#Weeknotes 71 (26 Apr) — Setting expectations, optimisation vs shortcuts, and the Life in the UK test

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Work wise:

This week, I’ve been doing a lot of expectation-setting with clients around the work the team is committing to. Our ambitions often get the best of us. We tend to underestimate the amount of work needed to achieve certain outcomes, which also does not compromise the quality of work or morale. It’s important to set the right expectations at the beginning to avoid potential disappointments later.

One of the priority work we’re doing is to create a tool to give better visibility of the work all the partnerships teams are doing at Sport England. If done right, it should be able to answer key questions, identify gaps, and uncover opportunities for the organisation to be more effective and better positioned to achieve its vision.

Attempts at this have been made in the past and failed to get traction. Key reasons for the failure are likely due to:

• Teams not working collaboratively in the creation of the tool, which leads to a result that works for a few but not most
• User needs have not been properly gathered, agreed, and prioritised
• Trying to do too much at the beginning without enough evidence or validation
• The tool was overly complex and lacks the guidance needed for wider usage

To ensure we have a bit more success this time around, we wanted to make sure we approach the work in the right way. This means that we need to:

• Start with identifying the needs and value of the tool, via research (AKA talking to the people with existing pain points) that shape the tool
• Ensure the right people are involved in the creation
• Make sure there’s a feedback cycle to shape iterations of the tool until a useful first version is achieved
• Start with MVP. This means prioritising key user needs and focusing on solving them in the right way rather than attempting to address all needs but not effectively.
• Ensure that the first version is simple to use, feel familiar, and require minimal guidance for wider adoption

With those principles in mind, we also want to make sure that the clients have a realistic picture of what a first version will likely look like:

A simple illustration I put together to communicate to the clients what realistically we can get to with the first version, versus the maturity in value and thinking in the 10th version and iteration.

• The first version, as it’ll be embedded with many assumptions, will likely be ‘wrong’. But the 5th version will be much less wrong, and the 10th version onwards will be on the right track requiring only minimal changes
• Version 1 will provide clarity to some questions but not all. The intent is to use it as a springboard to have more of the right conversations around challenges, complexities, and alignment with the relevant people

It was a really useful exercise and the clients were very much on board with the approach and principles. This means that anything we manage to achieve beyond what’s expected would be a bonus. Psychology tells us that while we enjoy having more, it’s the loss that’s hard to bear. As someone who tends to overachieve and then get burned out, I believe the secret to contentment in life, and in project management, is having ̶l̶o̶w̶ realistic expectations. That way, you can only win. 😀

In a way, by keeping our expectations real, we’re really accommodating to the role that uncertainty could play in any situation. It means:

• More time to do things in the right way
• Allow space for reflection and interrogation (move away from our default responses and be intentional about the things we’re doing)
• Have more flexibility to navigate around unpredictable changing work or life situations
• More focus and energy spent on the key things that matter
• A healthier pace of working. This means less risk of anxiety or burnout from trying to do too much
• Have more opportunity for delight when we do have the capacity to go above and beyond

I don’t know about you, but every time I find myself with more time to do something, I do the thing better and feel better doing it. There’s something about taking the necessary journey (steps and timeline) needed to get to any destination (outcome) that’s applicable in both work and life. There’s a fine line between optimising and shortcutting. Optimising for me means making something that’s mundane or repetitive more efficient while Shortcutting is skipping what’s deemed ‘unnecessary’ to complete a task. Optimising feels smart while shortcutting feels like a cheat.

I’m a productivity nerd and I admit I sometimes mix up the two. I’m trying to be more mindful when “shortening” tasks. I’d ask myself what I would lose in the process. One thing I feel quite strongly about is not shortcutting reading a book via tools like Blinkist which claims to help us ‘understand’ books and podcasts in just 15 minutes. I admit, when I first heard about it, I was enamoured with its promise. I tend to read nonfiction books as I feel I’m guaranteed to learn something from them. Just think about how many more books I can get through now spending the same amount of ‘reading’ time. I’d be so much smarter!

