This week I have learned: that forms can be seen through a lens of "what has gone wrong in the past?" So often when we are confronted with requests for information whether through paper or increasingly digital means, it can be hard to understand why particular data are being requested. Ask the question "What bad … Continue reading Weeknote 589: settling
This week I have learned: That a half-hour bike ride in the searing heat to meet with a potential client isn't as bad as the half-hour bike ride in the searing heat back from a potential client.I'm oscillating between "I've got this" and "I've no idea what I'm doing". That's normal. Need to embrace feeling … Continue reading Weeknote 588: melting
Back in the mid-2010s, I spent some time working on a project in the Government Digital Service GDS. The project is lost in history, but part of what I needed to do at the time was to create a taxonomy to help understand the otherwise very nebulous concept of "Government". For some time it's been … Continue reading Understanding Government
This week I have learned: that despite the worries (and my inherent republicanism), helping to organise the Jubilee Street Party was a delight and completely rewarding. I can't walk from one end of the street to the other now without saying hello to someone I now know.the 90-minute commute into town is refreshing in some … Continue reading Weeknote 587: new boy
From my years of work, there are a few models and ideas that keep coming back to me. One of those is the Conscious Competence Ladder, a way of thinking about how we learn things that is attributed to Noel Burch from a company called Gordon Training. The idea is quite straightforward. We are either … Continue reading Starting
When was the last time software made you smile? If you are anything like me, it's probably easier to recall when it made you grimace. The ten minutes this morning, for example, that I spent trying to get my headphones to talk to my phone (Cambridge Audio: lovely hardware, ropey software). Or the labyrinth of … Continue reading Software to make you smile
A week off, between jobs. Some time with the kids. Some time to not think about work. Some time to help organise a street party. Next week - the new job starts, new adventures ahead. The week in photos:
This week I have learned: saying goodbye is hard. Especially when one has been part of a team that has become as strong and as open and as trusting as the Technology & Transformation team at RHP. I will miss them all, but the time is right for a change for me and for them.being … Continue reading Weeknote 585 – goodbye
Back in October 2019, in those days we fondly remember as "before Covid" I joined RHP, a relatively small social housing provider based in South West London that provides around 6,500 rented homes to people in the area in which I've lived for the last 17 years. I have learned a huge amount in that … Continue reading On housing
This week I have learned: Assumptions based on thin evidence are easy to make and potentially fatal. Whether it's assuming experience because of the role that someone is in, or lacking context that explains otherwise inexplicable behaviours, we do it all of the time. Generalising is how we make sense of the world. Yet it's … Continue reading Weeknote 584: scaling back
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