Weeknotes July 2nd, 2021

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

Kevin’s notes:

I enjoyed a three day week, taking the Friday to hop over to Squamish to climb a few classics that have been lingering on my list. I took pause Thursday to reflect on the Canadian experience; the concept of the nation and the project which has brought us to the present. The cost of this conquest to Indigenous peoples. The intersections of pervasive socioeconomic inequity and the climate crisis. My complicity in its destructive effects and my commitment to reconciliation and a just future. Heady stuff for a supposed holiday but important reflections — this is the work, and it’s what really matters. Bullets from my abridged week:

• I met with Scott McNaughton, Director of Digital Investment at the OCIO. We chatted about our experiences running service design projects in gov; the risks of design theatre, the role of design in incremental delivery and continuous improvement, and the scale/appropriateness of financial gatekeeping (spend controls) as a way to ensure user-centricity remains at the forefront through the project lifespan. Surely the first discussion of many, great to meet you Scott!
• Elaine from the Climate Action Secretariat and I continued to chip away at approaches for delivery with a couple key pieces of public-facing content for this fall. A lot of talent required to do these deliverables the justice they deserve, looking forward to exec feedback, refinement, and getting to the doing.
• I met with leadership from our bcparks.ca partners at NTT to talk through team composition and design priorities now through September. I’m confident in our plan and ability to launch an incredibly quality product, just have to hone in on where to focus our capacity over these next few months and the process therin.
• Jill, myself, and the ever-excellent Jesus Hernandez Tapia continued working on the intake process for agile projects in the NRS. What methods to apply to problem definition, team alignment, and foundational research. The role of existing sectoral resources and new ways of collaborating. How to be more designerly in the end-to-end of the work. It’s really coming along and I’m grateful to Jesus for driving things with thoughtful, legible artefacts to rally around.
• Danna from the Innovation Hub and I discussed how we could tell the BC Parks service transformation story to the wider BCPS. We’re a few months out from being to show along with tell, but it’s never too early to work on narrative crafting. I know we’ll have many lessons learned to share with our public sector colleagues, and I’m looking forward to collaborating with the Hub on the packaging and distribution.
• I enjoyed an unstructured virtual coffee with Monica Perry, ED of Engagement Leadership (Indigenous relations) at ENV. We’d only met briefly in a group setting previous and it was lovely to spend some time getting to know each other better and what we do. Looking forward to joining her team’s community of practice as part of continuing my personal/professional reconciliation journey, and meeting other folk from across the sector who’re in that journey as well.
• Finally, I spent much of the week working with folks on that thing we can’t really talk about. I am incredibly grateful to the team spearheading this work, to say they are high performers would be an understatement, laying the foundation for a major transformation of a key service and the delivery of value to British Columbians.

I have another short week on the horizon and interspersed vacation through summer, so notes will be relatively sparse from me over the next couple months. I leave you with a scene from pitch 12 of Angel’s Crest on Thursday, following Blair’s strong lead on the final crux.

Climbing and public sector transformation, there’s a metaphor in there somewhere

Jill’s notes:

With a Thursday stat in the books, I blocked my full Friday to catch up and think about how we can action our newly minted digital strategy. I spent the day working through questions like:

• How can we make this real for staff, empower them to lead in a digital era?
• What next steps will bring us closer to our IIT colleagues and help us better define our services, roles, and accountabilities?
• What partnerships do we need to establish or solidify — heck, maybe even lean in on over the next 12–24 months?

A full day later and I feel confused, scared, and excited. I think that was progress. I promise to share the outputs as we develop them and take an approach to the Deputy mid-July and a fleshed-out plan executive in September. On the theme of thinking, despite evolving to the belief that the unit of delivery is the organization (see Kevin’s notes last week) — the team is still front of mind for me.

There is a shiny object — now what?

And so begins the latest challenge in the high-performing team and product saga. What happens when a high-performing team gets bored? Or doesn’t see the compelling vision for the products they’re working on? Or overall feels blah about the work they do?

