Encouraging a culture of learning across your organisation

Workshops are a great way of developing skills and sharing knowledge within your organisation, and they also encourage a culture of learning together. But running a workshop by yourself can seem daunting, especially if you aren’t an expert in the area you want your organisation to get better at.

I’ll talk about my experience of running a web security workshop at the UK’s Government Digital Service, what we did to improve our culture of learning and how you can do something similar where you work.

DevOpsDays Berlin 2017: https://www.devopsdays.org/events/2017-berlin/program/
DevOpsDays Edinburgh 2017: https://www.devopsdays.org/events/2017-edinburgh/program/

Transcript

1. Jenny Duckett Senior Developer
 Government Digital Service
 @jenny_duckett
2. 2 I’m from the UK Government Digital Service (GDS)
4. First, a sad story 4
6. 6 GDS Inappropriate content :-( GDS
7. Why run a workshop? 7
9. 9 GDS Show that it’s ok to take time out to learn GDS
10. 10 GDS Scale your impact GDS
11. 11 GDS We’re all responsible for what we build GDS
12. Why focus on security? 12
13. 13 GDS Developers often don’t feel confident about security GDS
14. 14 GDS Expand the community of interested people GDS
15. 15 GDS Security is one of many areas we care about GDS
16. But I’m not a security expert! 16
17. 17 GDS …so I can’t do this GDS
18. 18 GDS …so I can’t do this …that’s fine, do it anyway GDS
19. 19 GDS GDS
20. 20 GDS Treat it as an alpha - prototype and iterate GDS
21. 21 GDS You don’t have to cover everything GDS
22. 22 GDS Experts aren’t always the best teachers GDS
23. 23 GDS It isn’t about having all the answers GDS
24. 24 GDS Find someone to work with GDS
25. Alex Muller (with egg for scale) 25 GDS GDS
26. Hypotheses to test 26
27. 27 GDS The OWASP top 10 is a good starting point GDS
28. 28 GDS Keep a strong practical focus GDS
29. 29 GDS Make it a single day GDS
30. 30 GDS Use the source code of exercises to learn GDS
32. 32 GDS Learn how to use your everyday tools better GDS
34. 34 GDS Bring it home by using examples from your own applications GDS
35. 35 GDS Get people to work together and help each other GDS
36. 36 GDS Make something that other people can build on GDS
37. Practical tips 37
38. 38 GDS About 15 people, with a range of skills GDS
39. 39 GDS Ask people to set up in advance GDS
40. 40 GDS Set up a local network GDS
41. 41 GDS Run a short retrospective GDS
42. 42 GDS Ask for volunteers to run the next one GDS
43. What did we learn? 43
44. 44 GDS It’s totally possible to do this! GDS
46. 46 GDS You’ll learn about the topic in more depth by preparing to explain it GDS
47. 47 GDS Be ruthless with your MVP GDS
48. 48 GDS Running the day well takes effort GDS
49. 49 GDS Organising an event can be time-consuming GDS
50. 50 GDS • organising space, facilities and people • researching topics • structuring the content • writing presentations • preparing practical exercises GDS
51. What happened next? 51
52. 52 GDS Share what you’ve made GDS
55. 55 GDS Fix the biggest problem for next time GDS
56. 56 GDS Support the people who come after you GDS
57. 57 GDS 2 workshops have happened since ours GDS
58. 58 GDS They’ve taken the format forward in exciting ways we didn’t expect GDS
60. 60 GDS Workshops aren’t the end of the journey GDS
61. You can do this too 61
62. 62 GDS What can you run a workshop about? GDS
64. 64 GDS You can encourage a culture of learning in your organisation GDS
65. 65 GDS Thanks! @jenny_duckett