We are moving the cheese

16 Jun 2015, by Calum Shepherd

I was delighted to speak about our learnings so far building something from nothing through empowerment, agile and responsive methods, whilst on our journey towards better public services.

With information spread across 160+ organisations, 480+ websites and over 6 million content items - the scale is staggering.

With 6 million content items, we actually have more content items than people

Think about putting yourself in the shoes of a user. What does this landscape looks like to traverse? It will likely start at Google and get muddy from there on.

Our work towards a central point of access is shaped upon user research and performance analysis, but it hasn’t all been smooth sailing.

So, what are our learnings so far?

• Understand the benefit of multigenerational organisations, explore tensions and build bridges
• Adapt and tailor principles that are a good fit for your team and environment
• Get together regularly - in person. It will increase visibility, reduce tensions, create connections and deliver better solutions
• Empowerment ≠ direction. Remove blockers, empower teams to make decisions and be clear on the direction of travel
• Mind the HiPPO (Highest Paid Person’s Opinion) - it might just be you
• It’s amazing how much free feedback you get online, from very clever people. Increase transparency and overcome your fear of criticism

I was keen to make the point that we truely are on the brink of something special in the public sector. We have the opportunity to transform our enviroments and the way deliver services.

In regards to the books I mentioned:

• Work Rules!: Insights from Inside Google That Will Transform How You Live and Lead
• Innovation Games: Creating Breakthrough products Through Collaborative Play
• Becoming the Boss: New Rules for the Next Generation of Leaders

The slides are available on Speakerdeck - ‘We are moving the cheese’.