Celebrate
Welcome everyone! This post is part of my wider series on how to implement low-code not just from a technology and process perspective, but also for a people enablement and adoption perspective to truly maximise value from the platform - This post gives an overview of the structured approach I’ve defined and how I’m breaking down my blog posts
Holistic Low-Code Enablement - Blog structure and navigation — EmPOWER Your World
Welcome to the latest post in my enablement series structured around the ‘Maker Movement’ - Celebration!
Like ‘Kool and the Gang’ sang in the 80’s - Celebrate good times! Come on! Let’s celebrate! It’s a celebration! But what were the good times that they were singing about? 🤔
Well I like to think it was a mixture of people across our organisation showing the new behaviours that we’re trying to establish, and the outcomes of those behaviours - the ‘things’ that they’re doing or making. And, of course, the people, organisation, and solution value that those release to make life better for everyone, as well the financials!
As a reminder our goal is to reinforce and encourage people to act in a different way as our community grows. To do that we want to celebrate those acting in that desired way, or building things that we desire. If we can do this publicly people will see the thanks, recognition, and kudos that is given and there could be an element of envy that motivates others to show the same behaviours, or create things too!
Llet’s break those ‘behaviours’ and ‘things’ down and try to bring them to life a bit more through the lens of the Maker Movement steps we’ve spoken about so far - Leaders, People, Educate, Problem Solving, and Community.
Let’s start by looking at some of the behaviours we are trying to establish across these steps.
What are the new behaviours that we’re trying to establish and we want others to copy when they’re celebrated? Let’s catch people ‘doing the right thing’ and shout about it!
Leaders - We want to see leaders who ‘get it’ and have started to build Power Platform and Copilot into the strategies and development plans for their teams. They have understood the value of the platform and are celebrating their own people for the amazing things they’re doing and the knowledge they’re building. They may also be encouraging people within their team to experiment with the tools to build their understanding.
People - We want people to be sharing their stories and inspiring others to start and understanding how to. We want to celebrate those who have taken the first steps on their journey no matter how simple, or potentially clunky or ugly, their first solution is. The longest journey begins with a single step. Let’s celebrate that first step and guide them onwards. We also want to celebrate people who are stepping up and being champions and helping others. We need them to be an extension of our team.
Educate - We want people to own their own learning journey. Seeking learning resources and sharing them with the others. We want them to develop a growth mindset to start wherever they are and move ever forwards. We want them to delight in sharing their knowledge, teaching others, perhaps even running training courses.
Solve Problems - We want to people to innovate, to explore, to solve their problems and the problems of other people. To use our frameworks and approaches to help them approach their challenges in a structured way, thinking of user experience and user interface design, and helping the others do the same.
Community - We want people to be an active part of our community - Sharing their knowledge and experience. Collaborating with their colleagues and the Centre of Excellence to prioritise the evolution of the service and platform. Supporting each other and being an encouraging voice to ensure the right culture for our community.
So let’s now think about the ‘Things’ that we want to celebrate across these areas…
Leaders - Where our leaders are setting direction and driving competition with their peers to compete with them. To do this we can celebrate where they’ve created a vision for their organisation, a strategy on how they want to leverage it, and a roadmap for how they plan to implement this capability.
People - The ‘Things’ in this context are the number of people attracted to the community and to start their maker journey. The number of champions in our network.
Educate - These ‘things’ are our learning materials and resources found or created by the community. The number of boot camps or training courses or learning events run.
Solve Problems - These are the easy ‘things’ - These are primarily the solutions that people have created and the impact that they’ve had and the value that’s been delivered or enabled.
Community - These things are the activity in our community - Number of members, number of posts, number of stories shared etc.
So now we’ve got some ideas of what we could celebrate. Let’s now turn our attention to who we might celebrate to and some of the approaches we might consider.
Let’s start with the audience - These are some of the groups that we want to influence - We want to increase their knowledge and change their behaviours to understand our platform, how it’s used, it’s value, and how to start their journey or understand their role in the bigger picture.
Not all celebration should be done in the same way. Different messages might be suited to different approaches, and different groups might prefer to be celebrated in different ways.
Below are some examples of what these approaches might entail.
In a follow up post we’re going to break down some of these messages and audiences further!
