February 11th, 2022

In the spirit of transparency and candour, Kevin and Jill publish weeknotes reflecting on the what and why for their team.

Jill's notes

There is plenty of change afoot with the confirmation in the Throne Speech that a new ministry is coming to the NR. Horgan's government committed to:

Improving management of B.C.’s land and resources by creating a new ministry to better support goals of reconciliation, economic development and environmental protection.

The announcement has undoubtedly stirred emotions across the sector. We are going to see some re-organization. As someone who has not been through an organizational shift of this magnitude in the BCPS and tends to live in a somewhat disruptive normal state, I feel neutral and possibly excited?

I thrive on the left side of problem land re: the Cynefin framework, and yes, that means I end up confused at times.

With that said, I have deep empathy for my colleagues who will see shifts in their day-to-day (maybe that's me too?). As our exec said, this is a people change that always takes time, thoughtfulness, and leadership. I do feel confident that the change will be positive. As always, this is yet another opportunity to embed new ways of thinking and start, in some cases, with a clean slate. I'm looking forward to the details and impacts in the coming weeks.

The weekly highlights

Six Friday's to fiscal year-end, and it feels like it:

• I connected with a few colleagues in BC Parks and Knowledge Management re: Asset management. Attempting to find synergies where we can work together as a ministry rather than remain independent.
• I met with a DM and new to me ADM regarding my mentorship and career path in the BCPS. It's something I firmly believe in prioritizing, and it always benefits the role I'm in (even when it's new!).
• It was a pleasure to watch Kevin and Meg lead our DM and ADM briefing for CleanBC. We did a hybrid brief and user interview. As one of our ADM colleagues put it loosely paraphrased — we often [as ADM's] get presented with decisions, we don't frequently get asked for our opinion, so this is a welcome approach. Big kudos to Kevin and Meg!
• I participated in a sub-committee meeting for a large capital project run by the Knowledge Management Branch — SEISM. We discussed the overarching vision and objectives for BioHub. The intent is to establish a persistent team to steward all BC Government species and ecosystems data and information sources. The team would build off the work of the capital project and begin to operationalize the ongoing continuous improvement and integration of these information management systems. There are a lot of pieces to this and lots to still be worked out, but I'm interested in how Service Transformation can support the framing, the work, and the prioritization. Stay tuned.
• The not sexy detail, I think I spend 20 hours in HR and procurement. As foreshadowed last week, I'm happy with the thought I put into the people and fit part — but wow, there were a lot of processes.
• We finished the week with a great re-cap by rumon to our ENV ADM/DM table on the journey we've been on with BC Parks and their service transformation — or to take from Rumon — their incremental change. I assure him and our exec that despite our branch title, I'm fully aligned, even doubling down in chat that embedding transformation into the fabric of our organization is the best outcome — I will happily work myself out of a job for that outcome.

My message to our ADM/DM table this week. Thankfully, I was told I wasn't off the hook that easily.

Closing thought, as much as I like the change of pace year-end brings, that sense of urgency I've been craving all year. The planner/project manager in me has difficulty not slipping into "I told you so" mode. It was an essential reflection for me this week. It's not helpful, not productive, and hindsight is 20/20. So I need to put my bias and emotional response away. We don't all work the same. We don't all have the same experiences or leadership. And that is a good thing. I need to take some deep breaths, stay positive, stay supportive, and most importantly, re-package what we are learning now so that our partners can 'hear' it next year, when we have more space and with their own first-hand experiences to relate to.

Kevin's notes

It's hard to believe the Service Transformation Branch has existed for barely a year (the director position even less) with how deeply it feels we're embedded in our Ministry. I enjoy working here for a variety of reasons — positive culture, complex and compelling challenges, high impact/visibility files, amazing colleagues. I feel we've made such great progress on priority initiatives, with much more ahead. This past week:

CleanBC

• Interviews and user testing wrapped, 18 sessions in about a week, huge hustle by the team!
• Analysis began in collaborative sessions; unfortunately, I wasn't able to join for most of it but kudos to Amanda and April for bringing rigour to the process.
• Christine from the Behavioural Insights Group joined us for analysis pt.2, and we're so fortunate to have her experience and expertise providing inputs.
• Meg and I had the opportunity to have a conversation with Jeremy Hewitt (ADM, Climate Action Secretariat) and Kevin Jardine (DM, ENV) regarding their experiences with CleanBC's current state challenges and what success might look like ongoing as we deliver in increments. Big thanks to David Hume (ADM, GDX) for the guidance in helping us craft our brief and questions.

Environmental Protection Division

• I sat in on two very interesting generative interviews w/ Jackie with Compliance and Indigenous Relations staff. Both parts of the Ministry/Sector I'm always looking to get to know better. Insightful and looking forward to the part two for both.

Other

• Parks design processes/convos are ongoing.
• Throne speech! A sneak preview of government priorities for this legislative session.
• Compliance and Enforcement foundational design research: we scored and awarded for this scope, excited (and somewhat trepidatious) to dive into this shortly with a very talented and experienced vendor partner.

This week in tabs

• The Five Levels of Hype. Hype is an interesting thing. It's rightfully often spurred as misleading bullshit or ignorant boosterism, but it also has its uses. In short: when it comes to creating a new technology, you need to sell a vision to attract the resources you need (people, investment, etc.). Hype can also act as glue. At its best, it can create a shared vision pulling the actors in the same direction and thus creating a self-fulfilling prophecy.
• Strategic design for Society: the Oslo Futures Catalogue as a garden of ideas. Picking through Dan Hill's curriculum/pedagogy for the Strategic Design for Society course running at the Oslo School of Architecture and Design.
• Beyond Human-Centered Design by Space10, and arms-length research and design lab via IKEA.
• 5 Things I Learned Leading UX in the Canadian Public Service by Antoine Bedward, Ph.D. Always curious to learn where other public sector jurisdictions are at in their design journey.