(With a bit of walking too.)

Didn’t do a run note for 2021 but let’s go again.

In short

Start of the year aimed for 1,600km. A slow start, things picked up for a steady few months then hit by Covid and heel aggro in July and August. Adjusted target to 1300km for the year. Ended on 1372km for the year. Not bad.

Injuries and illness

Early July: Covid
Late July through August: Heel
December: Achilles

Monthly run totals

January: 98km (3.2km per day)
February: 66km (2.4km per day)
March: 170km (5.5km per day)
April: 167km (5.6km per day)
May: 133km (4.3km per day)
June: 107km (3.6km per day)
July: 55km (1.8km per day)
August: 64km (2.1km per day)
September: 147km (4.9km per day)
October: 178km (5.7km per day)
November: 121km (4.0km per day)
December: 66km (2.1km per day)

General notes

Had two injuries that hampered things but 1372km for the year will do.

A period in April when the legs felt somewhere back where they should be, clocking a pace sub 5min/km for sessions that were 5km to 8km long. That felt good.

Retired the Catamounts. Loved them. Part regret not buying a new pair. Went for some Brooks Calderas instead which have supposedly plusher soles but just aren’t the same. Got some Brook Hyperion Tempos to try to plug the Catamount gap; They’re grand. Still might pull the trigger and get some new Catamounts.

Made sure I rotated my soles and types of runs.

Back to loops, at Roberts Park. Session not going well? Peel off the circuit and head home

Ever thankful for all the variety of routes near where I live.

Running in Copenhagen was fun.

Notched up some runs over London bridges and going to try tick the remainders off.

More cities should have nice ‘n long trails like Dallas’s Katy.

Registered for two marathons (Manchester in April and Edinburgh at the end of May). Supposed to do my first marathon in 2020. Try to put that right in 2023.

With kids, dogs, chores and other things I couldn’t run every day. A long walk or two aren’t the same but they’re a good complement.

Related: Finally accepted the dog hates runs. Her staring at me about 200 metres back going “where the fuck are you going?” usually meant she won and I had to turn back. We’re just walk mates now.

Walking is good. In Alcudia, Mallorca I did a walk out along the seaside to the lighthouse and back. Can take things in in a way running doesn’t allow.
https://www.strava.com/activities/7620624681/overview

Walking is good for talking things through with a mate.

So nice to have the turbo trainer set up on the bike again after the best part of a year stored in the laundry room. Need to use it more though.

Weight. Started the year at 82.8kg (62kg muscle / 20kg fat), got to 84kg by the end of summer and ending the year at 87kg (71.5kg muscle / 15.3kg fat). Add in my cholesterol levels back up and not been good. Something to work on.

I made my Strava account private. I’ve been quite open how getting out and about more has helped me but I was sensitive to a few things so thought privacy was best. I’m not on Strava for the vanity of high likes numbers, more to measure and analyse my own acitvities, learn new things (routes mainly) and share the good and the not so good in case it helps someone else.

My efforts in December were shite.

Favourite runs

Running over bridges in London.
https://www.strava.com/activities/7955526244/overview
https://www.strava.com/activities/7045204962/overview
https://www.strava.com/activities/8085572553/overview

Went for a run during the Conference play of final. Did the highest jump of my running along the canal when Town scored.
https://www.strava.com/activities/7260398851/overview

Early morning along the beach at Alcudia.
https://www.strava.com/activities/7618426736/overview

Early morning runs along the canal or river can look quite bonny.
https://www.strava.com/activities/7815870851/overview

Some late on street griddin’ in Saltaire
https://www.strava.com/activities/7886421028/overview

A couple of runs, one along the coast, on a trip back to the homeland. Sea air is the best air.
https://www.strava.com/activities/8000032232
https://www.strava.com/activities/8005363598/overview

Two in Copenhagen. Sea air is the best air part 2.
https://www.strava.com/activities/8035102378/overview
https://www.strava.com/activities/8040409191

A Saturday morning run along the excellent Katy trail in Dallas, Texas.
https://www.strava.com/activities/8130894365

Goals for 2023

Run at least 1400km, maybe 1800km over the year.

Run at least 100km every month.

Run 12 days out of every 14.

Don’t beat myself up if I get to the end of next year and two injuries have limited my running to closer to 1000km.
Finish one marathon, if not two.

Have a medium (3km to 5km) or long walk (5km plus) every day

Do my heel raises every day. (Slacked on this recently.)

Keep doing a strengthening session every week.

Cycle 100km a month (probably mainly indoors).

Get weight down to 82kg (80kg ideally) and fat down by 5kg (to 10kg) at least. Then take it from there.

Do at least two more London bridges.

Have a better December.

Enjoy it.

Original source – Simon Wilson


Two months ago, I stepped into the world of local government and joined the Communications team for my first placement on the National Graduate Development Programme at Bedford Borough Council.

by Sarah Combes

I’ve always had an interest in working for my local community and completed a degree in politics at university. This programme provides me with the opportunity to gain experience in different areas of the Council over two years, and kick start my career in local government.

