Back on the weeknotes horse!
Assuming that the embodiment of weeknotes would be equine? It’s not very imaginative though. What about an otter? An ocelot? Armadillo? Nah.. *too* armoured.
Leave a comment on what you think your weeknote animal is, then like and subscribe!
My kids may be watching too much YouTube in my proximity.
Umm.. massive digression.
Blah blah blah
Following the season 3 review, in which I failed to write weeknotes for a few weeks on the trot, I decided to embrace the messyness of weeknotes. So I’m going to try to not edit or fiddle around with these too much and just let the words flow as much as I can without thinking too hard. This will also help me complete them more swiftly rather than procrastinate on the content!
The art of zooming in and out
At the moment I’m ping ponging between the (probably, very tired) metephorical 10,000 feet view of the city to understand the whole and then zip down to street level to examine the bus time table on a certain street.
Flipping between those two states is challenging when both the city and the streets are unfamiliar, and occasionally obscured by fog (am I stretching this metaphore to breaking point yet?). There are fragments of maps that guide the way, and the challenge is stitching them together or tweaking them because the road layout has changed since the cartographer made them.
The key thing is, we’re building a new map as we go! And each time we’re deciding to re-route a road, or level an intersection, we’re looking at what works best for the city as a whole. Sharing the map with others who also have to navigate their way around is perhaps a really good idea too!
Yep.. I think that did it. I’ve pushed the metaphore to the limit…. The city limits! Okay.. I’ll stop now.
Out and about
I was fortunate enough to visit two other housing associations this week to hear about what people are up to. I’m always comforted that the challenges are similar, and then mildly frustrated.. because the challenges are similar.
I’m occasionally asked why I’m so enthused about things like open reusable standards, and it’s this! If we can figure out how to do more of the right thing in one place and share it, we’ve got half a chance of fixing it everywhere else as well.
“Ah! But how we do things is our unique secret sauce!”. Yes, perhaps.. in your people, your teams, your culture, your relationships, your community. But quite possibly most of the stuff that underpins those things needs to be boringly awesome and reliable so that you’ve got the opportunity to innovate where it actually adds value.
Wardley Mapping really helps here. I invite you to read the below Twitter thread if you’re interested to know more. It uses the example of a tea shop, which is what helped the concept finally click in my head.
NHS Hackday!
Quick plug for NHS Hackday in Cardiff on January 25th/26th. I’ve always wanted to bring more of a Housing Association contingent to try and work on some shared health & housing related challenges. We often talk about being less inward looking. Who’s up for it?
Stop editing dammit!
And I’ve just caught myself pouring back over this post and refining & tweaking. So I’m going to leave it there! *grabs hat and coat and runs out the door*
I’ve been reading…
- How we’re putting users at the heart of our services.
https://wearecitizensadvice.org.uk/how-were-putting-users-at-the-heart-of-our-services-9994ba706793 - What we mean when we say ‘design’.
https://medium.com/@BromfordLab/what-we-mean-when-we-say-design-9b6caa71c1b5 - EventStorming Modelling Tips to Facilitate Microservice Design.
https://medium.com/skills-matter/eventstorming-modelling-tips-to-facilitate-microservice-design-38e99b8c96ff - How data has calcified an outdated leadership model.
https://medium.com/@rhappe/how-data-has-calcified-an-outdated-leadership-model-e98619b34c9a - Cracking the code of sustained collaboration.
https://hbr.org/2019/11/cracking-the-code-of-sustained-collaboration - Reflections on MapCamp 2019.
https://medium.com/inspect-and-adapt/reflections-on-mapcamp-2019-5b0c9c94fb6b - Say NO to ‘tackling loneliness’.
https://www.edenprojectcommunities.com/blog/say-no-to-tackling-loneliness - Testing proactive messaging and an emergency support phoneline.
https://medium.com/digital-and-innovation-at-british-red-cross/testing-proactive-messaging-through-radio-and-facebook-4abaa7b3327b - Service Design: A Reading List.
https://medium.com/open-change/service-design-a-reading-list-5d65a6fb31fd