Connected-Service Discovery and Research Analysis (Miro) | https://miro.com/app/board/uXjVKQpaRkU=/?share_link_id=846408747615 |
Service Design Recipe (Miro) | https://miro.com/app/board/uXjVKHNLKS8=/?share_link_id=795322396105 |
...
CONTEXT
The below themes are the front-of-mind topics for the Band 3-5 6 leaders I interviewed in an org design & talent-acquisition context (hire and/or procure).
note: we still need digital talent (internal and vendor) perspectives, and the vendor (participating in the marketplace) perspectives to round out our 360° understanding
as part of this work, I had preliminary discovery touch-points with MAS and DIO, with more to do
Because I’ve rapidly and temporarily onboarded into this space, I may touch on things we’re already doing or are aware of. In those cases, I hope this adds useful evidence to our efforts - please forgive my incomplete understanding of the details.
I also hope this helps socialize topics across the Talent & Marketplace teams . toward alignment and shared foundations.
It may feel frustrating to live in the problem-space rather than jumping to solutions, thanks for sitting in it with me. For most of these topics, we need more discussion and I need the experts (staff and leaders) in the room informing the conversation. I don’t adequately understand the history, current service/product landscape in depth, our wealth of context and insights across service relationships, research, and testing to date, or policy underpinning hiring and procurement on my own. I see my role as a facilitator first.
Next steps: share themes w/ Leadership (May 22), do some rapid prioritization and identify which themes to explore further, together, toward experiments and pilots.
This page is a shared-space to identify themes & add staff insights, current experiments/partner engagements. Working in the open - in one place.
I appreciate this is a lot of detail - some folks will need it, esp. as I transition into other work.
I will also be delivering a condensed deck, or equivalent - tbd / watch this space.
...
Big picture sentiments, and how folks see our role in the system:
“In the big picture transformation context I would like to see some of the structural issues I see with agile and specifically in the kind of hiring, procurement, job description space solved. I'm working on my little corner of the government trying to do what I can to put my best foot forward under the policy and legislative constraints that are around me. One of the reasons I took this meeting is because I'm hoping that from your vantage point, possibly those policy and legislative constraints can be changed.” 🔥
I find this quote energizing - I hear that the DTC Branch is wanted, and that we’re seen as part of a x-gov squad of change-makers all doing our part
“I don't know if the goal should be so much like hire more digital capacity. It's more like how do we harness what we have more effectively and more efficiently? Because eventually we just have a whole bunch of chickens running around, but like, nobody kind of gathering them or pointing them in a direction.”
what happens if we scale misaligned, relatively unsupported digital practices that are new and unfamiliar to many BCPS folk?
this participant articulated many current-state improvement opportunities for hiring and procuring digital talent, but is thinking bigger-picture and strategically as they express this point
What I see — ‘showing my math’ as I transition to other work (click to expand the accordion):
...
Expand | ||
---|---|---|
| ||
Our place in the hiring and procurement ecosystem
|
When they interact with ministry contacts and other corporate service providers, the hire and procure functions are separate - a more connected service would interrupt mental models, could be perceived as innovative and valuable if the service orients around real problems, and our capacity/eligibility criteria meets their needs
Our audiences and scope
Our service opportunities
Operational considerations re: sustainable pace, healthy roles, happy humans — toward great outcomes
|
...
I always have more questions
|
RESEARCH THEMES
...
Vibe check: passionate leaders, striving toward sustainable orgs & products
A deep dive into what was most important to the (12) Band 3-6 Leaders interviewed in Q1 2024 across 5 ministries that are intentionally transforming. The interviews were framed around acquiring, retaining, and growing digital talent, including org design strategies that lead to talent acquisition.
Vibe check: passionate leaders, striving toward sustainable orgs & products
Digital delivery outcomes = evidence for transformation value, sustainment
Org design strategies, service-thinking and digitally literate program areas
Hire vs. procure strategies, the hiring-forward moment in time
Maturing & supporting digital practices, incl. guilds/chapters
Hiring ecosystem insights
Procurement ecosystem insights
Service expectations
...
Passionate leaders, often playing whack-a-mole 😄TL;DR: Folks are thinking strategically toward sustainable organizations/products and good outcomes for BCPS and the Province, with surprises and systemic ‘moles’ popping up along the journey - where digital talent producing outcomes provides compelling evidence for Sr. Leaders up to ADM/DM levels: to show what transformation looks like and prove that it’s a worthy investment |
---|
Connected-Service interviews (Tess)
|
Existing research / staff insights
|
Experiments & Collaborations |
Digital delivery outcomes = transformation buy-in, sustainmentTL;DR: Talent power the outcomes. Matching talent to the right problems, supporting healthy digital practice becoming more important as we bring in more digital talent and get deeper into the complex transformation work. |
---|
Connected-Service interviews (Tess) |
Existing research / staff insights |
Experiments & Collaborations |
Matching humans to opportunities, aka “fit”TL;DR: Mindset, personality, knowledge/skill/ability - are there experiments we can run, within the PSA/BCGEU context and our commitment to EDI, to giving hiring managers a sense of control and confidence? |
---|
Connected-Service interviews (Tess)
|
Existing research / staff insights |
Experiments & Collaborations |
Org design strategies, service-thinking and digitally literate program areasTL;DR: Some folks are moving toward org design strategies where digital folk collaborate directly with business folk, toward service-thinking and shared ownership of outcomes. There is still a time and a place for well defined agile teams… “it depends”. The system is learning that program areas need support to be ready for an agile team, by default they don’t know how to work with them, or don’t have the capacity to support the additional workload introduced by design processes, SME requests, engaging in demos, and making decisions can block digital delivery. Deadlines get missed, trust gets broken in the promises of modernization. I’m also seeing some risky ideation - folks are trying to find clever workarounds to build more flexibility into their org, e.g. resource pools where they move folks around to different products as needed, or positioning Designers to work across the research, service, content and ux design job profiles as needed. |
---|
Connected-Service interviews (Tess)
|
Existing research / staff insights |
Experiments & Collaborations |
Hire/procure strategies & systemic opportunitiesTL;DR: We’re in a hiring-forward moment in time (context & market conditions are favourable), with procurement as a high-value strategy. Decisions are strategic and thoughtful, but also impacted by known systemic opportunities, e.g. classification and funding. |
---|
Connected-Service interviews (Tess)
|
Existing research / staff insights |
Experiments & Collaborations |
Growth & development, re-skillingTL;DR: Develpment intersects with org sustainability, retention, digital delivery outcomes, and is front of mind for Leaders, with opportunities for DTC Branch to lean in: on the ground, and in a systemic-change context. 3 components in this section: agility and flexibility in context of PSA/BCGEU (hard/systemic), up/re-skilling current staff and managing change, programs to attract & develop jr. talent (Sam is running discovery now). |
---|
Connected-Service interviews (Tess)
|
What we know of & can learn from today:
|
Experiments & collaborations:
|
Maturing & supporting digital practices, guilds/chaptersTL;DR: |
---|
Connected-Service interviews (Tess)
|
Existing research / staff insights |
Experiments & Collaborations |
Hiring ecosystemTL;DR: Insights into where folks go for hiring support, and what they experience/care about. Competitive intelligence |
---|
Connected-Service interviews (Tess)
|
Existing research / staff insights |
Experiments & Collaborations |
...