A story from the virtual trenches, by Mark Frazer

All Change!

Well, as we all know (and I’ll say it again), we are all experiencing uncertain and unprecedented times in the wake of the Covid-19 (C19) pandemic. It has been a number of weeks now since the virus has forced individuals and organisations alike to adapt and change the way we live our lives and our ways of working.

At an individual level, this has meant we have had to change the way in which we shop, the way in which we communicate and socialise with family and friends and, the way in which we work, if of course, we are lucky enough to remain in gainful employment!

It is relatively easy for each of us to adapt our lives based on the advice and guidance provided by the Government to stay safe and healthy, as we are very much in control of our own living space and surroundings.

At an organisational level however, this is not as smooth or painless a transition. Organisations have quickly had to adapt service delivery models to remain operational, moving from a steady business as usual state to more agile ways of remote working to continue delivering services for customers. Typical responses from businesses have been to:

• Flex and adapt operating models
• Establish remote working teams
• Facilitate ongoing and effective collaboration with customers through new and existing infrastructure to ensure that projects and programmes are delivered
• Ensure that outputs are delivered efficiently and to the same level of quality through completely different ways of working and doing business

As if managing the transition from a BAU state to a completely new way of operating isn’t daunting enough, many organisations are faced not just with flexing their model to deliver traditional services but also to design and deliver new services at speed and as a direct response to C-19.

All of this to ensure that the most vulnerable in our society are protected from the health risks that this pandemic presents. In this case, I’m referring to Local Authorities (LAs).

In the Thick of it!

I have been working with Harrow Council over the last few weeks to facilitate the design and implementation of an Operating Model (OM) for their Community Hub (CH). This is a in direct response to C-19 as guided by central Government.

The CH’s primary purpose is to support residents of the borough who have been clinically assessed to be ‘most at risk’ of severe illness should they contract the virus and therefore they have to self-isolate for a period of 12 weeks. Support includes the provision of food and medicines as well as other health and social contact needs that individuals require throughout this time.

All of this has to be delivered against the backdrop of delivering essential Council services in a BAU capacity.

The Council themselves rapidly mobilised a team of key stakeholders across services to lead the thinking behind the design, logistics and delivery of support services of the CH.

I and my colleagues were engaged to facilitate this collaboration, develop a plan and deliver the OM within very short timescales (you can read a short case study here). All of this would have to be done with no face to face contact and, as facilitators, we would have to broker dialogue across an ever-widening range of stakeholders. No pressure then!

Establishing ways of working

From my previous experience working with LAs, we were aware that the digital infrastructure wasn’t very well advanced and that they relied on outdated technologies for remote, group collaboration. The dreaded conference call, which brought with it the usual challenges – people joining late, people dropping out of the call, people talking over each other as well as people joining the call who shouldn’t be there in the first place (we’ve all been there!). However, this was the main tool that we had to facilitate collaboration and the thinking required to deliver the model.

How on earth would we, could we, manage the collaboration and get to the required outputs using technology with restricted capabilities in a project that seemed to be moving at 200 mph? Top tips below:

Establishing the key stakeholders in the Council who would have responsibility in the design of the CH and who would ultimately sign off the final designs was crucial. Understanding their specific role in a BAU capacity, as well as a project setting, and opening up lines of communication on a one to one basis helped us to determine the fundamental requirements of the project and expected outcomes. It also helped us to shape a project plan of activities, assign ownership and responsibility and track progress.

Planning

Planning is everything. To get the most from the design meetings, we planned ahead to make sure that only those people who were essential to participate in the design conversations were invited. This helped to maintain focus and get to the required outcomes efficiently.

A different kind of Socialising

Developing prototypes of designs and socialising prior to scheduled meetings meant that attendees had an opportunity to review up-to-date thinking and progress against the specific requirements of the engagement.

This technique also helps to maintain focus for the meeting and individuals could impact assess the designs as well as test and challenge assumptions. All of this resulted in efficient decision making regarding future iterations of the design and the team were able to deliver the final products in a constrained timeframe.

Leader of the Pack

It is essential that there is a designated lead/facilitator to manage the engagements. Make it clear from the start who this person is, their role as facilitator and the ground rules that will govern meetings, for example:

• Listen to others
• Don’t talk over people
• Wait until it’s ‘your turn’ or until prompted to speak
• No waffle, stick to the subject matter

Share the Love

In this case our customer had limited technology to facilitate the remote working and engagements that were essential to delivery. As a small, new change organisation, we have access to a nimble, digital infrastructure, and we were able to extend the use of our technology toolset to the Council. This included the use of Microsoft Teams to ensure that calls were productive or in some cases the extension of our digital collaboration platform that enabled:

• On-line collaboration via chat and whiteboard
• Real time editing of design documents
• Document storage and version control

On Reflection

There is no doubt in my mind that working to such tight deadlines in direct response to the C-19 crisis focussed the minds of both the Council and my colleagues alike. This contributed to efficient and effective decision making and the final design of the CH Operating Model.

However, the introduction of new ways of working and utilisation of digital platforms really did contribute to the effective collaboration of thoughts and ideas in a way that the Council had never experienced before.

Learnings for the Council

The impact of C-19 will challenge organisations of all types to think about their capability to respond to such a crisis in the future in terms of how they reshape and flex their delivery models to achieve service continuity and ultimately survive. The Council will no doubt take many learnings from this period of rapid and significant change to their ways of working. Overall, I think that there is an acceptance that there are smarter and more efficient ways to deliver services and capitalise on the benefits that this brings, including:

• Effective collaboration and service delivery enabled by embracing new technologies and ways of working
• Efficient decision making through focussed and effective collaboration
• The ability to be more agile and responsive to volatile operating environments
• Potential reduction in operating costs due to less physical locations and infrastructure
• The positive impact on the environment