Starting the programme, I had no previous experience working in communications, so it’s been a steep, but very enjoyable, learning curve. Here’s what I’ve learnt in my first two months…

It’s fast-paced…

It didn’t take me long to realise just how varied the fantastic work carried out by the Council is, due to the number of emails landing in my inbox from an array of different services. The communications team acts as the Council’s storytellers and information providers, and we are sometimes the first point of contact for residents, especially on social media.

In a single day, our team could publish a press release about economic investment in Bedford Town Centre, launch a festive promotional video featuring Father Christmas and post important safety updates on Facebook about local flooding. It’s a very fast-paced environment, and I’ve had to learn quickly in order to keep up!

…and all about variety

As part of the NGDP, I work on a number of my own projects within my communications placement. These have given me great exposure to different styles of communications, and how to create content for a variety of audiences.

In a typical day, I’ll draft our Museum’s newsletter, write text for the market’s website and research, plan and create content for Bedford Borough Council’s social media platforms. Filming and photographing out and about for social media is one of the things I enjoy most about working in communications, as it allows me to be creative.  

Through these projects, I’m fast learning that you can’t always predict what the most popular social media content will be – our residents love to see photos of knitted post box toppers alongside information about Council services!

Recently, I’ve filmed iconic landmarks around Bedford to celebrate Bedfordshire Day, our gritting vehicles and Chief Executive for different social media projects and information campaigns. It’s a great way to collaborate with other services and showcase our Council’s great work. The diversity of my communications work has also given me an overview of a busy Council and enabled me to build a variety of valuable relationships.

A new challenge every day

Every day presents a new challenge, as we represent the public corporate face and digital presence of our council. Amongst the proactive campaigns our communications team works on, we occasionally receive attention from high-profile figures on social media, who require carefully considered responses.

These situations have provided an insight into a completely different side of communications work, where we react in real time to situations around us.

Before joining the NGDP at Bedford Borough Council, I had little knowledge about what life in local government communications may be like. I have learnt so much in the short time I have been part of the team, and continue to learn new skills every day. It’s exciting to be part of an environment where no two days are the same and to work for my local community.

I didn’t realise that I would enjoy working in communications as much as I do! If you’re thinking about a career in comms, I really can’t recommend local government more highly. And for me this six month placement has been a great start to life in local government.

Bedford Borough Council are currently recruiting for next year’s intake and I can’t recommend it highly enough. To find out more go to: https://www.bedford.gov.uk/jobs/national-management-trainee

Sarah Combes is a National Management Trainee in Communications and Communities at Bedford Borough Council. You can connect on LinkedIn HERE.

*Sign up for the comms2point0 eMag*

The comms2point0 eMag features exclusive new content, free give-aways, special offers, first dibs on new events and much, much more.

Sound good? Join over 3k other comms people who have subscribed. You can sign up to it right here

Original source – comms2point0

On 21 December, we added the National Centre for Circus Arts as a public authority on WhatDoTheyKnow, making it easy for anyone to send them a Freedom of Information request. We could have left it off the site and let our users find the email address themselves, but we didn’t want them to have to jump through hoops.⭕

Joking aside, this is a valid addition to the site — see below for more details about why this college is subject to the FOI Act — and one where we can imagine some interesting requests being submitted.

For example, one could ask for copies of the risk assessments used for the various circus skills taught to students — we imagine these would contain quite a bit of detail.

A procurement list might throw up some items you wouldn’t see from other education institutions, like juggling equipment, unicycles or clown shoes.

Prospective students who want to understand more about their chosen course’s application procedure and admission statistics often submit requests to UCAS, but applications for the National Centre for Circus Arts are handled directly (which makes sense: it would be hard to evidence circus skills on an UCAS form!).

Instead, anyone looking for more information about how the application process works could submit an FOI request directly to the college. 

In addition, there is a wide range of requests that can be sent to almost any public authority on matters such as the use of public money, minutes of meetings, policies, letters, emails and contracts. All of these might have uniquely circusy angles when applied to this particular institution!

Some decisions are in-tents

It’s not always easy to work out whether a body is subject to FOI. For some bodies it’s really simple: they’re listed by name in Schedule 1 of the Freedom of Information Act 2000 (or the Scottish equivalent). 

The National Centre for Circus Arts isn’t named here, but Schedule 1 does include references to definitions contained in other laws.  

In the course of recent work to find more bodies to add to WhatDoTheyKnow, our volunteers have read and interpreted three pieces of legislation and an official register to work out which higher education institutions are subject to FOI. 

The upshot of our research is that we consider that all bodies listed on the Office for Students register as “Approved (fee cap)” are subject to FOI. This includes the National Centre for Circus Arts (registry entry). Helpfully, the Centre acknowledges the fact that it is subject to FOI on its website which not all higher education institutions do – kudos for that.

