DigEd was established as an integrated portfolio of teams and the principles of team-based and integrated ways of working have been core to our vision from the outset. Shaped both by our own goals as a portfolio and the needs of our stakeholders, our team-based ways of working have been maturing over time into a dynamic set of practices.
Drawing on the work of Amy Edmondson and West & Markiewicz, team-based working focuses on fluid and agile approaches where staff move across workstreams and projects to meet needs, share knowledge and develop new capabilities, rather than focusing on rigid role boundaries and task allocations. Working in this way has huge benefits around operational capacity and resilience, staff wellbeing and development and organisational learning, but also requires open communication and strong trust-based relationships to be realised effectively.
To this end DigEd’s approach has been grounded in valuing the relationships already in place and then building on these with new relationships to establish trust in the team as a whole. We also make sure we proactively communicate across the university in a range of ways to make sure stakeholders are continually informed of what we’re doing and what to expect.
Some of the team-based principles and practices that we have implemented include:
- Cross-skilling so DigEd staff can work fluidly across a range of areas
- Decision-making driven by goals, needs and strengths rather than roles and resourcing
- Designing consistent processes across the whole team
- Distributed work allocations that allow our stakeholders to both work with familiar faces and develop new relationships
- Sharing localised knowledge and protocols across the whole team
While our team-based approach informs everything we do on a day-to-day basis, it’s also been the foundation of some large-scale projects – initiatives such as DSSP, which established our unit site development process; OLXi, which is now in its second trimester of developing our OLX build and support process; and the new approach to Graduation livestreaming that was implemented for the August ceremonies. Through these we’ve been able to develop a robust, resilient service profile that has enabled us to not only maintain but increase the support we offer to academic areas, no matter who is on leave or what significant events impact the team (and there have been quite a few…!).
As DigEd continues to refine and grow our team-based practices, you may continue to be introduced to new people, or see familiar people working in new ways or on different tasks, but no matter who you are working with you’ll know you can expect the same high-quality experience.