On fitting in and standing out
Barnardo’s has always prided itself on being different. From our Victorian beginnings to the present day, we’ve tried to ask questions that others won’t; to work on tasks that aren’t getting the attention they should.
As Barnardo’s digital team, we think that some of those pressing questions aren’t just about what we get up to. They’re also about how we work.
It’s tempting as a new team to challenge everything about the prevailing culture of an organisation. Sometimes the hardest thing to change is convincing staff with huge experience of their field to re-focus on the needs of the people who rely on their services. Sometimes the hardest thing is just convincing people that anything new could be good.
Luckily for us, Barnardo’s doesn’t have those problems. We’ve had the privilege of walking into an organisation where it’s abundantly clear whom we’re working for: the children relying on us for better outcomes. And, well, good luck trying to tell the senior leadership that what they have already is good enough.
More than anything else, this clarity and purpose convince me that Barnardo’s is in the right place to start designing the future of children’s social care in the UK.
Working digitally
When the word ‘digital’ gets muttered around an organisation, it can conjure up a lot of silly ideas — bunting, ping-pong tables, silly names and complicated coffee. We’re not too interested in those things (though more coffee is always welcome).
‘Digital’ at Barnardo’s means becoming more focused on the people we serve. We are learning this from many other organisations where we’ve seen ‘digital transformation’ be successful.
This means that rather than us guess a list of features that young people or our fundraisers might need (‘They must have an app! They must have a chat bot!’), we ask the users themselves what they need to do. Then we design something we think helps them do that. Then we test it out with them. And then we go back to the drawing board, because we are confident we will never get this right first time.
That’s OK. I’m confident we’ll get it more right than it was before, and improve over time. If people can’t work out how to use a service, that isn’t their fault — it’s ours. But if we try to ignore that loop of listening, building, testing and learning, then we’ll never make the radical change to social care services that we so desperately need.
Rainbow teams
Another idea we’re learning from other successful organisations is rethinking who should be in a team. At the moment, we’re used to working with people who do the same sort of task as us. Silos are comfy places.
Inevitably the digital team will need to bring in new skills — for example coding and user research. But we must make sure those new skills chime with, and bring out the best in, experts in other fields from all over Barnardo’s.
And — at least as importantly — we believe in the value of diverse teams in every sense. Having a diverse team will reduce the gap between those of us that create services, and those of us who might consume them. We’re passionate advocates of apprenticeships, for that reason. Diversity will extend to our learning and development too: Barnardo’s won’t speak at, or even attend, any technology or digital events where the panel isn’t at least 50% women.
Always open
There’s one more thing we’re trying. This blog is a good example of it: we want to be more open about what we’re doing.
At a time when funding is always tight and much of our work is so sensitive, being more open might sound ludicrous – dangerous, even. But being open is much less risky than staying in a black box. Being open is about being humble, in recognising there are many voices more important than ours, and honest, in sharing success, challenge or failure. We know we won’t have all the answers to the questions ahead, but we have a hunch that others are facing the same challenges. We think it’ll be better to answer the hard questions together.
The more people we can reach with what we’re doing, the greater the collective brain we can tap into for advice. That wisdom could come from Barnardo’s staff, our service users, other social care professionals, or well-wishers in the wider world. We’re listening. We want this blog — and by extension, all our work — to be a conversation, not a press release.
Most of all, right now, we want to meet with other people who want to work in this way, on this hugely exciting mission we have ahead of us.
So no ping-pong table. But still not afraid of standing out.
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