UK higher education institutions walk a tightrope between the public and private sectors. They are subject to rules such as competition law that are normally relevant to private business, whilst at the same time being subject to laws that apply to the public sector such as the equality duty and FOI. It’s quite a lot to juggle. 🤹

Interestingly, the debate about the role of circuses in public life goes back to Roman times where the provision of food and entertainment to the poor were used to gain political power.

WhatDoTheyKnow lists a number of obscure public authorities on the site ranging from the Crown Estate Paving Commission to the Treasure Valuation Committee but the National Centre for Circus Arts is certainly one of the more unusual higher education institutions we list. There can’t be many places where people jump through fire for their graduation (page 13 of the 2023-24 prospectus).

In conclusion, if anyone is planning to run away during 2023 then please be advised that with this addition, WhatDoTheyKnow has both the sea and the circus covered. 

We wish all our users a happy and healthy 2023.

Image: Jonny Gios

Original source – mySociety


If you’re anything like me a good TV or film recommendation is a handy thing to have. Especially in dark and gloomy January.

by Darren Caveney

Well as you’d expect, December was a bumper month for TV and film consumption.

Here’s a quick review of what I watched and whether I’d recommend them to you…

Film

Nobody (Amazon)

There’s an unlikely hero in this one, in the shape of Bob Odenkirk (he of Breaking Bad and Better Call Saul fame) If you’re squeamish avoid this one but for an alternative take on the revenge thriller genre this is a very entertaining watch  7.5/10

How it ends (Netflix)

This one goes where other disaster movies have in never fully explaining what the huge seismic world event before us is and instead just places seeds here, there and everywhere. The always watchable Forrest Whitaker stars. And so it’s, well, watchable 6.5/10

The Northman (Amazon)

I love a good Viking epic ever since watching the original Spartacus as a boy 100 years ago. It’s not as good and the stellar series, The Vikings, but it’s similarly dark and definitely worth a watch 7.5/10

Manhattan (Amazon)

I must have seen this a dozen times but frankly it’s sometimes just better to go with a classic than scrolling through Netflix et al for hours on end looking for a new watch. Woody Allen is of course now a controversial figure but he remains an incredibly good movie maker it has to be said 8/10

White Noise (Netflix)

I had no idea what this one was about when I sat down to watch it. Adam Driver is very funny in it. I’d describe it as quirky, slightly weird but ultimately fun disaster movie set in the 80s. Great sets too 7/10

Big boys don’t cry (Netflix)

Harrowing is the only word I could come up with to describe this film based on the true story of abuse at children’s homes in Essex in the 80s and 90s. It wasn’t particularly festive, obviously, but felt like an important watch to remind us of those who lurk in the shadows. Michael Stocha is superb in the lead role 7.5/10

Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery (Netflix)

This might be controversial but I preferred the original – the set, the look, the old skool whodunnit feel. Now admittedly I did nod off for 10 mins half way through so maybe that excludes me from reviewing Glass Onion. I thought it was enjoyable enough 7/10

 

Documentary

Louis interviews Judy Dench (iPlayer)

Just a lovely hour’s television. Comforting and cheering. Just what we all need right now 8/10

TV

Billions (Now TV)

Seasons 1 – 3

I’m really enjoying this one. Some TV shows are great for a first season and then burn out. This one actually gets better the deeper you go with it. It’s essentially two hugely egotistical men – a billionaire hedge fund kingpin (Damien Lewis) vs a belligerent US Attorney (Paul Giamatti) – who will risk literally everything to win their personal grudge, even their marriages and personal relationships. Totally recommended for these long, dark winter nights 8.25/10

The Patient (Disney +)

A cracker. Like a mix of the Tony Sopranos sessions with his shrink and Gabriel Byne’s excellent In Treatment. This is a very different role for Steve Carrell but he’s very good in it. 7.5/10

 

Cinema

Pulp fiction

We went along to a special pre-Christmas screening of the stupendous Pulp Fiction. It was the third time I’ve watched it on the big screen and it never disappoints. Much copied, never bettered. It’s still a gem almost 30 years on. 9.5/10

 

Darren Caveney is creator and owner of comms2point0 and creative communicators ltd

*Sign up for the comms2point0 eMag*

The comms2point0 eMag features exclusive new content, free give-aways, special offers, first dibs on new events and much, much more.

Sound good? Join over 3k other comms people who have subscribed. You can sign up to it right here

Original source – comms2point0

Sign fixed to wire fence that reads 'THESE BIRDS MAY BITE'

For the last few years I’ve spent a little of my Christmas downtime curating my own personal filter bubble in the form of lists of people whose every post I want to see. Previously I derived a Twitter list of people I retweeted most in the preceding 12 months, adjusted for balance of gender and ethnicity.

