Ctrl + Alt + Del

We had our annual team offsite this week. We decided to call it Ctrl Alt Del - and used the analogy of reset, rebooting and upgrading to frame the day. It's a common thing, particularly for me, to crave a reset, a reboot, and better still, an upgrade. There's some excitement when a new version of iOS, OSX or Windows comes out; the prospect of improvements, new features and getting rid of those annoying bugs. We wanted to create the same excitement, whilst co-creating the "release notes" for our new departmental "operating system"

We started off the day with a large-scale Paper Rock Scissors tournament, something that I imagined would be chaos, but actually went really well. (A testament to the self-organisation skills of the team!) The idea is simple. You find a partner, you play Rock Paper Scissors, and if you lose, you become the "Fan" or supporter of the person that won. They then play another winner with their supporter cheering them on, whoever wins that game now has 3 supporters, and so on, until eventually, you're left with 2 people with crowds of fans cheering them on for the final.

Steven Hodgson ran a table challenge that helped illustrate the importance of reflection, planning and team autonomy. Each table were given cups, an elastic band rig and 5 blindfolds. Teams were instructed to build a tower, using the cups, and only using the elastic Band rig to pick up and place the cups, the added complexity was the people operating the rig were blindfolded and had to be carefully instructed by the "Managers" on their table.

We shared a short clip from the excellent "Turn the ship around" by David Marquet - and prompted valuable conversations around direction and intent. We talked about the structure needed to create an operating system that optimised planning. Taking some basic principles from agile delivery, we're installing bi-weekly (every 2 weeks) retrospective and planning cycles across every team - scaling out what is already in place for some of our teams. Additionally, we're installing quarterly planning days; a zoomed out, more strategic look at the work we need to do to achieve our Missions and Objectives (We use VMOST)

Extending the Ctrl Alt Del metaphor tenuously further, we ran a session focusing on the things we'd like to Delete, Deprecate or do less of. Teams worked on their tables to discuss and agree on what they felt needed to be removed from the current operating system. This is always a tricky theme to navigate. Inviting people to think about the stuff they want to get rid of, can open the door to some negative thinking . It's so important that teams are able to tread safely into the bad bits. I was pleased with the candid and bold reflections that people shared, in the open. I feel this is an area to nuture more - not propagating negativity, but not keeping it unspoken and hidden, creating the space where we can objectively point at the things that are not how we'd like them to be.

The final part of the day was dedicated to a mini awards ceremony, with a few uncommon categories, including best-dressed, email ninja, most thoughtful, most flexible, unsung hero..... (there were 14 awards in total). Paul Williams , did a fantastic job of coordinating the nominations and expertly hosting the ceremony!

We closed out the day with a final Lifetime award, that was awarded to a gentleman in our department, who is retiring after 35 years working in the council, in it's various configurations over the years. We reflected on the impact he'd had across so many different parts of the business. It's common to find "long-timers" in the council - and I'm not suprised; purposeful work, with good people is rather addictive and rewarding! All the best Joe, and thank you for your loyal service.

My reflective summary of the day

• Face to face > Remote
• Smiles are the best metric
• Recognition helps with the smiles
• I'm lucky and gratefu; to have so many brilliant people in my team.

It was a bloody good day, and I am so proud of everyone in the team, everything they've achieved and the ambition they show for what needs to be done.

Installing Northumberland Digital and IT v2.1...........