Unicorns: My Personal Story
Unicorns are mythical creatures, and some would tell you just as mythical as the word ‘innovation’ in government! Before getting a job as a public servant, I spent time working for a small private business for about 8 years, and another 9 years working for a large consulting company. Plenty of opportunities existed at both companies to learn new ways of thinking, new techniques and tools and how to apply them to help other teams and business alike succeed.
This mix of jobs seeded within me a desire to use these same tools to help bring my experience and training to any role I held. To seek to deliver “more” then the status quo, to strive to deliver above and beyond expectations.
Governments hire outside consulting companies, such as the one I worked at to help bring new innovative ideas into government. The transition to the public services and adopting to the culture had its share of challenges. One day I discovered the first floor of the building I was working in opened a “Innovation Workspace” and I was excited to learn more about it. I learned that in addition to the space being ‘bookable’, they held monthly (in person) meetings called UNICORNS, based on an article from apolitical.co — Let’s save the unicorns in government jobs’
The UNICORNS is a safe place to share your ideas and thoughts about how to make the organization a better place, and it is based upon some key principles
Let’s be curious, kind, and compassionate
Let’s be careful of our own judgements
Let’s go with the currents
Let’s be ourselves
Let’s be comfortable with being uncomfortable
Let’s acknowledge that our perspectives are just that
Let’s seek connection and build community
Let’s leave stories here, take lessons with us
Let’s have FUN!
By meeting over Lunch hour, it is our own personal time, therefore, the meeting is a community of practice to be what we make of it. For a while during COVID the meetings went away, and it was only then that I truly understood how much I missed it (you don’t know what your missing until it’s gone). Fortunately it came back (virtually for now at least), and this past year our focus on has been on ‘Inner Change’.
Key Points — Starting your own UNICORNS PARTY
Gather: Find some initial like minded individuals. Perhaps people who are un-engaged? super outgoing? or frustrated?. People who have lot’s of ideas but are not sure how to implement them. People who love to learn. Anyone and everyone that is ready to embrace change… when the student is ready.. the teacher will appear.
Name It: You can name your group whatever you want. Unicorns may not be the right name for you, no problem, choose whatever feels comfortable
Customize: Using the key principles above customize them to the values you want to create. Make it a safe space, leave your “job titles” at the door.
Plan It: A few hours of planning are required before staring your party. What will your party be about, what technique do you want to practice?
Key Planning Tips:
Check-Ins: Before staring the meeting, think of a check-in question. The question should help ‘take the temperature’ of how your team is feeling. For small groups each person can take a minute or two to answer the question among the group. For larger teams you can use a white board (real or virtual) where people can place “stickies” to their answers together. It also gives team members the opportunity to transition from whatever meeting/task they just left into the space for this meeting.
Leads: In our meetings we find it best to have 2 lead roles per party. One person is the key ‘technical lead’. They are responsible for helping others get setup and access the resources, managing breakout rooms etc. The second lead manages the flow of the meeting. Both leads can also take turns taking about various parts of the meeting.
1–2–4-All: A common arrangement we use is called 1–2–4-All from Liberating Structures. Whatever the particular topic, often we take 2–5 minutes to individual think of our ideas, gather our thoughts, we then meet in groups of 2 to share for another 10 minutes, then groups of 4. Finally we all meeting together and look for common themes or messages in our communication.
Check-Out: Similar to Check-In the checkout asks one or more questions, more of a reflective nature. Did today’s meeting help you? Has it given you some ideas to grow on? to move forward? can you think of how you might apply this practice to your daily life/skills?
Need Help?
No one can do it all alone, and there is nothing wrong with seeking help. If you are part of the same government as me, feel free to reach out to me on our Yammer site. If you are not, you can reach out to me on twitter @TrueGeekWisdom
Welcome to the journey…
