Weekly Braindump #48
Pizza & A Rant
Stuff I’ve been doing…
I revived my lunchtime learning concept (which had a much longer hiatus than intended) and reached out to some people who had made pitches previously to see if I could get the ball rolling again. I am kicking myself about leaving this so long because I feel like I’ve lost some crucial momentum. Fingers crossed, that momentum is recoverable.
What else?
I stayed back late one day to roll out a new software update to our board members. My lovely colleagues stayed on after hours with me to help out. There was some bribery involved in the form of pizza.
What else?
I’ve had some interesting chats about supporting teams & systems post implementation. Being a small department, it can be really hard to strike the balance between working on new things whilst maintaining and improving the existing things (not to mention killing the old things).
I was reading the Agile Manifesto today and I began thinking about how we might organise for constant change. What systems would we choose? Which suppliers would we work with? Would we even do ‘projects’ anymore? With so much change on the horizon due to welfare reform, it just feels like we need the ability to be far more responsive to emerging needs.
What else?
I’ve been thinking about digital leadership a lot this week.. particularly in the context of housing associations. I’m worried because much of the conversation about technology is couched in terms of governance (I don’t know if this is a symptom of IT often being bundled in with Finance). Obviously.. we need our technology to be safe and secure.. but that’s not the only conversation in town.
- Who’s got a vision to free us from the confines of the 9–5 office?
- Who’s promoting the use of modern digital collaborative tools that cut out needless duplication and break down silos?
- Who’s taking the friction out of services by putting user needs first?
- Who’s doing the hard work to bring open standards to the housing sector to stop reinventing the wheel a thousand times over?
- Who’s building agile multi-discplinary teams to deliver results faster?
- Who’s thinking about ways to publish Open Data to make it easier to work with other sectors, businesses or individuals?
And if anyone *is* doing any of the above… HOW ABOUT TALKING ABOUT THE SPECIFICS MORE OPENLY AND SHARING GOOD PRACTICE? Because that’s the digital leadership the sector really needs. This stuff is really hard, and we need more examples or what works.. or doesn’t.. to make collective progress.
/rant over
I’ve been reading…
- New ‘WikiHouse’ that could solve the housing crisis to be trialled in Sheffield.
http://www.thestar.co.uk/business/new-wikihouse-that-could-solve-housing-crisis-to-be-trialled-in-sheffield-1-8780399 - Here’s why Finland is able to implement a basic income experiment.
https://futurism.com/why-finland-is-able-to-implement-a-basic-income-experiment/ - How to make learning from failure a reality.
http://govcampcymru.org/how-to-make-learning-from-failure-a-reality/ - Could you survive as an Uber driver?
https://ig.ft.com/uber-game/ - The Now of Work.
https://medium.com/@simongterry/the-now-of-work-c695f88998ea - Change is needed or Welsh Government risks coming digital last.
https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/change-needed-welsh-government-risks-coming-digital-last-livingston/ - Get Online Week
https://digitalhomesblog.wordpress.com/2017/10/02/first-blog-post/ - Why isn’t agile working?
https://hackernoon.com/why-isnt-agile-working-d7127af1c552 - Local Government Digital Service Standard at a glance.
https://medium.com/digital-leaders-uk/local-government-digital-service-standard-at-a-glance-9a19b5a7b5d6 - #NotWithoutMe: A digital world for all?
https://www.carnegieuktrust.org.uk/publications/digitalworld/ - Open-plan offices don’t work and will be replaced by the ‘coffice’, says BT futurologist.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/science/2017/10/01/open-plan-offices-dont-work-will-replaced-coffice-says-bt-futurologist/ - How to regain the lost art of reflection.
https://hbr.org/2017/09/how-to-regain-the-lost-art-of-reflection - Why does Sweden have so many startups?
https://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2017/09/sweden-startups/541413/ - Transforming together: leading people and place.
https://www.thersa.org/discover/publications-and-articles/rsa-blogs/2017/09/leading-public-sector-innovation - Global Jam Jam.
https://medium.com/@BromfordLab/global-jam-jam-bf4f2207828a - 8 reasons the 8 hour work day doesn’t make sense.
https://medium.com/the-mission/8-reasons-the-8-hour-workday-doesnt-make-sense-cde67f2e785c - Bromford Lab Planning #11 — What we’ve been working on.
http://www.bromfordlab.com/lab-diary/2017/10/1/lab-planning-11-what-weve-been-working-on - Organisational design and innovation: our principles
http://www.bromfordlab.com/lab-diary/2017/10/1/lab-planning-11-what-weve-been-working-on - The computers being trained to beat you in an argument.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-41010848 - Stepping in and stepping out: How to involve councillors in digital design projects.
https://medium.com/local-democracy/stepping-in-and-stepping-out-how-to-involve-councillors-in-digital-design-projects-155d6ea01c54
I’ve been listening to…
- BBC Analysis: The Fintech Revolution
http://pca.st/6utC - BBC Thinking Allowed: Robots and AI
http://pca.st/Ma7F - 99% Invisible: 276 — The Finnish Experiment
http://pca.st/ztFy - Reasons to be cheerful: Free money for all? The Universal Basic Income.
http://pca.st/A5Qu - TED Talks Daily: Lessons from the longest study on human development.
http://pca.st/hKo6