This year is different thanks to the surge in use of the decentralised, open source, social media platform Mastodon. I use and highly recommend mastodon.me.uk, a volunteer-run community administered and hosted in the UK. If you want to follow me there, I’m mattedgar@mastodon.me.uk

Before I deactivated my Twitter account of 16 years, I spent a few weeks encouraging people from my “most retweeted” list to make the move along with me. I direct messaged 43 people whose tweets I always appreciated. Only once mind, no need to be pushy. I soon reached a tipping point where more than half my favourite people were findable in the fediverse. Some would have joined anyway, I’m sure. And for the ones who haven’t, I hope my message brightened up their day.

My 2022 list is built from the ground-up on my Mastodon boosts. Many of them featured on my previous Twitter lists, but there are a few newcomers who I found only on Mastodon, and joyously one or two who stopped posting to Twitter before me and I’ve now re-found in the fediverse.

The federation works! My favourite people are spread across 10 different servers, but I can follow them all in one list.

Lists in Mastodon are private, so I’m sharing here in case you too want to follow any of these fabulous people:

alisonwarren@mastodon.social
AndreaSiodmok@mastodon.me.uk
andy_callow@mastodon.social
Anniecoops@mastodon.me.uk
Ayymanduh@mastodon.me.uk
Cjforms@mastodon.social
claragt@mastodon.me.uk
CocoChan@mastodon.me.uk
cydharrell@mastodon.social
danachis@mastodon.social
danhon@dan.mastohon.com
DigitalPharmacist@mas.to
Edent@mastodon.social
Emma_Parnell@mastodon.me.uk
EmmaMBearman@mastodon.me.uk
ewebber@mastodon.social
Floppy@mastodon.me.uk
gilest@mastodon.me.uk
Hilaryonline@mastodon.social
honeygolightly@mstdn.ca
IamKathrynGrace@mastodon.social
ianames@mastodon.me.uk
jamestplunkett@mastodon.me.uk
JaneSproat@mastodon.me.uk
jensimmons@front-end.social
johncutlefish@mastodon.social
kwaycee@mastodon.social
leannegriffinmchugh@mastodon.me.uk
LeedsTours@mastodon.me.uk
lisajeffery@mastodon.me.uk
martinjordan@mastodon.social
mattstibbs@mastodon.social
MelMartin@mastodon.me.uk
MustBeMistry@mastodon.me.uk
PavelASamsonov@mastodon.social
rachelcoldicutt@assemblag.es
RochelleGold@mastodon.social
Roz@mastodon.green
rufflemuffin@mastodon.social
RuthMalan@mastodon.social
s_wilcox@mastodon.me.uk
slowe@mastodon.me.uk
stevenjmesser@indieweb.social
szpanks@mastodon.lol
teppie@mastodon.me.uk
tink@front-end.social
vickytnz@mastodon.social

Happy New Year, everyone!

Original source – Matt Edgar writes here

Sign fixed to wire fence that reads 'THESE BIRDS MAY BITE'

For the last few years I’ve spent a little of my Christmas downtime curating my own personal filter bubble in the form of lists of people whose every post I want to see. Previously I derived a Twitter list of people I retweeted most in the preceding 12 months, adjusted for balance of gender and ethnicity.

This year is different thanks to the surge in use of the decentralised, open source, social media platform Mastodon. I use and highly recommend mastodon.me.uk, a volunteer-run community administered and hosted in the UK. If you want to follow me there, I’m mattedgar@mastodon.me.uk

Before I deactivated my Twitter account of 16 years, I spent a few weeks encouraging people from my “most retweeted” list to make the move along with me. I direct messaged 43 people whose tweets I always appreciated. Only once mind, no need to be pushy. I soon reached a tipping point where more than half my favourite people were findable in the fediverse. Some would have joined anyway, I’m sure. And for the ones who haven’t, I hope my message brightened up their day.

My 2022 list is built from the ground-up on my Mastodon boosts. Many of them featured on my previous Twitter lists, but there are a few newcomers who I found only on Mastodon, and joyously one or two who stopped posting to Twitter before me and I’ve now re-found in the fediverse.

The federation works! My favourite people are spread across 10 different servers, but I can follow them all in one list.

Lists in Mastodon are private, so I’m sharing here in case you too want to follow any of these fabulous people:

