This is how I work….give or take
I think Dan sort of nominated me to do this ages ago, but even if he didn’t, I quite fancy giving it a go. I have finally gotten around to publishing it. Parts of it are rather lengthy, it was rather therapeutic to write all this stuff down.
I think everyone you work with should do this, it would really help with team building, relationship building and caring a bit more about one another. I am not just Head of Capability, I am a person too.
Location: I live in a tiny village (It is a street) in Bedfordshire, half way ish between Bedford & Milton Keynes. I work in Westminster, Central London. I try and do 2 days at home per week, but most weeks I do 1 day.
Current Gig: Head of Capability, Parliamentary Digital Service
Current Mobile Device: iPhone 8
Current Computer: Dell at work, MacBook air at home or work.
One word that best describes how you work: Thoughtfully
First of all, tell us a little about your background and how you got to where you are today. I had a sheltered childhood, I grew up in a lovely market town called Olney which is in North Bucks. The Hymn amazing grace was written here by John Newton and his pal William Cowper and the pancake race was invented here and is still an event that happens every Shrove Tuesday in the Town. The winner receives a prize and a kiss from the Vicar!
Olney is strange and a bit like the movie Hot Fuzz! As soon as I turned 17, I had a driving lesson, about 15 lessons later I passed my test first time. Grandad helped me get my first car, a battered old Fiesta that I loved….and I was FREE and could escape the confines of my town and explore the big city lights of Milton Keynes, Bedford or Northampton…woo hoo!
My Mum & Dad went through some ups and downs in the late 80’s early 90’s. They both had their own businesses and things weren’t particular great during the recession for us. We never had any money, our house although in one of the most affluent towns in North Bucks was falling apart. I remember thinking when I grow up, I am going to get a job with an ok salary. I want to have enough money to pay for what I need, with a bit left over for some fun. I also had grand ideas about living in a flat, with a Great Dane of the canine variety….what was I thinking?!
As soon as I turned 16 I got a weekend job in the local shoe shop, the Olney Cobbler. An Italian shoe shop. I got paid well. I got an hourly salary, plus a percentage bonus depending on how many shoes I sold. I did purchase a few pairs of shoes, I couldn’t help myself. But I also helped my Mum and Dad out where I could.
I didn’t get particularly great GCSE’s or A Levels, School was more of a social activity for me. However I did manage to get into a University in Nottingham and went for the first term. Is it me or is career advice at School….TERRIBLE. Basically just get on whatever course you can at Uni, everything will be fine. No actual useful life advice is given! I didn’t like it and I wanted to come back home.
I got a job at Granada TV & Video Rentals in Central Milton Keynes. It was a lot more modern than this video but it gives you an idea. I did about 6 months. I hated it. Much to my parents despair, I left the job, with this comment ringing in my ears “You should get another job before leaving!” I took a job looking after a local family’s kids and continued to work in the shoe shop, plus did other ad-hoc temp jobs before realising that my career wasn’t really working, I was never going to be a millionaire doing this. I applied, to a local University in Northampton to do a BA Hons in Business Administration and Organisational Development. I got in and I got a 2:i. One summer during Uni, I used one of my student loan payments to pay for a trip to Australia to see my Aunt and Cousins over a summer. I got the travel bug.
After Uni, I worked doing anything and everything and saved up lots of money to go travelling around the world. I went to Hong Kong, Thailand, Australia, New Zealand, Fiji, USA and home. I worked in Sydney for 6 months too, so I could replenish my funds. In Sydney I got my first Public Sector gig, working for the Supreme Court. I fell in love with the city life. Sydney is still one of my most favourite cities in the world because of the experiences I had there and the great memories I made.
I always planned to go travelling again or move back to Oz, but when I got back, I got a temp job at Mercedes Benz Head Office and then applied for a full time role. After what was the most awful interview experience of my life, which has knocked my confidence FOREVER in interviews, I got the job. I got a job called a SPICS (Spare Parts Inventory Control System) coordinator. £1.25 million worth of Mercedes parts sales went through this system every day as well as endless stock replenishment. I was responsible for making sure it was up to date with software updates and that it talked to the warehouse logistics system and Dealership Systems. I wasn’t in IT, but I worked closely with my IT colleagues, and got my first taste of projects and project management. I got promoted, I managed around 30 people looking after parts supply and I managed some very meaty projects. I loved my job, I made some friends for life, I got to go to Germany, we had very grand staff parties, great benefits, I got to meet Lewis Hamilton, I got a new sparkly car every 9 months and one for my parents too. This job taught me a lot. I had very supportive leaders that always had my back no matter what and I learnt how to be a good project manager. I worked at Mercedes Benz for 7 years. During that time I met someone and we moved to Sussex, the commute was too long, I could no longer do that job anymore. Slight tinge of regret.
I had just under a year out of full time working and did some soul searching, do I want to be a Project Manager forever? In this time I volunteered for Forest Schools, helping primary and middle school kids learn about nature, build camps, make fire!! I worked at Cancer Research UK looking at the processes behind their high street stores and provided them with some ideas on how to streamline. I worked for CACHE, an organisation that creates qualifications for the Education Sector, where I supported the implementation of a new online portal for students. But I was very uncomfortable with not having a full time job and getting the right job was hard.
