019, I have read these books.
Becoming, by Michelle Obama
The ocean at the end of the lane, by Neil Gaiman
The amazing story of the man who cycled from India to Europe for love, by Per J Andersson
Us, by David Nicholls
The No1 ladies detective agency, by Alexander McCall Smith
My World, by Peter Sagan
Believe me and The girl before, both by J P Delaney
The tattooist of Auschwitz, by Heather Morris
Everything I know about love, by Dolly Alderton
Dear Mrs Bird, by AJ Pearce
Last letter from Istanbul, by Lucy Foley
I am currently reading The Choice: Embrace the Possible by Edith Eger and Esme Schwall Weigand and also dipping in and out of George Hincapie’s autobiography called The Loyal Lieutenant. He cycled and was domestique to the infamous Lance Armstrong throughout his career and they are still best friends to this day.
Sorry for the massive list, but you might need some inspiration for your up and coming holiday! Good reads is a great app for keeping track of what you have read and for logging books you want to read so you don’t forget.
