At Bromford we are big fans of using design principles.
At the beginning of our transformation journey we started by defining nine overall design principles, which colleagues all signed up to before developing their own principles for each of their service areas.
Having a clearly articulated and understood set of principles should help us do the following:
Get us all on the same page – or surface differences that we are unclear on and need further debate.
Avoid silos – as everyone is working to the same set of overarching principles.
Help us evaluate proposed work – as deviating from the principles is not acceptable, although they might develop over time.
Establish the use of the principles as “business as usual” for the way we deliver change.
The thinking behind our principles is as follows:
Challenge assumptions:
We want to ensure all our thinking is forward looking rather than reflecting how we used to do things. Acting differently and challenging convention is the only way we’ll keep Bromford future ready.
Abandon activities that don't add value:
This is about accepting that Bromford should only do what we do best, and not try and do everything. Many people in our communities are much better placed to solve problems than we are!
Automate bravely:
Our goal here is that colleagues are used for their expertise not for inputting and processing. That means designing out manual, repetitive or labour intensive activities and automating them wherever possible.
Simplification at the heart:
Bromford has a lot of things to do that are quite complicated - but we need to design them as simply as we can. We’ll aim to identify the quickest and most effective route from A to B avoiding unnecessary complication, double handling or escalation.
Build for needs not wants:
Rather than design what people tell us they want - we need to better understand what they truly need from us. We all know that what we say we want in life and what we actually need are slightly different things!
Design for everyone:
We’ll avoid providing different bespoke solutions for people as this adds complexity overall. We’ll design services that work for all of us rather than cater to individual preferences.
Better connected:
We’ll standardise our systems and use ‘out of the box’ solutions as much as possible so they connect with each other. We’ll aim to have all the relevant information in one place.
Joined up Bromford:
All our service offerings must connect and underpin the Bromford strategy. We want to avoid silos and bring our people and teams together
Build Trust:
A really important one as great relationships are at the heart of Bromford, so our service designs must promote trust rather than assume bad intentions on behalf of customers or colleagues.
The posters we use are attached below. We intend to develop our principles over time - so watch this space for future iterations.