I then saw a Project Support job advertised for Parliamentary ICT at the Houses of Parliament. My first thought was….there are people working at the Houses of Parliament? who knew …oops! I applied and got an interview and a role play test and was successful. I have been at Parliament now for 8 years and I still love it, there is never a dull moment.
I rapidly moved from Project Support to Project Management, where I worked on off the shelf product delivery and also bespoke products. I loved the bespoke product delivery side. I loved working with the Developers and I fell in love with agile working. I worked on some stuff like Research Briefings, Lords Enquiries and a Geospatial project for the Parliamentary Archives. A job came up in Development and I went for it. I was successful and I became a Development Lead. This was a whole new ballgame for me, it was a massive learning curve. I sat on Project and Programme Boards as Senior Supplier. I was suddenly on the other side! I went on a learn how to code course and created a website. I spent a lot of time thinking about the people side of development, their skills, their objectives, principles and standards around coding, helping teams work together, I also focused on recruitment. This is where the capability stuff started I think.
Then the Digital Service happened, we went from an ICT Department to a Digital Department. We got a new boss, and we got restructured. When I met my new Director and she found out what I was working on, she asked me to work on Capability and to help her build up her new team. I became Capability Lead for the Digital Development team and whilst doing this role, I realised that a lot of the work I was involved in should be a PDS wide thing and not just for one area. With the help and support of my Boss Emma I pushed for my work to be for everyone. This eventually paid off and I have been given the opportunity to be Head of Capability if only temporarily, but I feel proud of myself for bringing this important role to Parliament and I hope to do a great job and show them why it is important to focus on Capability.
Take us through a recent workday. Pretty much every day starts like this. I wake up around 0610 and I get ready for work in 35 mins, I drive to the station and get the 0713 train which gets me to Blackfriars for 0803 and I am usually in the office by 0820 at the latest. I make a cup of tea and at 0830 I pop down to get some toast or porridge from the café. But on this day I meet colleagues from Cancer Research UK in Portcullis House to talk Service Design at 0830 so I grab a tea and a croissant there.
I meet with Sam our Deputy CTO plus Rhiannon and Leanne from Cancer Research and we share stories about what is happening regarding Service Design in our organisations. I then walk back to our building and I meet with Alina one of my capability team to talk through some content for our new Line Manager essentials training course.
Next up is a meeting of lots of different people across PDS who help to govern for want of a better term, three different groups. These groups are made up of Senior managers mostly and they meet regularly to make decisions about PDS either operationally/Strategically or to deliver what comes out of those decisions. This group, ensures that they are doing what they are meant to be doing and we provide challenge. On this day we talked about running an unconference at one of the meetings and start getting the logistics in motion for that.
I then met my husband for lunch. This hardly ever happens. I normally eat lunch at my desk.
In the afternoon I meet with Glenn, Portfolio Transformation Lead and Kerrie who is part of my capability group. We talk about the “guilds’ (another word for communities) they are creating in Portfolio to help with development, training and making positive change happen in their area. I am keen to make sure this doesn’t just become another siloed activity and feeds into my learning and development strategy.
I then Skype into the House of Commons Management Board all staff meeting. Skype is making it easier to not have to run around the massive Parliamentary estate to get to meetings, you can join from your desk. I appreciate this as it gives me time to make a cup of tea and eat my custard creams too.
I then go back to Portcullis House to have a meeting with Holly Ellis, Director of Digital Capability at GDS and Emily who is working in her team. Rebecca our Director of Service Design set this meeting up and I was very happy as I have been wanting to meet Holly for ages. We talked about my role and she gave me lots of great advice. We talked about the Capability Framework being used across Government Departments to help make roles and pay more consistent and she gave me lots of good ideas.
I worked in Portcullis House on all the emails I hadn’t read because I was in meetings all day. I leave around 1730 to go to Blackfriars to get the train home. I usually get home at 1900 and if I have the energy jump on my bicycle which at the moment is on the turbo trainer.
What apps, gadgets, or tools can’t you live without? I love my Garmin 1000, Zwift, Trello, Slack, Instagram, WhatsApp, City mapper.
What’s your best shortcut or life hack? Working out where to get on and off the train or tube can save you 10–15 mins on your commute. I learnt this because I have done 8 years of commuting — but there are apps to help you nowadays.
Take us through an interesting, unusual, or finicky process you have in place at work I really can’t think of anything that I am allowed to tell you. Dan mentioned the funniest one in his blog post….
How do you keep track of what you have to do? I write notes from each meeting and log actions and then I move those actions to an action list at the back of my notepad. Once a week I review the list and move outstanding actions to a new list. I also have a Trello board for my capability work.
What’s your favourite side project? Out of work I cycle a lot. I set myself training goals each year in the spirit of continuous improvement. I use Training Peaks to capture all the data — power/heart rate/fitness/fatigue level etc. This helps me to understand my body and its capability and also helps me to not beat myself up, when clearly I am exhausted and just need a rest.
In work, it is encouraging more people to go to meet ups. I tag along with them if they want some moral support. Learning from others and others learning from you is great. I want to encourage people to do this more and more.
What are you currently reading, or what do you recommend? I am currently reading Eleanor Oliphant is completely fine, by Gail Honeyman and I just finished reading we should all be feminists by Chimamanda Ngozi Adiche.
I would recommend Matt Haig’s book How to Stop Time
Also reading all the other “This is how I work” blog posts.
