Weeknotes 42: as 2018 comes to an end . . .
5 great things that happened this week*
- Stephen and I put together some slides to explain our approach to improving the way we manage contracts and plan our commissioning longer term. Stephen, Karim and Jacky have done a great job of pulling together the data we need so that we can plan ahead.
We’re working out how we can best support our contract managers so that they can be as effective as possible. Taking the approach of starting with user need we’re asking them some confidence questions – as in, how confident do you feel about:
- Good procurement practice — setting yourself up to succeed
- Onboarding a supplier — getting the commercial details and relationship set up right
- Managing the contractual obligations — securing best value and outcomes
- Measuring performance of a contract — building effective supplier relationships/knowing what good looks like
- Realising the benefits — knowing what difference we’re making for our users
- Planning ahead — knowing what we need in the future
We think that knowing the answers will help us target the right support at the right people to help us become more skilled across the teams.
2. We held our first DeliverWeek – it was an MVP to see what value we could generate for ourselves and others. James Arthur Cattell and Rich Blake both held great sessions with us (thankyou both), and as a team we spent time thinking about some key agile ceremonies and how we might improve how we run and use them.
3. I finally realised a long held aim to host a OneTeamGov event in Hackney (Thanks Jenny Vass for the prompt and James Arthur Cattell for the help). I would love to see more local gov participation in OneTeamGov so I’m hoping it’ll be a great discussion.
4. There’s been quite a focus on our apprentice programme this week. On Tuesday we had a meet up with employers and apprentice providers hosted at Amazon with Hackney’s employment pathways team. We’re looking at how we can develop a network of local apprenticeship opportunities that supports small employers in Hackney and creates opportunities for local people. I facilitated one of the breakout sessions – we had a really interesting discussion from across a range of interests.
Two of our apprentices — Nana and Micah, talked about their experiences with us so far, and the importance of the line manager and buddy roles in supporting them.
The next day Amazon hosted our apprentices for a day of talks, workshops and inspiration. An amazing experience for them all – which focussed on building the skills they need to have a successful digital career.
5. We ran our 5th service assessment – this time on the improvements we’re making to our pay my rent service. Emma and the Orange Maple team had prepped really well, and Ian Ames came to give us an external perspective and challenge. His feedback made my heart sing – everything I’ve been hoping we can achieve in developing our governance as a service by using the local digital service standard and a robust but supportive assessment process.
In January we’re going to have a team review of all 5 assessments – how can we improve how we’re running them, what are we learning, how is it helping the teams and most importantly – the services we’re building.
What I read this week
I really liked this from David Kershaw – particularly the multi disciplinary approach which is one I’ve been taking with some key contracts.
And this from the ace Rebecca Kemp – on working responsibly
This from @jukesie on alphas was interesting
and this from Paul Downey on approaches to roadmaps (I also like this from Eleanor Mollett:
*technically a fortnight. and this is it from me for 2018, am taking a break from weeknotes now till January.
