The amazing Grace Hopper once said “it’s better to get forgiveness than permission”.
And I’ve seen plenty of leaders try to cultivate this philosophy among their teams - often feeling frustrated and wanting them to just crack on with what needs to be done instead of seeking permission and waiting for approval. And I feel it’s an admirable ambition in big bureaucracies with traditions of defensive permission-seeking (aka ass-covering).
Read MoreThere’s a default assumption in much of the public sector that risks should be prevented or eliminated wherever possible.
The management of this risk through compliance and rules and enforcement is hard wired into how these organisations work and usually imposes a heavy administrative burden - sometimes costing more than the risks themselves would, had they materialised.
And as much as a compliance mindset for risk management needed and prudent and responsible - it crowds out thinking about other types of risk.
Read MoreLeaders don’t do everything. If you take everything on, you're not going to be leading, you're going to be swept along with current (or back-to-back Teams calls).
Here’s what you need to learn to do to get out of that trap.
Read MoreIt’s not uncommon for companies to have a relatively solid gender split at whole-company level but a steady decline in the % of women in leadership positions as you work your way up the ladder to board level, where the ratio can be downright embarrassing.
Women aren’t getting the opportunities they need to build their profile.
Read More80 years after the Simple Sabotage Field Manual was published by the predecessor to the CIA, these self-sabotaging behaviours are still alive and well in the modern workplace.
But calling out these behaviours - naming them as a form of sabotage undermining the organisation’s ability to deliver - is the first step in addressing them.
There are design research methods you should use to make sure your content and services are useful, usable and used, by the users you’re targeting, to achieve the outcomes you’re seeking.
Why wouldn’t you want to do that?
Read MoreThe analogy for your services should be building a house, but establishing and maturing a garden. Or even a public park!
Read MoreI’ve spent quite a lot of time reflecting on burnout, workplace trauma, and how we think about “how things are going” at work.
Read MoreWhatever you feel passionate enough to write about is worthwhile.
Your voice, your unique perspective, makes it so.
Read MoreDeclarations of the death of design are really just another variant of the complaint that designers don’t have a seat at the table.
Read MoreResponsible leaders need to make conscious decisions about their strategic intent for their service portfolio.
Read MoreYour workplace might not be comfortable with it yet — but if you want to work in the open more, don’t let your first “no” (or fear of getting one) stop you trying.
Read MoreThe benefits of learning to express yourself well in writing are worth the cringe you’ll feel when you start sharing your work.
Read MoreI’m two weeks into my new role with Public Digital and I wanted to share some reflections on how much of a difference a good onboarding process makes.
Read MoreI’m often approached by leaders mulling over what a service-oriented approach would look like, for their responsibilities and their organisation. This is what I typically share.
Read MoreLet’s unpick this oft-cited statistic, so that we can really understand what it is telling us.
Read MoreThis statistic, and various versions of it, is peppered all over design literature. But if it is true, what is it actually saying?
Read MoreDon’t succumb to spurious accuracy just because it feels robust. It is better to be approximately right than precisely wrong.
Read MoreObservations from the pre-reading for the Memorisely Design Systems course
There are some interesting similarities and differences across the literature in our course pre-reading that I thought I’d draw out.
Read More[From Feb 2022] I’m gently and quietly looking for my next role among the wealth of opportunities generated by “The Great Resignation”. But so many of the organisations I’ve looked at clearly have a long way to go on gender and race equality, judging by the make-up of their top teams.
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