The Broad Bean
The previous weeknote was all about the need for a community of teams to change the experience of the NHS App collectively. The base comes first. Last week we considered the foundational base, our team.
Everyone has joined the team at different times. Some people were around in the beginning, others joined shortly after. Many of us joined within the last two to four weeks. That’s a problem because we don’t necessarily have shared understanding, and that’s an element of dark matter that makes the work work.
Starting work on anything without shared understanding is problematic because it reduces the agency of people on the team. When they can’t find their own way forward, you need more meetings and there’s the potential to fall into task management. If you want a high-performing team where people have autonomy, this means spending lots of time working together upfront.
I’ve said it before but I’ll say it again: discovery and alpha is best when there’s good synchronicity of thought on a team. Like when you’re on an acid trip and everyone’s having similar thoughts. Not full unity, just great alignment.
So we spent the week getting our story straight. What problems have we found? Why are those problems? What do we think might help solve those problems? Are those ideas robust, or is there contradictory information anywhere? Why now? Who does this work?
As one of those late joiners – and as someone who often has to do the storytelling with others – I found it really beneficial. Getting the full story straight in my head helps me re-tell it.
This isn’t about incremental improvement though. In my mind, there are some big changes that need to happen, and exploring (validating) those is likely to need a leap of faith. People have told me how this organisation requires impossible standards of proof upfront, but so much of the evidence for change will be borne of having a go in a small, limited way.
The work is stretching me, I’m calling on and will have to develop new skills. It’s going to require a bit of courage, too, so I’m grateful to be surrounded by great folk and to have an excellent mission to work on.
This quote from a Richard Sennett book felt relevant.
“Cooperation oils the machinery of getting things done, and sharing with others can make up for what we may individually lack.”
Other things
- Completed my second full week of running after the marathon injury. Feeling good!
- Dicked about with the sampler some more. Sketched ideas for an ambient track, a hellish footwork tune, and some fun jungle. Really enjoying the constraints of the machine, but chopping samples without looking at waveforms is tricky. (Getting used to it though.)
- The garden has produced its first bounty of the year, in the form of chunky green broad beans. Blanched them and tossed with grilled tomatoes, garlic and sage to accompany a pork chop. Early summer on a plate.
- Saw Mac DeMarco at Brixton Academy which was tons of fun. Then saw Backrooms at the cinema, which reminded me of making Counter-Strike maps as a teenager.
- I got Haiti in the World Cup sweepstake at work. Well done to Scotland on their win.
Bookmarks
- Unified inboxes, streams and augmentation, 3 mins. Unified inboxes collect all messages in one place, but they are just a first step toward better services. The goal is to break messages into basic parts and use streams of information to improve how we interact with appointments, payments, and decisions. Once unified, these streams can be enhanced with useful features like quick actions, checklists, and links to next steps.