alisonwarren@mastodon.social
AndreaSiodmok@mastodon.me.uk
andy_callow@mastodon.social
Anniecoops@mastodon.me.uk
Ayymanduh@mastodon.me.uk
Cjforms@mastodon.social
claragt@mastodon.me.uk
CocoChan@mastodon.me.uk
cydharrell@mastodon.social
danachis@mastodon.social
danhon@dan.mastohon.com
DigitalPharmacist@mas.to
Edent@mastodon.social
Emma_Parnell@mastodon.me.uk
EmmaMBearman@mastodon.me.uk
ewebber@mastodon.social
Floppy@mastodon.me.uk
gilest@mastodon.me.uk
Hilaryonline@mastodon.social
honeygolightly@mstdn.ca
IamKathrynGrace@mastodon.social
ianames@mastodon.me.uk
jamestplunkett@mastodon.me.uk
JaneSproat@mastodon.me.uk
jensimmons@front-end.social
johncutlefish@mastodon.social
kwaycee@mastodon.social
leannegriffinmchugh@mastodon.me.uk
LeedsTours@mastodon.me.uk
lisajeffery@mastodon.me.uk
martinjordan@mastodon.social
mattedgar@mastodon.me.uk
mattstibbs@mastodon.social
MelMartin@mastodon.me.uk
MustBeMistry@mastodon.me.uk
PavelASamsonov@mastodon.social
rachelcoldicutt@assemblag.es
RochelleGold@mastodon.social
Roz@mastodon.green
rufflemuffin@mastodon.social
RuthMalan@mastodon.social
s_wilcox@mastodon.me.uk
slowe@mastodon.me.uk
stevenjmesser@indieweb.social
szpanks@mastodon.lol
teppie@mastodon.me.uk
tink@front-end.social
vickytnz@mastodon.social

Happy New Year, everyone!

Original source – Matt Edgar writes here

I wanted to do a short(ish) review of 2022. I’ve missed my yearly reviews for the past few years. I think that was mostly a combination of exhaustion, and the relief of just making it through pandemic years.

This year I’ve been busy leading the user centred design work at TPXimpact – the new company that FutureGov is now part of.

We officially formed a new set of design teams this year for TPX. The summary is it’s been hard work. But reflecting as a team in the last few weeks, I think the shared feeling is that we’re now in a good place.

You can read about how we’re shaping our ways of working and design practices – this post is part of a brand new design blog set up to support our teams to work in the open – something I really care about. As I’ve found myself more in management type positions, and less close to delivery, it feels increasingly important to create the platforms and space for others to share the work they’re doing.

Without going into too much detail, what’s great about design at TPX is we have a really strong foundation in place to grow sustainably. Priorities this year have included making sure we have strong leadership and heads of practice across Service Design, Interaction and Product Design, Design Research and Content Design. It’s been fantastic welcoming Jas (Head of Service Design) as the final part of this design leadership team. We’ve also invested time and focus around Design Operations, creating a Director role for our DesignOps function, run brilliantly by Bella and our team of Design Managers.

Multiplied

This year I launched a book.

It was strange launching the book, mostly because it felt like the previous years project – we finished the edits of Multiplied on Christmas Eve 2021, and the first printed copied arrived in February this year.

One of the best things about publishing a book was people sharing their pictures.

I think the book has been well received, and many people have been kind enough to send me positive feedback and private messages to say they’ve enjoyed reading it, or found parts of it useful.

In the end we didn’t do a brilliant job of marketing the book (really just because TPX was in the process of going through a really tricky change programme)… but despite that, we have sold a decent amount of copies via places like Amazon and even have good reviews!

Reflecting on writing the book 12 months on, it was a difficult piece of work to complete. I was trying to not only reflect my own ideas and voice, but bring together work from across TPX companies and the ideas of other contributors.

In the end, and especially through working with Sarah who is a fantastic editor and content researcher, I think we did a good job (I’d probably give it something like 3.5 stars on Amazon). I am really proud of the final product – I can say I’ve written a book that credibly talks about technology, data, and design in the context of digital transformation working harder for people and organisations. Writing the book has also helped me to talk about these topics more confidently, and with much broader knowledge and examples to draw from.

I do regret using an Elon Musk/Space-X example (maybe I should have seen that coming). Also, the best ways to think about digital transformation can shift fast. Therefore, it’s been interesting how some of the framing of ideas in the book already feel outdated (at least to me) – for example, the lens of lessons from the pandemic already feels much less useful when so much else has happened politically this year impacting society and our public services.

Finally on the book, success is when someone steal your ideas (maybe, in this case).

Speaking and writing

The most enjoyable aspect of launching a book is I’ve done a lot of speaking engagements this year.

Using the the materials and content from Multiplied, I’ve done a number closed talks for digital and design communities in Government. This has included events for DWP’s Product Directorate, CDIO’s Product and Technology division, and the Home Office UCD and Product Community. From this list, the Home Office event was in person, with the rest of the talks held virtually. Alongside these talks, the highlight of my year was probably keynoting HM Land Registry’s first in person UCD meet up, which was held in Bristol (back in March).

Speaking at the HM Land Registry, UCD community day (March 2022)

We did a virtual Multiplied book launch in April, hosted brilliantly by Eva. This followed a session at the Digital Leaders Insight week a few weeks before. Later in the year, for Digital Leaders week in July, we recorded and shared a bookclub event after the live session hit technical issues and had to be abandoned!

Outside of the public sector I ran a really enjoyable virtual Multiplied session for the Lloyds Banking group Product and Design community. I also spoke at a couple of external events – UCD Gathering (a virtual keynote) – while another highlight was speaking at Agile on the Beach in July. This conference was timed with amazing weather and had a great set up at Falmouth University. It was good to catch up with Vim who was keynoting while I was there.

