A weeknote, starting Monday 1 January 2024

My illustration of the diving gondola at Sellin, Germany which I found via the Accidentally Wes Anderson website (original photo by Jette Vom Zaun)

I ended my last set of weeknotes talking about having a bigger team by the time I picked up weeknoting again.

That is definitely the case and I’m delighted to have welcomed some great people into the team who bring skill and diverse experience to our organisation. It was a genuine pleasure meeting so many new people during the recruitment effort for these roles. We’ve more than doubled the size of the team, so working at an increased scale will be a challenge for 2024, a good problem to have though (I think…). I’m looking forward to helping them all have an impact this year.

I was too empty at the end of the year to write a concise summary, and definitely needed a break. I’ve a feeling 2024 might also have a ferocious pace so I’m going to try to find ways to manage my attention better and get help where I need it.

Some of the topics on my list to explore further this year include AI (of course), storytelling, accessibility, systems thinking and design leadership. All things where I need to continue developing my own skills so I can support others from the position I hold.

I managed to read my secret Santa gift over the last couple of weeks, and it was a fascinating one – Mission Economy by Mariana Mazzucato. A really interesting take on capitalism and the role government could play in setting grand challenges to deliver public value. Highly recommend it.

(An image of the cover of the book “Mission Economy” by Mariana Mazzucato)

I also did some listening and this podcast from Trevor Noah introduced me to Tristan Harris and an interesting take on AI as well as The Social Dilemma (available on Netflix) which I’m intending to watch with my family to help us all better understand what’s actually going on when we consume and interact with social media.

I then followed the trail to his own podcast Your Undivided Attention and organisation website Center for Human Technology and this interesting looking course Foundations of Humane Technology

Further into the rabbit hole and the 2 November podcast episode with Tom Wheeler talking about AI regulation connected neatly back to some of the ideas in the book above.

A couple of other things which have caught my eye in the last week or so:

• I like How To Organise Your Journeys from Marzia Aricò about how to effectively create a service and journey hierarchy to help deliver meaningful change. Some steps are easier than others in my experience but ultimately creating a visible hierarchy, and connecting it effectively to the change process will be powerful for alignment around outcomes and prioritisation.
• When the team isn’t following the standards by Vicky Teinaki Some familiar themes in here, and some useful guidance offered on how to help teams find the right path.

And finally, since a gauge was installed on the brook near our house and all of the wet weather in recent months I’ve become a keen user of the Check for flooding service on GOV.UK.

Almost as keen as my youngest son and his love for the Check the MOT history of a vehicle service (one my team works on, and one of the most used services on GOV.UK) – as demonstrated here… (and for full, slightly meta-disclosure, this weeknote was partially written in the garage waiting room as I wait for my MOT to be completed…)

Full weeknote archive — All the notes in one list.

Exploring Service Design — Collections of books to inspire thinking and action in how services are designed and run (affiliate link)