Weeknotes 8–12 Jun 2020
Why do I always rush when I write these notes? Or at least, I rush in my head. Like they don’t deserve too much time. Like other people would probably write them a lot faster than me! 😆
What’s new this week
I’ve recently joined two new projects in Camden; They are both inspiring and useful for residents, but very different between them.
Contact Camden
Our goal is to make it easier for people to contact the council. We will do this by redesigning the end-to-end journey for people when they get in touch via phone, email, the website, face-to-face or any other channel. Internally, there needs to be a better use of data, to have a unified view of citizens.
This is not a new ambition for Camden. I spent the last few days reviewing the documentation and extensive research that already existed. That meant looking over demographics and quantitative data, trying to figure out the missing gaps and angles to develop a more human-centred approach.
This first week was all about desk research and establishing relationships with the different people and teams involved. I split the documentation with the rest of the team and ran a remote workshop to combine findings and talk about those areas we had little or no visibility into.
Connected Communities
This is a project to help residents get to where they want to. It is part of the Social Care Digital Innovation Programme, funded by NHS Digital and managed by the LGA.
Our focus is on those residents with limited mobility, and the aim is to help them become more independent by improving how they plan their local travel. The project was put on hold a couple of months ago, due to COVID-19, but we are now thinking how we might be able to help residents overcome physical and psychological barriers.
This week we spoke with Synergy, part of Camden Disability Action, who really helped us understand their currend mindset. They threw light on the experience of those who they support and help us better understand their situation and the challenges they face.
Side Projects
That was Work with a capital W. Then I also started two side projects. I launched ShowThePay.com a simple website to educate businesses and show how being upfront about remuneration and pay has a direct impact on inclusion and diversity. Tweets and conversations with Lauren Currie, Audree Fletcher, Katy Beale and others inspired me to take action.
I also created a directory of small businesses in my area (Kentish Town). It’s a site aimed to help people buy from their local shops, by recreating the experience of a digital High Street. I was able to put it together quite quickly, by embedding an Airtable into a simple HTML. Then I showed it to others in Camden who had had the same idea and who knows… maybe we can scale it to other neighbourhoods and find better ways of enabling users to filter and search. 🤞
What I learnt
Being able to launch these two personal projects in just a few days made me reflect on how often progress is delayed by numerous sign-off points within traditional large organisations. We all know the (fake) African proverb that says “If you want to go quickly, go alone. If you want to go far, go together.” And the two-pizza rule by Bezos. And then, there is some kind of beautiful balance. While I love being able to move fast, there is great benefit in working alongside others: not just a more extensive combination of skills, but the creative energy that emerges from group collaboration. We need to continue exploring ways to be nimble and achieve significant impact… together.
One last (very important) thing
Of course, I can’t ignore the tension going on at the moment! This week I listened to the audiobook ‘Why I’m No Longer Talking to White People About Race’, by Reni Eddo-Lodge, the first of many I want to read to educate myself and learn more about racism.
‘You either have to be part of the solution, or you’re going to be part of the problem.’ — Eldridge Cleaver