I was more adventurous with the book topics for Agile of the Beach, focusing on some new stories to explore the idea of ‘Multiplied by Design’ – the video of the talk is online.

One of the programmes of work TPX has been supporting this year is the Scottish Government’s Leading in a Digital World programme. I had a great time doing a Multiplied talk and session at the start of both leadership cohorts we helped to run this year. These were in person sessions held in Edinburgh and Glasgow. Glasgow will always be memorable because it was the hottest day of the year back in July – definitely the hottest I’ve ever been in Scotland!

The only other conference I attended this year was Service Design in Government, in September – luckily this was timed with a trip I already had planned for Scottish Government work. I had a great day catching up with many familiar faces from my time working at GDS, DWP, and more recently people I’ve met through work at FutureGov and TPX. That conference really did feel like everyone coming together in digital government for the first time again since Covid.

I haven’t really written much this year – just a few posts on my personal blog. I was proud to write and share a blog about my hearing loss for mental health week in May. I would like to get back into blogging next year… the TPX design blog is part of that, but personal blogging is also important to me. I think I was just ready to step back after the intense 6 months of book writing last year.

2023

We’re already making plans for TPX in 2023. I’ve reached a point where I’m one of the longest serving people in our senior teams. Almost the entire FutureGov team I first joined in 2017 have now moved on.

I think having this type of organisational memory and longevity is giving me a different role to play. But equally, it’s good to be working with new teams to shape the best possible company for us all to be part of in the future.

We have a great pipeline of work and projects that I’m excited for our design teams to contribute to. While I’m really proud of the work our teams have delivered this year, it still feels like the best is to come.

I started travelling for work more again this year, and the balance feels better with in person working. But also not being away from family for too many days each week. I think I need this balance, while I also know that I get my energy and momentum from spending some time meeting and working with people in person each week.

I’ll maybe write some more personal blog posts next year. My kids are growing up fast and I’m mostly focused outside of work on walking the 214 Wainwright peaks in the Lake District (171 still to go). That’s more than enough to keep me busy.

I’m also still on Twitter until the end.

Thanks to anyone that still reads this blog. I hope you have a joyful Christmas and New Year.

A view from one of my Lake District walks in 2022.

December 22nd, 2022. Posted in – Design, personal

Hello, I’m Ben Holliday. This is my blog where I’ve been writing for 15 years. You can follow all of my blog posts by subscribing to this RSS feed. You can also follow my regular updates on Twitter.

Original source – Ben Holliday

I wanted to do a short(ish) review of 2022. I’ve missed my yearly reviews for the past few years. I think that was mostly a combination of exhaustion, and the relief of just making it through pandemic years.

This year I’ve been busy leading the user centred design work at TPXimpact – the new company that FutureGov is now part of.

We officially formed a new set of design teams this year for TPX. The summary is it’s been hard work. But reflecting as a team in the last few weeks, I think the shared feeling is that we’re now in a good place.

You can read about how we’re shaping our ways of working and design practices – this post is part of a brand new design blog set up to support our teams to work in the open – something I really care about. As I’ve found myself more in management type positions, and less close to delivery, it feels increasingly important to create the platforms and space for others to share the work they’re doing.

Without going into too much detail, what’s great about design at TPX is we have a really strong foundation in place to grow sustainably. Priorities this year have included making sure we have strong leadership and heads of practice across Service Design, Interaction and Product Design, Design Research and Content Design. It’s been fantastic welcoming Jas (Head of Service Design) as the final part of this design leadership team. We’ve also invested time and focus around Design Operations, creating a Director role for our DesignOps function, run brilliantly by Bella and our team of Design Managers.

Multiplied

This year I launched a book.

It was strange launching the book, mostly because it felt like the previous years project – we finished the edits of Multiplied on Christmas Eve 2021, and the first printed copied arrived in February this year.

One of the best things about publishing a book was people sharing their pictures.

I think the book has been well received, and many people have been kind enough to send me positive feedback and private messages to say they’ve enjoyed reading it, or found parts of it useful.

In the end we didn’t do a brilliant job of marketing the book (really just because TPX was in the process of going through a really tricky change programme)… but despite that, we have sold a decent amount of copies via places like Amazon and even have good reviews!

Reflecting on writing the book 12 months on, it was a difficult piece of work to complete. I was trying to not only reflect my own ideas and voice, but bring together work from across TPX companies and the ideas of other contributors.

In the end, and especially through working with Sarah who is a fantastic editor and content researcher, I think we did a good job (I’d probably give it something like 3.5 stars on Amazon). I am really proud of the final product – I can say I’ve written a book that credibly talks about technology, data, and design in the context of digital transformation working harder for people and organisations. Writing the book has also helped me to talk about these topics more confidently, and with much broader knowledge and examples to draw from.

