By Tom Watson in weeknote —

Weeknote 31-01-25

A weeknote. Bits on Systems change, focusing on signals, platforms and other things I saw this week

Blimey two in a row, this is in danger of becoming a habit

What I did this week

  • The week started with someone randomly getting in touch about https://www.openideas.uk/ - they loved it and then asked some good questions which I'm pondering
Is this active? Do you have capacity to push this? Can I help? Do you want to hand it off, with attribution?

Open Ideas started as an experiment born out of equal measures of optimism and frustration. It felt, and still feels to me, that we put too much emphasis on who the idea came from, rather than the idea itself. So I wanted to test the concept of idea anonymity, judging an idea only. I also felt that it is a great privilege to explore ideas, and so would a small amount of money (£500 out of my pocket) allow someone who otherwise wouldn't to spend a day working on their idea.


I've had various thoughts around openideas since. I wondered at one time if it was possible to create a small fund to help support ideas, decided upon by a community of users, a bit like participatory grant making or distributed budgets. I even built the backend functionality to do this, but never pushed it live. Maybe I should do more on this, maybe I should just hand it off...

  • Had a good check in with other Data for Action Tom on Monday a new time we are trying out.
  • Facilitated a session for Local Motion Middlesbrough (which I planned last week). As a systems change initiative with multiple funders, organisations and people involved it can feel messy, and uncertain. And at times of uncertainty people often default to what they know or are comfortable with.
Sam Conniff on LinkedIn: #leadershipdevelopment #cognitivebias #groupthink #decisionmaking…
The abso-fcking-lute worst part of ‘out of the box’ thinking? Is watching said thinking get A/B tested to death, suffer the death of a thousand comments, be…
LinkedInAlastair Gill FCIPD
When faced with the radical or really unusual, our brains grasp for familiar patterns, past experiences, and rules of thumb to make sense of what it’s seeing.

I'm helping them to feel comfortable enough to make progress, to take action, without falling back to known approaches of control, attribution and rigid plans. I've suggested focusing on their system change mechanisms, decision making and learning. One of the things I also suggested, which seemed to land, was focusing on 'observations' and 'signals' rather than metrics and milestones.

  • Caught up with Expert Link who i've been coaching with all things tech and AI. It's been a lovely project as they've really embraced an ongoing experiment and learn approach, and starting everything from a set of principles they defined.
  • Had a brief chat with Ross at Third Sector Labs about some upcoming data leadership sessions I'm going to run.
  • Met Matt from https://www.futureswild.com/ a fairly new spin out agency focusing on custom data platforms for nature
  • Started inviting testers for https://www.impact-questions.com/ so we can get some feedback to see how/if we develop this further.
  • Republished some templates on Airtable Universe on behalf of Power to Change who are really putting some effort into creating a practical legacy for the Powering Up programme.

Things I saw

1. There needs to be an overview of Big Tech’s influence on the digital infrastructure 2. Make data accessible in ways that benefit and empower the individual and society of the future 3. Alternatives to Big Tech’s services need to emerge and grow 4. No one should be forced to use Big Tech’s services to get information and participate in social, cultural, and democratic communities 5. The public sector should not be dependent on Big Tech’s services 6. Danish educational institutions must be free from commercial Big Tech 7. Big Tech’s platforms must be safe places to shop
  • Great post from Steve on shows and tells. Still think "Show the Thing" should be number 1. And possibly number 2!
Tips on doing show & tell well
Product and design consultancy. Helping you build products and services that meet people’s expectations. No hype, no fluff. Good, straightforward stuff that just works.
Steve MesserSteve Messer
  • Loved this on Organisational Resilience which chimes with my thinking
There are no right answers. I don’t know. They have to look hard, ask tough questions, and most of all they have to imagine: what if…. What if not…? What could…? What might?

https://heffernanm.substack.com/p/resilience-requires-imagination?utm_source=share&utm_medium=android&r=18xicp&triedRedirect=true
  • Saw this from Patrick J McGovern Foundation. Haven't looked at it properly but will do
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Patrick J. McGovern Foundation

Thinking about

I'm glad i spent a bit of time putting this blog up and trying to keep writing, it's helping me think. This week I've been pondering a few things and how they are mixing in my brain and sparking ideas.
Take one Platform design, one paper on "Collective intelligence: A unifying concept for integrating biology across scales and substrates" and one of my own explorations on People as Code and apply it to social purpose design. Hmmm

Run month

Had an ok month of running. Will clock 150k with some decent vert. Not great but solid considering the weather. Have focused on consistent strength sessions and yoga. Feeling pretty good again after Decembers illness.