Greetings from the end of the Windrush Line as it’s now called, where a house (that is nothing like mine) just won the RIBA House of the Year Award. (Shoutout to The London Minute which is proving to be a good daily skim read).
Greetings also, I guess, from the comfortable tepid bath of managed decline.
Work, work, work
I did some writing of words and saying of things. Which felt like I was adding value in a more leaderly way and less in the weeds or clouds. Which sounds hoity-toity, but isn’t meant to be.
What we mean by digital-first
I drafted a new section for the BFI intranet, building on the digital-first words in our strategy in an attempt to explain to colleagues what the heck that means. I used the Tomski definition, still gold, and unpacked it. Plus words on why it matters to us, and what it does and doesn’t include (not paperless, not digital-only, not a devaluing of celluloid film or physical media).
It’s hard stuff to write – we’ve been talking about having this section for months and not finding the right words, or the uninterrupted time to find the right words. I think this draft turned out rather well but am fully prepared to be told it’s too much, too evangelical or too abstract. It will surely benefit from Jem’s content design prowess.
Next year I want to build on it with a BFI-specific vision that brings it to life, robust assurance of digital and tech standards that gives it teeth, and a learning and development offer that makes it possible. Holy trinity!
It will also be a place to aggregate the teams’ regular drumbeat of internal blogging, roadmaps and show and tells. Demonstrate by doing, the strategy is still delivery etc.
Then we just need folks to read it.
2024 themes and 2025 dreams
It was our last Digital Donut Time of the calendar year (that’s our all-hands show and tell for my 90 or so people – turnout is usually a third to a half of that and it’s recorded for catchup). I presented a rapid round-up of the year’s accomplishments, a big thank you, and a glimpse of what will be a very big 2025 for BFI’s digital transformation. Then sat back and enjoyed a good selection of demos from across the team.
We’ve done a duck-load in 2024. We finished moving the whole org onto M365. BFI Player has 4 TV apps it didn’t used to have and a higher price. We’ve been on a massive journey on cyber security. NFT3 is unrecognisably better. We’re well-progressed on properly game-changing, impeccable user centred service redesign work on archive and cinema access, and making moves on a single customer account. We had the best LFF digital experience ever, and switched a load of legacy things off. We learned and improved as a team. BOOM.
Then it was my turn to write the intro to the Bugle, BFI’s all-staff weekly email. I quoted Wonka, encouraged year-end self-care and rest, plugged next week’s in-person all-staff Donut Time and Winter Party, and plugged a few digital and tech goings-on.
Other work bits
There was an unacceptably rude anonymous comment about my directorate posted on an internal feedback tool, which was wildly ill-informed about our resourcing, impact and methods – but also galvanising on the need to address those misconceptions head-on.
I met with our auditors who are planning their new 3-year engagement so I mouthed off a bit about strategic risks and weaknesses it would be useful for them to look at.
There was an Exec Board meeting. Long but good.
Samir and I met Emma Keith from that big concrete theatre next door, and we compared notes on digital advisory boards.
I had a nice catch-up with ex-Croydon bestie Opama, which was part-work (she now runs IT at Hackney, who bear cyber attack scars) and part-pleasure (she’s lovely).
Work-adjacent reading
Martha Lane-Fox tells it how it is in digitisation, politicisation and the civil service.
Jeremy shares some excellent reflections on digital leadership on the anniversary of his current job at Homes England.
FOMO is not a strategy. Rachel Coldicutt on the wrong reasons to adopt AI.
Interesting little behind-the-scenes from Jukesie here on the new GOV.UK missions pages to support the government’s PR reboot
I also liked Matt’s honest post on self-doubts about oversharing – from the always good Christmas countdown of things people thought about a lot.
Atika’s second post is even better than the first.
What’s the difference between a delivery manager, a project manager and a scrum master? This isn’t a setup for a Christmas cracker joke.
Piloting a Parliamentary Digital Service work experience scheme
Transforming the DBT intranet (I love a good intranet, people don’t talk about them enough).
McKinsey report into the arts in the UK via Emma at NT
Please publish and share more.
A new BFI personal weeknoter joined the chat.
It’s not all work, work, work
Mum and dad came to visit, but it went pears with a midnight 999 call and night in hospital, and lots of pain and sickness for my mum (the cause of which eludes us). So she’s back in Devon earlier than planned on strong pain relief and in the hands of the local NHS. I’m extra glad now we got the bonus time together when storm Bert stranded me and Dylan in Devon the other weekend.
I forgot to say last week, Russell’s stamp fans newsletter is glorious. Got my first of his new hard-copy blog posts through the door and it was wonderful in form and content, and on their relationship.
Dylan is, as I type, out on his first driving lesson with Succeed With Susan.
I went to a briefing at Joel’s school about the process for picking his GCSE subjects in Q4. Exciting time for him – he’s most pleased to be dropping French.
I went as Paul’s +1 to a Paul Smith sample sale, and picked up a jumper and two jackets for a song. Was fun to hang out.
‘Tis the season to be slightly envious of Spotify users with their Wrapped but I’m sticking with YouTube Music cos it all works nicely with my Pixel gadgets.
Today’s featured image is of the 3 new baubles on my tree this year: Robocop, Homer backing into a bush meme and the Necrinomicon from Evil Dead.
Cultural consumption
📓Started Run by Blake Crouch.
🎬 Blur: To The End. Christ, they smoke so much. I think I’d most like to be friends with Alex James. And his big tummy.
🎬 Flow. Really beautiful, thoroughly enjoyed. Watership MEOWn?
🎬 ENO. Loved this, what a fascinating man. And fascinating innovative randomised generative film format. Interesting read on the bespoke tech here.
🎬 Red Rooms. On BFI Player. Dark as hell. Psychopathy, the dark web, AI, cyber, court proceedings, and a creepy unpredictable protagonist. I flipping loved it.
🎬 Where is Heaven. Interesting doc following the lives of several people living off the grid in Devon over a period of 10 years.
🎬 Deadpool and Wolverine. Thought it’d be a fun trashy watch but we abandoned it after 45 mins. Unbearable (borderline homophobic) wisecracks and excessive 4th wall-breaks.
📺 The 1970s Supermarket at Christmas. Enjoyable nostalgic trash for tired brains.
📺 The Making of Do They Know It’s Christmas. Similarly enjoyable nostalgia. Led to me googling why Adam Ant wasn’t there and learning this fact below (so bitter! And why on earth didn’t he do Stand and Deliver or Kings of the Wild Frontier?)
🎧 Bucky Skank by Lee “Scratch” Perry. Obsessed.
🎧 A Bit Like James Bond by The Bug Club.
🎧 Booboo by Yaeji.
Distractions
- Design aesthetic quiz (via Jem)
- 52 things Tom Whitwell learned in 2024
- When is the bumper Christmas Radio Times out? (It’s Tuesday!)
Do you know it’s Christmas time at all?