I do regret using an Elon Musk/Space-X example (maybe I should have seen that coming). Also, the best ways to think about digital transformation can shift fast. Therefore, it’s been interesting how some of the framing of ideas in the book already feel outdated (at least to me) – for example, the lens of lessons from the pandemic already feels much less useful when so much else has happened politically this year impacting society and our public services.

Finally on the book, success is when someone steal your ideas (maybe, in this case).

Speaking and writing

The most enjoyable aspect of launching a book is I’ve done a lot of speaking engagements this year.

Using the the materials and content from Multiplied, I’ve done a number closed talks for digital and design communities in Government. This has included events for DWP’s Product Directorate, CDIO’s Product and Technology division, and the Home Office UCD and Product Community. From this list, the Home Office event was in person, with the rest of the talks held virtually. Alongside these talks, the highlight of my year was probably keynoting HM Land Registry’s first in person UCD meet up, which was held in Bristol (back in March).

Speaking at the HM Land Registry, UCD community day (March 2022)

We did a virtual Multiplied book launch in April, hosted brilliantly by Eva. This followed a session at the Digital Leaders Insight week a few weeks before. Later in the year, for Digital Leaders week in July, we recorded and shared a bookclub event after the live session hit technical issues and had to be abandoned!

Outside of the public sector I ran a really enjoyable virtual Multiplied session for the Lloyds Banking group Product and Design community. I also spoke at a couple of external events – UCD Gathering (a virtual keynote) – while another highlight was speaking at Agile on the Beach in July. This conference was timed with amazing weather and had a great set up at Falmouth University. It was good to catch up with Vim who was keynoting while I was there.

I was more adventurous with the book topics for Agile of the Beach, focusing on some new stories to explore the idea of ‘Multiplied by Design’ – the video of the talk is online.

One of the programmes of work TPX has been supporting this year is the Scottish Government’s Leading in a Digital World programme. I had a great time doing a Multiplied talk and session at the start of both leadership cohorts we helped to run this year. These were in person sessions held in Edinburgh and Glasgow. Glasgow will always be memorable because it was the hottest day of the year back in July – definitely the hottest I’ve ever been in Scotland!

The only other conference I attended this year was Service Design in Government, in September – luckily this was timed with a trip I already had planned for Scottish Government work. I had a great day catching up with many familiar faces from my time working at GDS, DWP, and more recently people I’ve met through work at FutureGov and TPX. That conference really did feel like everyone coming together in digital government for the first time again since Covid.

I haven’t really written much this year – just a few posts on my personal blog. I was proud to write and share a blog about my hearing loss for mental health week in May. I would like to get back into blogging next year… the TPX design blog is part of that, but personal blogging is also important to me. I think I was just ready to step back after the intense 6 months of book writing last year.

2023

We’re already making plans for TPX in 2023. I’ve reached a point where I’m one of the longest serving people in our senior teams. Almost the entire FutureGov team I first joined in 2017 have now moved on.

I think having this type of organisational memory and longevity is giving me a different role to play. But equally, it’s good to be working with new teams to shape the best possible company for us all to be part of in the future.

We have a great pipeline of work and projects that I’m excited for our design teams to contribute to. While I’m really proud of the work our teams have delivered this year, it still feels like the best is to come.

I started travelling for work more again this year, and the balance feels better with in person working. But also not being away from family for too many days each week. I think I need this balance, while I also know that I get my energy and momentum from spending some time meeting and working with people in person each week.

I’ll maybe write some more personal blog posts next year. My kids are growing up fast and I’m mostly focused outside of work on walking the 214 Wainwright peaks in the Lake District (171 still to go). That’s more than enough to keep me busy.

I’m also still on Twitter until the end.

Thanks to anyone that still reads this blog. I hope you have a joyful Christmas and New Year.

A view from one of my Lake District walks in 2022.

December 22nd, 2022. Posted in – Design, personal

Hello, I’m Ben Holliday. This is my blog where I’ve been writing for 15 years. You can follow all of my blog posts by subscribing to this RSS feed. You can also follow my regular updates on Twitter.

Original source – Ben Holliday

HELLO 2023: Public sector comms predictions for 2023

The greatest danger of turbulence, wrote Peter Drucker is not the turbulence is to act with yesterday’s logic.

Here are the 11th set of predictions for public sector communications that starts yet again with a quote that sums up the year ahead. 

Turbulence. If you think its been windy, strap yourself in for 2023. It’s going to blow a gale. 

There is little ahead but turbulence. The way to approach the gale is very much like coping with seasick. Focus on the horizon with a level head. Don’t be too worried by the detail.

2012 comms

One persistent thought kept emerging as I was drawing up these predictions. The danger is to act with yesterday’s logic. In summary, this is to run a comms team as though it is still 2012. Having Facebook, Twitter and YouTube and media relations isn’t enough. Nor is posting a link to a news story on your website to Facebook and Twitter. This is now as effective as hoping people will pick up the print edition of the evening paper and turn to page eight.  

