{"id":16112,"date":"2016-06-23T12:56:06","date_gmt":"2016-06-23T11:56:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/digileaders.com\/?p=16112"},"modified":"2018-08-08T15:34:17","modified_gmt":"2018-08-08T14:34:17","slug":"good-culture-evolves-bottom","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/digileaders.com\/good-culture-evolves-bottom\/","title":{"rendered":"Good culture evolves from the bottom up"},"content":{"rendered":"

A week or so ago, I was invited to speak at the ND16 Digital Leaders event, on the subject “Culture, behaviour and transformation”. Here’s what I said on the day.<\/span><\/p>\n

I’m pretty sure many of you have seen me speak at events like this before, and you\u2019ll know that most of the time, I’m talking about digital transformation.<\/p>\n

Today, I want to talk about how transformation relates to the culture and behaviour we see, and expect to see, in our workspaces. That relationship begins with what we mean when we say \u201cdigital\u201d. It\u2019s important to be clear about it up front, because to start with: \u201cdigital\u201d isn\u2019t about computers.<\/p>\n

Of course technology is part of it, but that\u2019s not how we define digital. Digital goes broader and deeper. I think the best summary I\u2019ve seen so far is this\u00a0tweet by GDS alumnus Tom Loosemore<\/a>:<\/p>\n

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\u201cDigital means applying the culture, practices, processes and technologies of the internet era to respond to people\u2019s raised expectations.\u201d<\/p>\n

That\u2019s brilliant. That\u2019s it, in a nutshell.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s not about computers. It\u2019s about people.<\/h2>\n

Transformation means understanding what your people are capable of, the skills they have, and how to best put them to good use. It\u2019s about trust, and giving your team a mandate to do what they think is right.<\/p>\n

If you foster the right environment of creativity, of trust, of empowerment, you get better results from your team. And the team, as we\u2019ve been saying for years now, is the unit of delivery. We believe multidisciplinary teams are essential for good agile working. If the team\u2019s not right, the thing it\u2019s working on won\u2019t be right either.<\/p>\n

To do digital transformation well, you need to focus on building and maintaining the team, bringing people together and giving them space to thrive.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s why culture and behaviour matter so much.<\/p>\n

Not a new idea<\/h2>\n

Of course, none of this is a new idea. Thinking like this is commonplace in the private sector, especially in the technology industry.<\/p>\n

But it\u2019s not always the norm in government. We\u2019re a few years behind the rest of the world, we\u2019re still catching up. But we know we can, and we know we will. Bringing about that kind of change is a big step. It means change, and you have to handle change with care.<\/p>\n

At GDS, we\u2019re fortunate because we\u2019re a relatively new organisation. We were able to build our own culture from scratch.<\/p>\n

Much of what GDS has become began in its very early days, when a small team of people were building the GOV.UK alpha<\/a>. But since then it has iterated, evolved, and changed, just like the products and services we make.<\/p>\n

The goal has been to encourage and foster a work environment for humans. To build a place that recognizes people\u2019s humanity just as much as their employability or productivity. So now I\u2019m going to show you some examples of what a humane, people-focused workplace looks like. Or at least, what ours looks like.<\/p>\n

Principles for working<\/h2>\n

The best known chunk of GDS culture is our list of design principles<\/a>. They started as a bunch of sticky notes stuck on a wall during the GOV.UK alpha phase.<\/p>\n

Don\u2019t let the name mislead you – they\u2019re not just about design. They\u2019re built on collective wisdom. They\u2019re a guidebook, a staff handbook, a learning tool and a motivational tool.<\/p>\n

We know that if we\u2019re doing what the Principles tell us to do, we\u2019re doing the right thing. If GDS culture began anywhere, it began with these.<\/p>\n

Words on walls<\/h2>\n

Should you ever come and visit us, you\u2019ll see the culture all around you. Our office is colourful, decorated with bunting. Our walls are used for thinking out loud and for sharing work with colleagues. The environment produces the atmosphere, and the atmosphere produces the work.<\/p>\n

Internal communication is very important, and too often overlooked. We don\u2019t always get it right, but one thing we\u2019ve found that does work is communicating via the walls.<\/p>\n

We make posters to remind ourselves about stuff that matters – for example, we made posters that explain why user research is important, and why everyone should take part.<\/p>\n

We trust GDS staff to behave like grown-ups, to foster a good environment for all.<\/p>\n

If anyone behaves badly, they\u2019re abusing that trust. That gets spotted and dealt with pretty quickly when it crops up, which is rarely.<\/p>\n

Power to the People Board<\/h2>\n

Last year, we set up a body called the People Board<\/a>. It\u2019s a group of about 12 people, nominated and elected by their peers. They meet regularly to discuss ideas and suggestions for making GDS a better place to work.<\/p>\n

The management empowered the People Board to decide things (again, there\u2019s the theme of trust and empowerment). If the Board think something is a good idea, it should get done.<\/p>\n

They set up whiteboards on the walls around GDS, where people could comment anonymously about the things that bug them. So far, the Board has helped fix some small things, like tea and coffee supplies in the office — and some big things, like making performance management better.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s management done by the team, rather than by managers.<\/p>\n

Good culture spreads<\/h2>\n

Culture needs to be free. It needs to be able to reshape itself. Out of the blue, one of our management team, Janet Hughes, wrote a blog post about boldness in government<\/a>. We turned it into posters and stickers, so they\u2019re a constant reminder. And they work, because every now and then people refer to them – \u201cWell, we can be bold,\u201d they say. \u201cLet\u2019s do the bold thing.\u201d<\/p>\n

Good culture spreads when the organisation shows its support.<\/p>\n

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Another example of that: some of the team spontaneously wrote a list of the unwritten rules<\/a>, and turned that into a poster too.<\/p>\n

It was a list of things that it\u2019s useful to know when you start working at GDS, but that it\u2019s no-one\u2019s job to tell you.<\/p>\n

It says things like, it\u2019s ok to:<\/p>\n