Provocations for One Team Government Scotland
In less than 4 weeks time, on the 23rd November, we are bringing together over 100 people across Government, private and third sector to discuss how we work together in Scotland (and the UK).
We’re going to be breaking down digital, policy, design and delivery boundaries to share and discuss how we work well together as a #OneTeamGov.
Ultimately, we will be asking how can we bring policy and delivery better together, and how do the practices and culture of design, policy, digital and delivery overlap, compliment and actively work together well. All of this, with a view that from policy to delivery, and everything in between, has a hold on the user experience we deliver for citizens and ourselves as delivery teams.
We’re using an unconference format. This means, you bring the agenda.
So how does it work?
After quick introduction talks from the organisers and speakers, we’ll be asking participants to stand up and give us their ‘provocations’. These are titles for discussions you would like to talk about in groups.
We have about 25 sessions across the day, and you vote with your feet which one you will attend. For each track on the day, we have 5 sessions.
If you have a provocation we write it on a card, invite you to the stage and in 20 seconds you give us an overview of what you want to discuss.
Working live, we populate a big board of sessions as an agenda we can work to. This is done by our team, trying to balance out topics per track.
Not everyone needs a provocation but we need at least 25. We merge some similar topics to make it all work to our agenda.
What we ask, is for you to come prepared, think about what you’d love to discuss at #OneTeamGovScot
Finally we will have a track where if you prefer, we can make it a silent track where people post to the wall ideas/thoughts if you find group discussion daunting or not your thing.
What makes a provocation?
Not much. All you really need is a title for a topic to discuss.
It can be about a discipline, how we do something better, what the future of x looks like, a specific service, a method, really anything that meets the topic of #OneTeamGov and working together.
Can you give me some examples?
Sure - they can come in any range. They can be big blue sky thinking to small focused discussions. An open question, a challenge, an opportunity or something you want to co-design.
You might ask:
How does policy and delivery work better together?
What are the qualities of future leaders in Scottish Government?
How can we design holistic services across sectors?
How do we integrate needs into the commissioning cycle at local Government?
What happens when delivering a service we find out it doesn’t work?
What makes a policy open for design and delivery to interpret it well?
Digital skills in Scotland — where is our public sector at and how do we level up?
Are there any rules?
Not really but here’s some guidelines.
This isn’t here for self promotion — we don’t want to hear about your company or project explicitly, we are here for open discussion.
Let everyone be heard — it’s not your session, it is everyones. But you can kick it off with some thoughts and questions
What is expected of me?
You don’t need to have a presentation, but come with some thoughts on your topic and be prepared to help facilitate the discussion. It’s better if you keep it lo-fi.
We have volunteers that can help capture notes and document it. We’ll provide paper, post its and pens for you.
What happens to the content?
We’re working to the #OneTeamGov principle of ‘Work in the open and positively’
We’re a community; everything we do will be documented and made to share. Where conversations happen that can’t be shared, the wider learning still will be. This is a reform cooperative, where we choose to be generous with knowledge. Ideas are infectious; we’ll share ours early and often.
It will be shared by our volunteers in open Google Documents. If there is something you prefer not to be shared, just say. We’re here to be a supportive culture to facilitate discussions you’d like to have.
Most importantly, you take what you want from the format. We hope that you’ll learn, solve challenges you have and most importantly build your network to work with in the future.
So — if this is a new format for you, don’t worry. It’s very simple, we’re here to support and lead you through some fantastic discussions on the day.