New thinking needs to be done not just to catch up with 2023 but to move into the future.  

I’ve put what I got right and wrong in the 2022 predictions at the bottom of the post.

PREDICTIONS FOR 2023

Turbulence with channels accelerates

We are at a crossroads with digital communications where the old hegemony of Facebook, Twitter and YouTube is disintegrating. How they are used in 2023 is different to 2012. Being up to date with algorithmic shifts is an important part of the comms team. Make time for it. It’ll save time in the long term. Other channels rise. 

Permacrisis turbulence

Public sector comms is a reflection of the ambition, drive, trust and stability of the public sector as a whole. The UK economy has suffered because of its own poor political decisions. Liz Truss’s mini-budget is just one of these. Trust and stability are in short measure with strikes, power cuts, disruption and economic turbulence. In Scotland and Northern Ireland, all this will mean that pressure for independence creates further pressure on to-do lists. 

Your organisation may fall over and it’s not your fault

No matter where you are in the public sector there’s a chance that your organisation may run out of money or run out of staff and collapse. This will happen more often in 2023. You working an 80-hour week every week for 52-weeks won’t change this.  

Easing away from the Town Square 

The traditional social media model was the Town Square where everyone could see each other’s opinions. Abuse has made this model toxic. The public sector, like news, will continue to back away from this in 2023. 

Email lists will be more important

Email lists which are not beholden to the whims of Elon Musk or algorithm changes will become more important. 

Fractured channels

As the traditional hegemony of Twitter, Facebook and YouTube diminishes, the public sector needs to learn to be fleet of foot to identify sub-channels used by clusters of their audience and tailor individual messages to individual audiences. For example, the Quarry Bank Facebook group or the internal staff WhatsApp community, for example. The loud hailer of reaching mass audience will be less important.

SEO is back, baby

With the Town Square loud hailer no longer working so well SEO will become more important to connect to make a voice heard. SEO will be important not just on platforms such as Google but search on Instagram and TikTok. Google are also experimenting with search within video itself. This builds on an emerging trend.

The drift of staff to the private sector increases

The public sector is no longer a career for life. It is stressful, subject to abuse and poorly paid. Pay rises continue to lag behind inflation. The exit ramp from the public sector is a better paid career in the private sector in PR… or even stacking shelves. Those familiar with the talent drain from journalism in the last 20 years will find this scenario familiar. Long term this will lead to a talent drain. 

Viva the generalist

Those left behind in public sector comms must be a jack of all trades from media relations to comms planning to content creation to video editing. The silver lining is that this range of battle-learned skills will make them attractive to the private sector. New skills are needed not just as a once-in-five-years investment but constantly. Invest in your staff. 

There will be a two speed AI learning curve

AI has begun to make inroads into the popular conscience with public sector PR. In 2023, the bow wave will experiment with plugging AI into some areas of content creation. As budgets shrink the need for this will increase. In 2023, there will be examples of comms teams being reshaped to deploy AI by the end of the year. That’s one side of the learning curve. On the other side, teams will lag behind.  

Burn out is in danger of being institutionalised

The need for better strategic management is often not being met by the existing management skill set. Burn out as people try to fill the gaps and service expectations to run a comms team like its still 2012 will lead to staff suffering.

TikTok: more mainstream

There is little risk in this prediction. But TikTok will continue to seek an older audience.  

TikTok: the end of organic reach

TikTok has been flying and hoovering up audience. However, these are the salad days. Make the most of them because organic reach will start to curb in the same way that Facebook Zero curbed it.

Mastodon won’t be a Twitter rival

Those people looking at Mastodon as a chance to recreate old Twitter will be disappointed. It will be a network for the tech savvy but won’t become mainstream in the next 12-months.

Working with creators

This will become more important in 2023. If someone local to you is doing TikTok or Instagram really well, working with them will be more of a sensible idea. 

LinkedIn becomes helpful daily 

The platform once described as ‘like Facebook for accountants’ will really come into its own as the professional Twitter alternative. 


Predictions for 2022 I didn’t get right

I didn’t see three Prime Ministers in three months.

The online harms bill and GDPR Lite didn’t materialise. 

VR and AR didn’t make huge inroads.

Predictions for 2022 I got right

Looking back here’s what I got right…

2022 was be a hard year. 

People did walk off the job burnt out.

Political authority did dip – most notably with 10 Downing Street. 

Brexit did make things harder.

Comms teams did struggle to recruit and retain staff.

Political decision making was broadly poorer.

Diversity continued to get worse. 

The AI gap grew.

TikTok came of age.  

Organic Facebook reach did continue to deteriorate.

Video did increase – particularly vertical. 

Nextdoor did get bigger. 

One size fits all comms did get less effective. 

There was algorithmic upheaval. 


There you go. What did I miss?

Original source – The Dan Slee Blog » LOCAL SOCIAL: Is it time for a Local localgovcamp?