9th february
Later today we are launching a new way of working: squads.
The reason we want to test the use of squad working is to add a greater degree of agility to Bromford - as well as bringing some new perspectives.
We want to be able to test things in shorter periods of time and be able to iterate often without needing approvals that can slow the innovation process down.
There's four themes we'll be working on this year:
- Money: the whole area of affordability from financial capability to jobs
- Health: From making sure people have right services for them to reducing loneliness
- Connected Community: Covering everything about being part of a community and the promotion of local resources
- Home: The whole way our properties are maintained and the choices people have about them
Each of these themes will separate into squads – a group of individuals who will be responsible for forming a service offer, and helping us achieve it. Normally they will do this as part of their established roles.
A squad is not a team and will not have conventional management. They will adopt a virtual , transparent way of working through tools such as Trello , Basecamp and Slack.
One of the benefits of this way of working is that we can co-opt external people onto squads - including customers.
The meeting today is to discuss this way of working - the next steps will the forming of the squads. You'll get updates here as well as on our Lab Dashboard that should be live later this week.