February 4th, 2022

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

Kevin’s notes

Writing this on Saturday, it’s one of those weeks where I look blankly at my calendar and struggle to piece together a narrative. This may be partially due to 36 hours of intense fatigue midweek via my booster shot, or the exponential drift from meaning that time creates — Monday feels like a lifetime ago. Nonetheless:

BC Parks

• Following the launch of beta.bcparks.ca there’s been lazer focus on how the public-facing deliveries roll and what backend work might be required to enable continuous public value delivery. There’s also the strategic integrations with camping services, the pivot from winter to summer day use passes, and all the testing, iteration, and content work required to make these cohesive and usable services for widespread public consumption. That is to say: many balls in the air, with the design team and Osprey juggling while riding unicycles. There were numerous meetings but all were actions-focused and quite productive. These teams have shared vision and velocity, and it’s a beautiful thing.
• I sat in on a meeting with Cody from regional ops about training records management. Sometimes it’s the most humdrum business problems that can be the stickiest (and most acreted). Surely this is a repeated pattern in the BCPS and I hope we can expedite appropriate solutions soon.

EPD

• Looping in on design activities in flight. User research update and strategic direction. And it was very useful to sit in on process clarifications with compliance folk, given my repeated foreshadowing of our time in that space next fiscal.

CleanBC

• I took notes as interviews and user testing are charging along. Awesome to see this in flight, the work is moving faster than these things usually do! A testament to awesome management by Meg and a really solid research team. Looking forward to analysis working sessions next week.
• Tidied up a deck for our briefing with the Deputy next week. It’s a rare opportunity to have space to ask senior exec questions to ensure the initiative is aligned with their expectations, and I’m grateful for it.

Other

• Divisional briefing. As Jill notes below, I really appreciate this time with James; his candour, transparency, and conversational approach. It’s also cool to learn more about the incredibly smart people we work alongside and the amazing things they do.
• DigitalBC w/ John Jordan, facilitated by Jill. I won’t lie, digital identity, blockchain, distributed ledgers, it’s all very foreign to me. And I’m extremely skeptical of esoteric technologies that remain of questionable utility all these years later. So I appreciated John’s clear breakdown of his team’s work in the space and how it creates value for British Columbians.
• NRM investment board updates. Great to see all the intersecting work in flight across our sector; I was standing in for Jill and ended up speaking much more than I expected… but we were talking sustainable digital-era teams and competencies, how could I not!
• Catchups: along over virtual coffee with Sim (former GDX colleague, now product owner at CITZ) and an IRL cup with Cyrus from MCFD. You’ve probably gleaned this from our notes by now, but nurturing the network is incredibly important to Jill and I both.

Jill’s notes

This week was fast and productive. Here is a day-by-day playback + some reflections to switch it up.

Monday

I mixed the day with standups, mentors and 1 on 1’s, catching up on reading a few documents in between. It was pretty nice to ease into the week and spend time preparing for a busy Tuesday.

Tuesday

This was a big day of back to backs starting with Kyle at EPD, an STB team check-in, and finding synergies across our work with Adam Dewey, Director of Application Infrastructure in our IIT. I connected with a few more senior execs in 1 on 1’s to chat about career paths and experiences.

After lunch, I facilitated our #DigitalBC Livestream, Why digital trust and identity should matter to you with John Jordan — check out the new Digital Trust site. I moved on to the EPD Expanded Executive, supporting the team to present our initial research findings and business case lessons learned. Finished the day with an ADM check-in and a bit more re: EPD strategic context and planning.

Wednesday

I started with Robin Howe from IIT, a few standups and chatted HR with Karen at EPD. James Mack led our divisional standup, and I have to say I appreciate his kind updates— he gave a shout-out to our branch re: our work with Parks and highlights from other branches— he always leaves time and space for questions. I attended the BioHub BC sprint review and discussed a new challenge re: learning management and the complex training requirements of field staff. No joke, I had a colleague in another ministry ask me the same question today re: learning management. Finished with screening and competition prep.

Thursday

IIT is winning for morning meetings. I connected with Darren and the PPM team first thing. Throw in some finance, some Rumon Carter, and a reasonable amount of time playing with our Digital Investment Board deck for EPD, and you have the rest. That’s right, ppt is my guilty pleasure. Where others procrastinate with Netflix, I have a ppt problem. It’s an addiction, and I’m not sorry.

Friday

I finished the week strong by starting with our divisional executive. We had an engaging conversation on working with and through organizational change. I caught up on lost email threads, including a few re-emerging year-end opportunities, and ended the day with a fascinating deep dive into HR with some of my favourite humans. We stitched together some tactical next steps covering immediate processes and longer-term strategic shifts we need to engage our executives.

So what did I take away?

Investing in myself is so very rewarding, even when slightly derailing your schedule. And, our hiring processes are tiring. They are rooted in the best intentions and the best people in support. Two things make me tired re: hiring and they are vastly different:

1. The process to get to a posting — I’m all for streamlining the bureaucratic procedures, AND I do not have a central view of the org, so I rely on corporate support to help. In my opinion, we spend too much time here stepping on each other's toes, putting up artificial barriers and not keeping the end goal in mind — talented, mission-driven humans with the knowledge, skills and competencies to do the job. This is a truly wicked problem, and I’m cringing just thinking about it.
2. The human part — If I’m making a million-dollar hiring decision — think salary + pension + benefits + average term of an employee in the BCPS and I'm being conservative here — shouldn’t I spend the appropriate time preparing job descriptions postings, questions and evaluations? Engaging in the process entirely? YESSSS! Of course, yes. We are responsible stewards of taxpayer money. This is where I want to spend my time and where all hiring managers want to be. The sad part is we are often stuck in 1, the process, and left scraping time for the important stuff.

My reflection this week, spend more time in 2. Lean in and engage.

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Oh, and in every gap, I am re-reading Marianne Bellotti’s Kill it with Fire — just over three weeks until she joins us on the #DigitalBC Livestream, and I can’t wait!