One Team Gov’s Retro and Goal Setting
It’s the time of year when we look at what we are doing and think, is this right? And we ask ourselves, what should we do next? We need your suggestions and invite you to join.
What’s happened so far?
“#OneTeamGov is the place where any and all can build their idea of the future. If we were a Lego set, #OneTeamGov would be the green baseplate. The pieces, the vision, the build — up to each and every one of us.”
One Team Gov is a public sector reform movement whose aim is to take practical action to improve public services and reform the way we work. As a movement we continue to grow, with more people from around the world getting involved. We also run events, meetups, and help to create new communities wherever people want them, with a tireless commitment to taking practical actions towards meaningful reform.
In 2020 and 2021, we continue to take the One Team Gov story forwards, focusing on three goals:
- Climate
- Leadership
- Diversity, Inclusion and Wellbeing
The One Team Gov community has done some awesome things across the world. We believe in the power of creating spaces that bring people together — that’s become more important during the COVID-19 pandemic than ever. This has been (and continues to be) an unsettling time, and navigating through this is difficult for many.
We’re really proud of what we’ve achieved in the past 18 months (some of the events are listed below):
- We continued to gain momentum with regular meet ups taking place around the world, from Australia, Canada, Finland, New Zealand, Norway, Sweden, Switzerland, the United Kingdom, and many more.
- January 2020. Kicked off 2020 with a series of global events about climate, the environment, and sustainability. #OneGreenGov built on, and was inspired by, the years of work already done across the globe to fight climate change.
- February 2020. After six months preparation, we ran a 24-hour online global Futures Leadership event, as part of Fire Starter Festival. We were joined by people across the world for three workshops. Through the magic of a brilliant organising team, who worked hard across borders, continents, and time-zones, they enabled people to come away with more tools in their toolbox for leading into our futures, whatever they may be.
- June 2020. Supported the Black Lives Matter movement unequivocally. We held safe and brave spaces for the uncomfortable conversations to happen and worked on how we can make our community more diverse and inclusive. We promise to keep learning and taking action on this.
- July 2020. Collaborated with Apolitical.co to run a leadership series on humility, love, and embracing who we really are in leadership. We were joined by over 800 people from around the world for insightful conversations on Leadership of Self, Leadership with Others, and Leadership within Systems and Communities.
- September 2020. Sam Villis and the fabulous organising team held 2 events on Suicide Prevention; it was a fantastic opportunity to talk about it, raise awareness, and learn from those taking action. Over 900 people registered and we live tweeted the event. We were in awe of those who have had this experience and are shouldering the burden of change. You can re-watch the event here.
- November 2020. Beth Fox, DavidBuck, Ioana Finichiu, Prateek Buch, and others teamed up to put the global in One Team Gov Global, facilitating two workshops at the FWD50 conference: 1) Towards a Collaboration Playbook, and 2) Do I belong? Here’s them chatting about what makes the organisation work, why collaboration is key, and how enthusiasm and positivity can be super powers.
- December 2020. Reflected on our journey of exploring future leadership, and creating spaces to talk about different leadership models — radical new ways to lead, underpinned by empathy, vulnerability, and collaboration. Some 2.5 years, 20 blog posts, and hundreds of connections and relationships later, we’re really just getting started.
- April 2021. The OECD Observatory of Public Sector Innovation called for innovations on cross-border collaboration in government. Pia J.V. Josendal and others submitted One Team Gov as a innovation initiative for working across borders. You can read our submission here: OneTeamGov Across borders — Google Docs
- May 2021. David Durant, aimee whitcroft, Derek Alton, Pamela James, and Susie Floresco have started thinking about an international online government space and our next global event! #OneTeamGovInternational
- June 2021. Thea Snow and Nour Sidawi hosted a global event, with more than 200 people registered, to play Lauren Weinstein’s game aimed at facilitating and exposing conversations about power. They shared about how they played, what they learnt, and offer resources to help you play:
- July 2021. Kit Collingwood and Emma McGowan ran the first One Team Gov Local meet up, for those working in reform of any kind in local government, anywhere (Trello Board for pitching).
Where next?
As we grow, the need to think differently becomes more important. It’s important to think about how far we’ve come and what we should do next, so we’re holding a retro and planning session. We would like to extend the invite to anyone who would like to attend.
In the spirit of living our principles, we wanted to invite anyone with an interest in the future of One Team Gov to contribute their thoughts. You can pop your thoughts into the form here, tweet or email us, or even hold a gathering of your own. We believe that things can change, and everyone has a part in making that happen.
We have three simple questions that James Cattell devised for us, so we would like to hear your thoughts about:
- What did we achieve?
- What held us back?
- What should we commit to over the next year?
Let us know what you think! Reply to the form (here), tweet us @OneTeamGov, or email contact@oneteamgov.uk.
We will document and share responses in a follow up blog post (if you don’t want us to share what you tell us just let us know and we won’t publish it).
We look forward to hearing what you have to say! Thank you.
The One Team Gov Team
