Alright, fine, last week I was a bit grumpy. But in my defence, I did have good reason to be.
But I am nothing if not persistent. Like water.
Drip. Drip. Drip. And finally, the dam has burst. There is no corporate hurdle I will not bound through, especially if it has been made hard to jump over it.
This week I’ve managed to get not one, not two, but four recruitment campaigns and a procurement unblocked. Only problem is now, I have the admin of doing four recruitments and a procurement to do!
Anyway, look out for jobs through the usual channels soon.
Laugh, so you don’t cry
Sometimes you have to laugh at the way the Civil Service works, because if you don’t laugh, you’ll cry. Two things occurred in rapid succession this week that fall into this category.
That is not a “sprint”
The first was when I saw a major piece of work that is bound to run on for many months being referred to as a “sprint”.
I’m not a purist who is deluded to the point of believing that the digital profession has a monopoly on the language of agile delivery but, guys – and in this case it is definitely guys – if it’s going to take months, the word you’re looking for is “marathon” not “sprint”.
That’s a digital signature
The second involved a letter.
If you don’t know, government runs on letters. And I don’t mean “electronic mail”, I mean PDFs of A4 pieces of paper. From the ministers all the way down the stack; letters are for important things where someone needs an official record of an opinion or a decision.
The substance of the letter that caught my attention this week is irrelevant to this anecdote. How it was packaged up was the ridiculous element.
This was a letter that had been printed and then re-scanned before being sent off as a PDF.
This is not so unusual. These printed letters are printed so they can be signed. The scanned PDFs are completely inaccessible – but traditions die hard in Whitehall.
What was unusual about this PDF though was that, on closer inspection, this letter has an electronic signature!
Someone had put an electronic signature on a letter, printed the letter, and then rescanned the letter before sending it off.
Why?!
If they used an electronic signature then the letter in its original, mostly accessible, PDF glory could have been sent around without the waste of paper and ink. It boggles the brain.
I said last week “no innovation until everything works”. Maybe I should have said “no innovation until everyone can right-click a mouse”.
Career conversations
I’ve spent quite a bit of time this week talking about people’s careers; mine – as a “career journey” conversation in a team meeting – and a few members of my team.
I increasingly enjoy doing this stuff. Maybe it’s flattering my ego. Maybe it’s just distracting me from more banal work. Or maybe people actually want my advice! (I know, I’m shocked too.)
I’ll write up my advice separately at some point.