We’ve all experienced that moment where you feel comfortable. Some people LOVE to work there, and they excel in that space. Others don’t. I’m one of those. If I’m not struggling with something hard, I’m bored, and I act out — the professional version of a hangry toddler who needs a nap.

boredom for a puppy = destruction + bad parenting

And then, along comes that crunchy, sexy problem, and I’m back in the game. High-performing teams can be similar. Some of their greatest attributes — willingness to experiment, quick to learn and re-learn, a need to try new things — can mean that they aren't happy when the work becomes predictable and stable. I think it is something we should call out rather than hide. They are all professionals and show up and work hard even if they are losing interest. But do we want them to show up? Or do we want them to be motivated to excel?

This scenario isn’t new, nor is it a surprise. Good team management is the same as good people management. We want staff to be inspired, committed and connected to what they do. We’ve been discussing this situation internally for a long time, but we’ve never had to face it head-on. Two things typically happened before we had a chance 1) the money dried up, and the team dissolved, or 2) the product rolled on with the team who then grabbed a few more products [e.g. Falcon and Mines Digital Services].

Neither is ideal.

So how do we sustain the work? Do we need maintenance teams? Does that disconnect us from the program areas again? Does that take us back to “punting it over the fence” to IT? I think the answer again is it depends. We can look at it a few ways:

• The teams’ style and niche don’t fit once the products have matured, so move the products to a new team — what’s old becomes new again with a shift in context.
• The products are no longer providing value — we have a nasty habit of holding onto our digital assets for far too long. Its time to evaluate if the product still meets its goals?
• Another product in the market can do it better and cheaper. There are countless examples where the market has matured. We custom-built an application a few years ago that is now readily available and substantially cheaper (Cloud Security Schedule approved, of course).
• Split the team to scale — yes, this one is tricky, but sometimes investing the time into breaking, re-forming, and deliberately expanding capacity can create a re-aligned portfolio and new partnerships, all while sharing valuable internal knowledge.

At a minimum, we should revisit the value of our products and the market maturity of the capabilities they deliver at regular intervals. I’ll let you know how it turns out for us.

Digital therapy

I had a lot of 1-on-1 conversations this week with my colleagues outside and inside of the government. A few notes:

• I met with Nathan Wilson, an innovation champion at SaskTel. We shared stories about our work and had plenty to follow up on. His team is doing some great stuff with municipalities and communities — check it out here.
• I discussed agile culture, building new teams, and positioning them for success with Yongmei Chen from the Social Sector.
• I met with some colleagues in Advanced Education and Skills Training on their progress and agile team. I had the privilege of working with their executive many months ago as they shifted from a traditional project approach to a digital team supported by the Exchange Lab. Not an easy task, but happy to see the progress they are making.
• Jennifer Meadows and I discussed organizational design, a few new ideas, and emerging challenges. It’s always great to get a fresh perspective, and Jennifer does an excellent job of lining me back up to corporate priorities [see shiny object section above].
• Finally, Catherine Chernoff and I had a much-needed debrief on both of our daily happenings. I came out of the conversation reminded how brilliant she is and how much I value her thoughtfulness and patience [again, see shiny object section above].

Mini-weekly rundown

• Talent for days: I had a great chat with several colleagues on sourcing digital talent led by JP Fournier. We re-affirmed the problems and took a run at identifying some opportunities and a barrier-free future state [fingers crossed]. Just over six years ago, I walked into my first job in government and immediately jumped in on the initial planning of the IM/IT Key WorkStream with our Public Service Agency. I’ve spent hundreds of hours in this space since then, and it hits me every day. I’m excited about where we are going, so come work for us!
• BC Parks Partnership: We met this week with our IIT leadership to discuss partnership on the BC Parks work. Primarily sharing our activities and lining up with their forward-looking intentions. Plenty of opportunities to explore as we solidify “what” we are doing. We’ve formally tabled an invite to our team of teams.

All in all, another packed short week. Ready for another.