Trying to navigate the labyrinth
I built a tool out of frustration.
Well, Claude did. But the anger was mine and it was real.
Sat in a programme meeting, in that liminal space before everyone joined the teams call, a group of programme folks were discussing with some glee the failure of a recent initiative. There was much hand rubbing, and excitement about being time to 'dust off their folders.' - To return to their old programme governance binders. And mindset. That their way was the right way after all.
In the same week, I spent a happy couple of hours reading amendments to the Magenta book for test and learn. And I found myself wondering, how many people running programmes are as nerdy as I am? How many lead projects, programmes, services or products using the latest guidance? And how many are just using what they learned? The pathways that are familiar.
From my work, I have a strong suspicion that few if any are reading up to date guidance. And part of that problem is of course human nature. The busier we are, the more we default to the rails we have already laid. The path of least mental effort. The familiar.
But another part of it, is that government guidance is ENORMOUS. There are 843,253 words of rules for delivering things in UK government. This is the guidance someone may hold you to. It is published by 16 different bodies, across 297 web pages and PDFs, with no single owner and no single place it all lives. Read end to end at an average pace, it would take about 56 hours: a week and a half of doing nothing else. So perhaps I should forgive leaders for defaulting to what they know.
And what a waste? All that work to try and improve delivery conditions based on learning is potentially not reaching those who need it. Making it easier to fall into the Amber trap.
So instead of writing, I have used my spare time over the last few weeks to try and find a way to make that easier. To use the power of constrained LLMs, to make it easier to interact with that library of guidance. And help people make use of that which lies beyond their dusty binders.
The result is up for a month for people to test. To see if it's worth keeping, to build on and develop the idea. So if you would like to play with the most niche connector in the world. Here it is. Let me know your thoughts. The government delivery library