Putting people at the heart of our technology

It’s nearly been a year of being the assistant chief guide!

I can’t quite believe I’m writing that – where has the year gone? I’ve had such a fun time already going to lots of events and getting involved in exciting projects. Over the summer I went to my first ever jamboree - I was in total awe! I spoke to loads of enthusiastic and passionate volunteers who were at the heart of making sure everything ran smoothly so that the participants could have the best time. I even tried my hand at some axe throwing which is apparently a new skill of mine. Who knew?

Among the many things I spoke about with volunteers at the event were their ideas, dreams and suggestions for our systems and processes. ‘Wouldn’t it be amazing if...’ was the phrase on everyone’s lips! So I couldn’t wait to write this blog and share some of the exciting technology developments we've started at Girlguiding.

The chief guide team are involved in lots of different projects in Girlguiding

I’m fortunate enough to be involved in a programme that is exploring how we meet the needs of volunteers, girls, staff, parents and carers by developing our technology, tools, systems and processes. How can we make programme recording easier? How can we make the admin of running a unit easier? What can we do to help all of us spend time doing more of what really matters – helping girls enjoy the magic of guiding? The answer? Improved technology!

Of course – none of this will happen overnight. But over the course of the next 5 years we’ll be developing and creating new solutions to make the technology we all use within Girlguiding smoother, more inclusive, accessible, and relevant. We’ve been speaking with lots of volunteers, staff, girls and parents and carers about their experiences using the current technology and what we can do to make it better.

We also have a group of representatives, drawn from our countries and regions, who reflect a cross-section of the people who use Girlguiding’s technology. This group are working with us every step of the way so we can place people at the heart of this work – designing hand in hand with them, and continually collaborating. They ensure we hear about what the challenges and opportunities are like for lots of different people. And this isn’t the only group we’re working with – throughout the project, we’ll make sure that we’re looking for opportunities to hear from more people. Making sure we’re listening, collecting data, and acting on feedback is really important, so we can create a digital offer that is fit for purpose and makes all of our lives easier.

We’re currently working on creating and testing a small pilot to check our ways of working together

We need to make sure we’ve got good processes for getting feedback, launching, and communicating the change – right from the start! After that, we’ll be working on small changes alongside some bigger issues over the next few years. Of course, we’ll communicate these changes in plenty of time through our commissioner calls, all member calls, and through our newsletters. You can also keep up to date and share your thoughts via our hub.