Weeknotes S4 Eps 4 Outputs vs Impact & Virtual Development Days
Hey peeps, hope all is well (my children hate me sating peeps as they think that I am the least cool thing in the entire history of…
Hey peeps, hope all is well (my children hate me sating peeps as they think that I am the least cool thing in the entire history of embarrassment, I disagree and think I am a super cool parent :-).
Mixed bag from the last couple of weeks but sticking to two key reflections to give them adequate airtime;
One
Output does not mean impact…
This has been something occupying my mind recently not just from work and life observations but from a bit of self reflection as well.
At work we are super busy at the moment. We have got a couple of mahoosive projects that have tight milestones over summer and autumn and everyone is working long hours and really hard to get to deadlines. On top of this we are being challenged financially on the back of a difficult year last year and some of the early effects of COVID economics starting to manifest.
This has required me to really dive into the granular detail of both direct costs of the stuff we do i.e. commissioning studies, paying for contractors etc. and also the less direct cost of team time spent on activities that contribute to the projects.
Key reflection on this oi that often when we are busy we forgot to keep re-evaluating what is needed to get to the next point and just get heads down and think output, output output… this often results in long hours and less impactful work when we are doing it. One of the key pivots that IMHO is critical when busy is to step up and reflex. This can be just to say;
‘Am I going beyond what is needed for this, or am I focussing too hard on the end point rather than what is required for the next milestone?’
No doubt it is always useful to have one eye on the forward plan but predetermining that end game can often be problematic — especially in uncertain times or volatile projects. This also eats up time and resource that often may have to be duplicated or re visited at a later date anyway.
Productivity is all about balance for me and that means a holistic approach. Working on linear outputs in continuum does not increase productivity especially by hours spent on a task. I appreciate that everyone works differently, but for me I need to diversify my thoughts regularly and stepping away really helps me get impact from what I’m progressing and maximises my time. Even getting down to water the allotment or a 1/2 hr yoga session often really helps me to come back with fresh eyes and renewed focus on completing the actual ask without detracting by my own brains scope creep…
Two
Virtual Away Days…
Up until recently this would have been a definite area of scepticism for me as I’m more of a face to face man when it comes to the social aspect of work (aren't we all?).
But we are where we are with the current limitations and we have to do the best with the options we have right?
So last week had our full service development day (or half day) and it was a virtual affair!!!
I can safely say it was one of the best virtual events I have been to and all down to the amazing work of my colleagues across the service so much so am going to mention them all especially Jane and Heather who led.
Organisers: Jemma, Fay, Alice, Maxine, Jenny, Claire
Our presenters: Marie, Charlotte, Will, Matt, Vicky, Tom, Terry, Kim, Claire and Stephen.
Question masters: Michael & Sarah
Tech on the day: Will.
We are a big service (well over 100 people) and i think we had near on all there on line yesterday. Because we have a diverse range of service areas from policy makers, economic development professionals, building control, business operations, development management, planning and enforcement and built, natural and historic environment specialists, we had some whistle stop presentations from representatives from each area giving us a look and feel of some of the fantastic work they all get up to.
Local government is a broad church and I often think from the outside in it is really difficult (if not impossible) to decipher how it operates and what many parts do. In a recent blog I talked about language and simplifying how we talk in planning to make it accessible to our citizens. I very much think that this is also the case for #LocalGov as a whole and not just language but including our communities in what we do by talking about it in terms that are accessible, often and in short digestible chunks. This is why some of the design approaches to working in the open which are now being utilised in many councils are so important to be extended into other service areas because it gives reference points for understanding the amazing and often super challenging work that goes on behind closed doors.
Its also a powerful tool for when things don’t go well and provided there are mechanisms in place to be reflexive and iterate approaches it can be a great way to use recorded trails of the approach to a particular project/challenge/issue that can be used to pivot and improve on time and again. This should be the foundation principle of how services are modelled going forwards and allowing this agility through clear open working and talking about it (even the boring stuff) will be a crucial part of engaging our future communities and has many indirect opportunities including future workforce/recruitment diversification and much more (need to think about a blog on that…)
Other Interesting stuff…
In the middle of this audiobook… strongly recommend a listen its fascinating!
Happy Thursday….. :-)