These notes are a tool I use for reflecting, remembering (to counter my SDAM), networking within my profession, and public accountability. Read more here.
What went down in Neilly land these past 2 weeks, I pretend once again to hear you ask. Well…
Work, work, work
🎧 My podcast interview came out.
👨🏻🏫 A bunch of us BFI digital bods enjoyed a presentation from the curatorial team in the BFI national archive, which helped us better understand the art and science of what they do.
📈 I made more progress aligning other brilliant brains of the BFI behind our streaming platform growth goals.
🦉 I had another Miele mentoring sesh. Takeaways this time: “don’t be a hub and spoke leader, get your top team solidified and driving your vision for you” and ”send strong signals into the org to cut through the noise: this is how we’re doing it and where we’re going, and we’re just not gonna mess around too much with all the feelings and opinions”. Galvanising! Not my natural style (nor our company culture) but useful notes about direction-setting and avoiding being overly consensus-driven, and relevant to some challenges I’m dealing with.
🎨 I joined some very promising conversations about aligning our many sub-brands and domains (heading towards some form of universal navigation, eventually). Exactly the kind of thing I came here to do frankly. Design leadership ftw!
🦉 Watched Cat and Katy lead a special edition of DTAB – our digital transformation advisory board – getting wisdom from Dave, Col, Marty, Chris and Laura on our imminent cinema service private beta.
🔐 There was a workshoppy cyber group meeting, to come up with a regular KPI report to give us a consistent and complete pan-org view on our cyber posture. It was somewhat revelatory about the need to build more psychological safety, though. 👀
☕ Intro meeting with an excellent new hire in our People and Culture department. May have ranted at him a bit but only in the spirit of fixing stuff together. Plus he plays steel drums, one of the best sounds on earth I think we can all agree.
🧠 I’ve also been picking brains, making new contacts and catching up with old ones:
- Jamie Arnold on agile governance stuff. So lovely to see and hear this chirpy legend again after many years of only interacting online since we worked together at GDS.
- Alex Torrance on all things service designy and transformationy in our respective post-GDS experience, also long overdue
- Jason Kitcat to learn more about his excellent recent blog post about matrixed teams and Emily’s team taxonomy
- Dave Briggs for 13 mins of excellent coaching (and met his new best dog pal)
- Owen Hopkin at ACE, via Ash Mann, en route to finding someone to compare notes with on grant funding services
Work adjacent reading
- Speaking of design leadership, here’s The Public Design Evidence Review
- Lean Value Tree from my chat with Jamie, which he recommends in context of shifting organisations to adopt the language of “value” and “bets” to replace the false certainty of programmes and projects.
- VUCA and (I repeat) cynefin frameworks for recognising and navigating complexity.
- Jamie’s field notes: start small, grow organically, uncovering clearer outcomes, service organisation, how to prioritise things, one pagers, 5 questions to measure success
- Jamie and Emily’s scaling teams checklist (which could be useful if I ever work anywhere with money, lol).
- Service mapping: building transparency, trust and transformation together
- The product operating model: How government should deliver digital services
- What is Flight Levels via David Thomas
- HR & IT: A merged future for the good of everyone? Moderna merged theirs on the basis of the growing role of AI, spawning many articles. Premature but could catch on, maaaaybe.
- M’colleague Jia on a podcast: The Security Tapes
- How to measure user satisfaction (without NPS)
- Pocket, Pavement, Platform: Government in the App Store and on the High Street – Part 1 – a long read from the brain of Ben Welby. See also Appy? Thoughts on the new GOV.UK app from Ben Holliday.
- How to be open while you test and learn
- I liked the phrase “at the speed of culture” in this piece in favour of filmmaking with AI
- I liked the phrases “applying digital principles to the design of everything the [organisation] does, not just the digital bits” and “digital is not just about technology, it’s an iterative way of delivering value for service users” in this from Richard Pope on NHS 10 year plans
- Ways of doing is a new blog from Richard Pope to keep your eye on
- Responsible AI Practical Toolkit from Owen and pals at Arts Council England
Not all work, work, work
(Not much to write home about, but noting for my own memories…) son 2 got his first pair of specs, the wife and I are switching gyms, we had a visit from the mother-in-law, and I entertained myself with all this…
Listening, reading, playing, watching
🎬 Deaf President Now! Absolutely fantastic doc, at the We Crip Film Festival (fka Busting the Bias) at the BFI. Screened with exemplary thoughtful inclusivity for all audience needs. Coming soon to Apple TV.
🎬 Becoming Led Zeppelin. A belter of a music doc, learned a lot while sitting in awe of their powerful early performances and prolific first year.
📺 Love Island. Movie Night, Harrison’s comeuppance, the Grafties, Harry’s comeuppance, the continued iconic trio of Shakira, Toni and Yas. It’s giving.
📺 Rewatching Twin Peaks and Succession with the kids and having a great time with both.
📺 Trainwreck: P.I. Moms. Weak. This Trainwreck branding Netflix are going big on is an unreliable signifier of quality.
🎤 Rob Auton’s pre-Edinburgh run of his show CAN at Stanley Arts Centre. Patchy but frequently excellent, I’ve been thinking about it a lot since.
🎤 Kiell Smith-Bynoe’s pre-Edinburgh run of his and Ed Macarthur’s show String v SPITTA at Soho Theatre. More impressive musically than funny. More like actual kids party entertainment than it should be.
🎧 Wet Leg’s Moisturiser.
📓 We Used to Live Here by Marcus Kliewer (55% read)
🕹️ The Curse of the Golden Idol, and lots of Mario Kart World.
Distractions
- Bowie hosts a summer barbecue [Instagram reel]
- Coldplay kisscam memes
- Riding every rollercoaster in the UK back to back [TikTok]
- Spinal Tap II trailer [YouTube]
That’s it. Fuck off.
