Coming up for air after 7 weeks — This weeknote is my first in my new role as Head of UCD at HMCTS. It’s been more than 2 months, so I wasn’t even able to round up my last week at DfE. I’d mentioned I’d been feeling slightly conflicted about my weeknotes at the moment. I’m learning so…

Discomfort zones + knotty problems = neurons firing — This week has been tricky — a lot of time-consuming commitments came together all at once, without much room for manoeuvre. But what I love about that is the things that you thought previously you could never not do, you all of the sudden just can’t do, and that’s ok…

Using my voice to best effect, content strategy at Services Week, analysing our content design capability data and clear evolving standards — I didn’t publish my weeknote last week — things have been busy. Too busy? I’m not sure. I like being busy, and I feel I do my best work when I’m busy — making new connections, spotting join-ups. But I know that after doing a half-day in the office in…

Reflections on organisational change — Things I’ve learned / am learning Group coaching and a reflection eureka moment I had my first group coaching session with some colleagues at Home Office and Office for Railway. One thing that came up was progress towards our personal objectives. I shared how I was trying to be more open with my reflection, but that it sometimes felt too personal, almost narcissistic.

Concentric circles, train journeys and lots of connections — Things I’m happy about Content design in Manchester We’ve had 4 new content designer join in the past month, and it seemed like a great opportunity to get everyone in Manchester together. So we had 16 people come together for the day! I’ve not seen that many content designers together in person for a very long time indeed. …

In search of evidence and progress Things I’m happy about This year’s content design capability survey We released this year’s survey to all content designers at DfE (civil servants and contractors). Doing this last year was such an important part of benchmarking what we needed to focus on in content design, so I’m really excited to see how we’ve changed…

Feeling restored, vulnerability, collaborating for better outcomes and thinking about what’s next — My first weeknote of 2022! Over the holidays I’d been pondering whether to continue with these. Sometimes I felt like no one really cared but me. And other times I felt bad that I’d left a few gaps in the year. But thinking about it this week, I’ve realised that…

Community maturity, content strategy, collaborative working, profession management and notes on patience. — Let’s acknowledge first that sadly I didn’t post a weeknote for all of October. I had the best of intentions, but it was all just too busy! So this update sneaks in a few things that I’m happy about / learned before this week… Things I’m happy about Community maturity assessments One of the wonderful services our…

How is it already Q3? — Things I’m happy about Teacher CPD is in beta When I first started at DfE in November, I went straight into a delivery programme — Teacher CPD (continuing professional development). …