This week was chaotic, but also productive.
Some of the planning and long‑term thinking I’ve been part of is starting to come together.
This is great, it should make me happy.
The weird thing is that people seem to be surprised about how well everything aligns. This is a sign that I need to be communicating what we’re doing better.
I started writing a summary at the end of last week. Something to point to so we could agree and disagree about things. Taking the time to write it was helpful to me at least. It highlighted some areas we’re weak on and led to some useful discussion like, are we ‘calculating someone’s risk of illness’ or ‘prioritising next steps to avoid getting ill’?
I’d like to be able to speed up work like this, but I need time to think and hone. Clarity is important.
Drawing, thinking and talking
After the pandemic I fell out of the habit of drawing diagrams while talking to people. Since starting at NHSE I’ve spent more time in the office. Being able to sit next to someone and diagram while I’m talking is so helpful.
Years ago I started drawing as I was explaining something to someone and they said ‘I don’t need a drawing to understand.’ I had to reply ‘But I need to draw it to explain’.
Visualising at speed as I talk helps me to reduce miscommunication and build on thoughts as I go. Some of my favourite conversations are ones where everyone is adding to the diagrams as we talk. Physical whiteboards are good too.
Working remotely I got pretty quick at using Lucid, but it’s a different thing.
Principles about principles
There was a Digital Prevention Services extended senior leadership team (ESLT) get together this week.
There was continuing discussion of the changes happening as we become part of the Department for Health and Social care.
As a ‘portfolio’, the way we communicate is being crafted. It’s rare to see public sector organisations invest in communicating with simplicity and precision. Government Digital Services (GDS) were great at this. I’m grateful to be working somewhere that takes this stuff seriously.
We also discussed the NHS principles and whether we need our own for Digital Prevention Services. I’m not against principles in general. The GDS and NHS design principles are useful. But adding more frameworks and principles for each layer feels like a distraction, both for the people creating them and the people they’re supposed to benefit. A lot of this stuff gets figured out as you deliver, if there’s stuff we can learn from what’s gone before all the better.
I had forgotten that the NHS has the principle ‘design to protect the environment’. It’s obviously the right thing to do. But I don’t think I’ve ever seen anyone take a tangible action to do this my entire time in the public sector. With all the new AI work everyone is excited for, I wonder how we might address that principle.
Supporting the next generation of user experience design
In memory of Vicky Teinaki, the Northern User Experience community have created a GoFundMe to raise money towards travel and accommodation costs for one person – ideally someone who wouldn’t otherwise be able to attend, such as a student or someone currently out of work.