However, upon further reflection and thinking about my reading experiences, I’m not convinced that a 15-minute time with an idea is enough for it to stick. At least not for me. Books I’ve read often have a few key concepts that they’d repeat over and over again throughout with varying examples and perspectives. The repetition process and the time it took for me to finish each book (sometimes over months) are what make some of the concepts stick. Even then, I have already forgotten the contents of some of the books I’ve read. I can’t imagine shortcutting that process will yield better or more understanding! Quick isn’t better if it’s not effective. Perhaps it’s to serve a momentary self-satisfaction, to be able to say “Hey I’ve just finished ‘reading’ another book!”. Hmm.. 🤔

On the other hand, I do see the potential for using a summary tool like Blinkist to determine if a book is of interest for a full read. Even then, I’m not confident I’ll go read the book in full. I would likely feel that I got enough out of the 15-minute version and will require much more persuasion to read the expanded version that is the whole book. But hey, that’s just me. There are over 18 million people worldwide using Blinkist, so what do I know?

via Tenor

Life wise:

After living in the UK for nearly 7 years, I am now able to apply for permanent residency or settlement. This means I will no longer need a permit to work and stay in the UK. As part of the application process, I need to pass the ‘Life in the UK’ (LITUK) test to prove a good understanding of British life, history, culture, and laws.

If you’re curious, you can try to test yourself with some practice questions at Life in the UK Test 2024 — Free Practice Questions — Realistic Tests (lifeintheuktests.co.uk)

Initially, I found this mandatory test as part of the application process unsavoury. Why subject people to memorise dates, names, and topics that are hardly gonna ever make it to our day-to-day lives and conversations? It feels like a checklist exercise that only serves to make the already lengthy application unnecessarily more complex. They must know that most people who pass the test will forget, rather quickly, the majority of what they learned for the sake of getting it done. It just feels ineffective. On top of that, while the test is mandatory for those seeking citizenship or residency, many people in the UK don’t have to go through such tests at all, such as those born in the UK with parents who are already citizens or permanent residents. Growing up in Canada since the age of 10, I never took any citizenship tests as it was enough that my immigrant parents did it. I wouldn’t consider myself less Canadian because I never took the test to prove a certain level of knowledge. It all feels a bit silly.

Since I want the settlement status, I have no choice but go through the required process and embrace it.

Then something intriguing happened.

After reading through the study materials and doing 500+ practice questions, my attitude about this ‘checkbox’ exercise changed.

It was quite interesting to learn about the UK through many lenses: its territories, history, politics, religion, economy, culture, laws, rights, and achievements. Having a newer and deeper understanding, I now feel more connected to the place I’ve been living in for the past 7 years.

While the knowledge of the many hundreds of famous Britains likely won’t make it into our daily lives, the information about laws, rights, and culture feels rather relevant. It seems sensible that we familiarise ourselves with the laws and our rights and responsibilities in the place we live. Not knowing such important information could mean some people not getting the support and help they have access to simply because they don’t know they exist. It means that people can get taken advantage of or stuck in social economic disadvantageous situations because they don’t know other ways. Knowledge is power, and some are most beneficial.

I’m a complete believer now that this should be required reading for everyone who lives in the UK (not just those applying for settlement and citizenship). I’m not sure a 25-question test with a passing grade of 75% is the best approach to prove one’s understanding, especially in a book with such a range of knowledge. But I do recognise the need to gauge a certain level of understanding. If I can choose, I much rather have a 100-question test with the same passing percentage. That to me feels more fair in covering the majority of areas noted in the book, and not get over anxious that one wrong answer could tip from a pass to fail.

Some nice highlights for me include:

• The emphasis on equal opportunities and freedom of individual expression and religion.
• The police seek to protect and prevent (less reactive) and that aggression is very much not part of the work at all.
• There’s much sense of accountability and empowerment of the public to hold our political leaders, civil servants, and police accountable by having ways to join and access debates, file complaints, and get in touch with the right authorities.

I feel more proud of the place I live in now and am more motivated to play my part better: Connecting with my local community and neighbours, voting, caring more for the environment, and volunteering (once my child is older and is less dependent on me 🙈). It’s a nice feeling.

I started studying last week and have booked the test for next weekend. I want to get the test over with before I forget everything I read!

Things I came across:

One of the Britains I learned about in studying the LITUK test, is the Indian-born writer and poet Rudyard Kipling who was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1907 and wrote the Jungle book. What captured me was his famous poem titled “If” which begins with:

If you can keep your head when all about you

Are losing theirs and blaming it on you,

If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,

But make allowance for their doubting too;

If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,

Or being lied about, don’t deal in lies,

Or being hated, don’t give way to hating,

And yet don’t look too good, nor talk too wise:

I love it so much. It just feels like good principles to live by: Don’t let the external negativities get us and we should strive to stay strong in our own way.

You can read the full poem here.

Until next week!