"Building Innovative Teams" - SOCITM - Building Perfect Council Websites 2013
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A short presentation by Shropshire Council's ProjectWIP team, that gives a brief overview of what Council leaders must do in order to meet the innovative demands that their Digital Agenda's require. There are no new ideas here, just a simple regurgitation serving as a reminder of some of the many steps that must be taken. Built for SOCITM's Building Perfect Council Websites Event - July 2013. http://shropshire.gov.uk/projectwip/
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"Building Innovative Teams" - SOCITM - Building Perfect Council Websites 2013
- 1. Shropshire Council Building innovative teams @shropcouncil | @projectwip Chris Jones Digital Services & Innovations Manager @MyFavouriteCake
- 2. Are digital services crucial? @shropcouncil | @projectwip
- 3. cru·cial [kroo-shuhl] adjective @shropcouncil | @projectwip a. Extremely significant or important: a crucial problem. b. Vital to the resolution of a crisis
- 4. @shropcouncil | @projectwip One team to rule them all
- 5. @shropcouncil | @projectwip content editors Spending (Wasting?) of their time 5%
- 7. Listen to your staff… @shropcouncil | @projectwip
- 8. Let them have their own piece of the pie @shropcouncil | @projectwip
- 9. Take risks! @shropcouncil | @projectwip “prohibit failure and you’ll innovation” KILL - Dan Pallotta, AIDS RIDE founder
- 10. @shropcouncil | @projectwip “if you aren't trying new things and failing, you aren't learning” - Pedram Keyani, Facebook engineer Take risks!
- 11. @shropcouncil | @projectwip Take risks! BUILD MEASURELEARN
- 12. @shropcouncil | @projectwip SELL YOURSELVES! http://shropshire.gov.uk/projectwip
- 13. @shropcouncil | @projectwip Invest in people… …not products
- 14. @shropcouncil | @projectwip Invest in people… …not products • do I need it? • can I afford it? • will I use it? • is it worth it?
- 15. @shropcouncil | @projectwip • use your ears • give them pie! • <3risk • sell, sell, sell • people > products Shropshire Council
Editor's Notes
- Hello, I'm Chris Jones, Digital Services and Innovations Manager for Shropshire Council and a founding member of the ProjectWIP team.I'm here to briefly talk about how you as decision makers can help your staff become better innovators and thus build better digital services.So to start, let me see a quick show of hands.
- "Who here believes digital services are crucial to the future operation of your organisation?"Fantastic, at least we've established that most of us are at the right event. And for those of you who didn't raise your hands… you're probably a bit confused and are wondering where the old motorcycles are.But anyway please stay and listen.Back to that question - just think about what we all just agreed.
- Crucial. Something that is extremely significant, important - vital to a resolution of a crisis.We just agreed that digital services are importantBut think about how seriously you are taking digital services. The greatest assets in your organisation are your people, and without them you can't do the things you know you HAVE to do. So what's the most important thing when trying to deliver your "digital agenda"? A motivated, happy and dedicated team. You have to take this seriously. That team needs enough resource so that they can fight the fires, whilst having the time to design the future.If you haven't already built this team, then do it now. Build a digital team from your brightest stars across your company and then let that team be the foundations for the innovative working you need.
- Here is Shropshire's beginnings of a single digital team, who are growing to encompass all of Shropshire's digital services. The people you see here are the Digital Services and Innovation team, and also the faces behind ProjectWIP.Oh. Please ignore the "WOW" btw. I once accidentally said 'i wanted wow factor' in a meeting and now my team won't let me forget it.We moved away from the old 'devolved responsibility' model and we combined people from IT Administration, Web Dev, Comms and Customers Services departments into this fantastic unit.We got this team working on the same corporate vision, and allowed them to keep the customer journey as consistent as possible across our digital presence. We're also now just starting to give this team the power to enforce their strategies and are letting them be the masters of their profession.The next step for us at Shropshire is to consolidate all our digital content editors, into a small centralised team - and move away from the typical Council model of devolved editing.
- We have 169 content editors spread thinly over the council.We roughly calculated that on average they spent 5% of their time, writing or approving web content. That works out to be just under 2 hours a week.What's most surprising though is how much this devolved content editing is costing us.
- 308,101.72 in staff time, every year.The people who do this job are great, at their normal day jobs - but the vast majority aren't effective as content editors. In simple terms - we're wasting that much money a year on a product we don't really want.So our plan is to create a team of 6 to handle all digital content.We'll train these people so that they are empowered to provide innovate ideas and solutions in the way content should be displayed and written.But lets get back on track, and talk about how to help YOUR staff innovate, and build these better digital services.Firstly…
- You're paying these people because they are experts, so why aren't you listening to what they say? Helping your staff innovate is as much about changing how you as managers work as it is about changing your staff's environment.Listen to them, and they will tell you: - What you really should be doing - What you're wasting your time on - And what you should simply just stop doing
- There are many academic papers that go into great detail about the psychology of ownership within organisations. These papers show the merit and positive affect that ownership has when given to teams and individuals.So let go, and take a step back - and put them in charge of important things. Make them love THEIR part of the productGuide them so they want to constantly improve their product, and watch them blossom into the people and the teams that you need.And start encouraging your staff to learn more about entrepreneurship, and grow those people so that they become your organisations 'intrepreneurs'. So let's say you've now built this team, and they're happily owning products. Your next step and the most important - is giving them the freedom and the support to take risks.
- Build an environment where calculated risk taking is encouraged, and where failure isn't punished. If you punish failure, you WILL stifle creativity - and put uncertainty into your teams decisions.
- Reduce your risks by making decisions based on data. The more data you collect, the more you lesson your risk.But build a realistic deadline into your data collecting phase, else it will go on forever.The risks you take - don't have to be - and really shouldn't be blind steps into the unknown, be sensible. (And put backups in place if things don't go as planned)
- Embrace agile methodologies - push for iterative releases and get into the mantra of "releasing early, and releasing often".This philosophy will help you minimise the impact of risk because you'll only be doing small incremental releases towards something better.And remember aim for better, not perfect. This will help you keep your own scope creep under control.
- Do your internal customers really know you and what you can do?If your organisation is anything like ours, then you've been through a lot of change recently. That means most of your internal customers - won't really know who you are OR what you do, they may not even know you exist.Internally market your team's abilities. Build yourself a good internal presence and sell your skills and services as if you were a private company. Tell your internal customers all the benefits of listening to you and working with you.And why do this? Because giving your team internal recognition - will motivate them!
- Products alone won't solve your problems, as you need people to implement them.By embracing Open Source in our organisation, we've saved hundreds of thousands, maybe even millions of pounds. For the last 14 years Shropshire Council hasn't spent a penny on a CMS product for it's main website and intranet. It was all built on in-house developed systems or more recently provided using Open Source solutions.We found that Open Source has given us the flexibility to deliver solutions, when more commercial products have limited or even hampered us.--Some of you may have heard of a chap called Martin Lewis, the "Money Saving Expert".Martin tells you to ask yourself some questions whenever you buy something, and you should be as frivolous with your budgets as you are with your own personal money.Your staff care what you spend your money on, so spend it right.And before you decide to buy any shiny new things - ask yourselves:
- - Do I need it? - Can I afford it? - Will I use it? - Is it worth it?If you were buying a car, you'd shop around - look at reviews, and not just believe the salesman.If you had friends with a similar car, you'd ask them for their opinions.So - don't be afraid to ask. Don't be afraid to ask us - we love sharing all about the things we've learned.
- Those were my 5 key points.Hope you found it useful.Thanks for listening