Weeknotes 12
Farewell to DWP, again!
This week was all about travelling around the UK and then a rather sweet farewell to DWP. I was really touched by Stefan’s leaving speech and hugely amused by the number of references to my tigger-like antics in my leaving card. I hope some of them read this so — thank you everyone!
I’ll miss my lovely colleagues but its not like the last time I left (I feel like I’m becoming a repeat offender) — I’m confident that I’ll still see many at cross government meetings/ inveigling myself into things and I think I’ve learned this time round its foolish to say goodbye!
As a side note: we’re encouraged to move around between departments and I certainly see the flexibility and breadth of opportunity as one of the best things about the Civil Service and yet I have to actually *leave* DWP and get a whole new pay system, email, equipment etc — can we move to just working as one Civil Service, administrated centrally and save all the duplication?
Its a late Weeknotes this week because I’ve been having a lovely mini-staycation to refresh my brain between jobs, and I’m currently writing from my spiritual mecca — the John Lewis Cafe (a: I think we spent half my childhood here and b: the tea and cake are free. winner). Tellingly, my idea of a staycation was to write a list of 86 (and counting) tasks that needed doing. 39 ticked off so far. Goal oriented? Moi?!
Anyway…. what did I get up to last week?
One Team Gov in Wales
I spent Monday in Cardiff at the One Team Gov unconference. Initally I’d thought this would be my first chance to go to an unconference but after my last minute entry to UKGovCamp18 I was a novice no more and enjoyed seeing several of the same faces from Saturday. Two unconferences in three days, these are people with serious energy! I thought I’d push myself, so instead this became the first unconference I pitched at and ran a session (if I’m all about women standing up and doing the thing I’ve got to go live the values/practice what I preach!).
So I ran a session on Diversity and Inclusion — riffing off some of the thoughts back in Weeknotes 10 on accidental exclusion by using post its (full disclosure, I still used them and felt bad!). I opened up by getting everyone to think about how they might have something different to the others in the room, partly to get everyone warmed up and talking and also to recognise that everyone has a different perspective to add. We found some really interesting things that we might not have otherwise thought of and I appreciated everyone’s candour in the room. I also unwittingly created extra anxiety by doing ‘creeping death’ round the room on this — but didnt want to just have those who were more confident about speaking being the only voices heard — so would welcome thoughts about how that could be done better!
Then we had a group discussion about a) barriers and b) solutions and I used the 1–2–4 process I’d heard about at UKGC18 to ensure everyone’s thoughts were included — and took myself out the room to get it started. I was very conscious that I didn’t want it to be “The Jenny Show”!
I’m really conscious that we only had certain voices — i.e. the already included — in the room for our barrier solving conversation but I think we still all found new things we could do to to be more inclusive and the beauty of unconferences isn’t just the outcome but the having of the conversation. Interestingly I had a conversation with the Mothership about it on the way home and she said ‘oh but we did Diversity and Inclusion years ago, surely the whole Civil Service has already done that course’ which I thought was revealing. This isn’t a once and done training. Its a continual conversation — how can we get better? what did we not realise was exclusionary? how can we open up more? And we certainly haven’t got it right yet! Onwards!
I really care about this stuff, so feedback/thoughts are welcome!
I went to some great conversations about engaging our leaders (I love this stuff — they’re humans too) and getting out of Whitehall (more of this please! and I must too),
Quick thoughts from this:
- Our best leaders are making a point of getting out to their delivery places — Jobcentres, schools etc
- There’s a bank of user perspectives on health run by an Oxford University has a research unit called HealthTalk.org
- Think about the HSBC advert campaign (I always see it in airports) — what works in that country won’t necessarily work in another place
Over lunch had a great conversation with Jo from Satori Lab and really liked their take away reflection cards:
Oh and I met the famous @jukesie in the flesh!
And I finished the day with a fab session by David on One Team Gov micro-actions — what little things can we do? LOADS! Felt really inspired after that!
Big shout out to Amy Harcombe and the team for all their hard work running the unconference! So good to meet you in the flesh and thank you!
They’ve already made a video of the day here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rs03P8djBPY&feature=youtu.be
and what a fab location! an interactive science museum: I felt like a big kid (in a good way), a great setting for learning!
And after all that excitement, what else did I do with my week?
One Team Gov Breakfast
I had some really good conversations at Breakfast on Wednesday:
- Why are we here? networking, ideas, learn what it is, build network, improving the Civil Service
- How can we improve One Team Gov? I/we need to bring more people along to help broaden it!
- And when talking about #NotJustLondon, Sharon Dale mentioned she’s speaking at Not Westminster which I hadn’t heard of, so I shared that with my (not Westminster) team!
When talking about our roles and responsibilities in the context of users and especially Ministers not always being receptive to them, I had a couple of points that resonated/ bear repeating: I think its on us as Civil Servants to make sure to make sure all viewpoints are being considered — its not just an impact assessment on a piece of paper, its humans. And when what you’re saying doesn’t land, I don’t think that means the person you’re talking to doesn’t care, I think its a failure of communication — we need to use our empathy skills to work out how the recipient sees the world or is motivated so you can express yourself properly. That doesn’t mean of course that your point is correct/ should be taken forward over other points, just that its rarely that the person doesn’t care (and you shouldn’t immediately give up and write them off).
Writing that reminded me of a conversation at One Team Gov in Wales about leaders; referring to ‘them’. Its like when people say ‘Management’. It makes me feel a bit sad. Its so impersonal. I don’t think people stopped being human when they got promoted…
We also had a really interesting conversation about how we feel uncomfortable working with private sector/ consultancies.
What else?
I had a good time doing stakeholder mapping with David and James, remembering my consulting skills. I spent some more time with my new team and meeting new faces — coming up with all kinds of ideas and v much looking forward to getting stuck in!
I thought it was going to be a quiet week and it ended up being the kind of week where I’m glad I’m wearing flats because I’m literally running between meetings. Just my kind of week.
I popped up to Manchester for a great day of meetings, buzzing around and being full of ideas.
And on Friday I did some tidying up and reflecting on what wisdom (?!) to share with my old team.
Interesting things to read:
I really liked Stefan’s reflections on Gov Camp. I’m going to be borrowing this quote:
Leadership isn’t demonstrated by setting out a vision of a better future; it is demonstrated by consistently behaving in ways which help to get there.
Sam’s thoughts on AI and procurement in government…. very worthwhile reading
I mentioned that the big boss left last week: and his leaving interview is really interesting….
Parting thoughts
While getting through my tasks I’ve been finishing off the audiobook of The Empathy Instinct, a Kit Collingwood recommendation — so much to think about it — especially about the science —I think I need to listen to it all again. One thing that stood out was the *measurable* the importance of hearing other peoples stories and building your empathy. So, I feel my love of Radio Four is validated — Sunday afternoon offered up ‘From our Home Correspondent on about the fall of numbers of people with Down’s syndrome (not because we’ve cured it), meditation in prison and theres always The Listening Project — little windows into people’s lives.
And a little quote from one Radio 4 Programme:
The worst thing to happen to the world is not hatred but apathy
Amen to that!
