text: Just over 7 years ago I hung up my Royal Navy uniform and became a civil servant working for Dstl (the Defence Science and Technology Laboratory). It’s been a challenging and hugely rewarding time. I started in the geospatial intelligence team, working on a variety of research projects as technical lead or project manager (occasionally both). Working with some great colleagues I was able to play the lead role in establishing MOD’s spatial data infrastructure – a technical coherence framework that formed the basis for a major investment in the Defence Geospatial Services programme.
  An internal secondment led to a new job in the CIO’s team leading on the management and exploitation of knowledge and information. Three roles in one, combining traditional IS direction, corporate change and research leadership. This was a great opportunity to use my influence to secure an Executive commitment to “shift the way that Dstl works” and adopt a programme of collaborative technology and behaviours. One of the cornerstones for this was an implementation of MediaWiki with the semantic extension which gave us a way to build a powerful internal encyclopaedic knowledge base.
  The other main component was the implementation of a social software platform to get folk collaborating across the boundaries of projects and departments, which over the years had become somewhat isolated silos. I led a great team working on this, spanning our ICT contractor, immediate colleagues in IT, 3rd party software vendor and advocates across the organisation. Working together I’m proud to say we pulled off what one key player described as a ‘wow project’. And in January this year we got some great recognition in the civil service TW3 (The Way We Work) awards. We were Team runner-up in Technology category, with the judges citing our work as a contributory factor to Dstl’s win in Corporate Leadership. It’s not often that you get the chance to instigate and then drive through a cultural shift like that at scale.
  But I feel ready for a change and I’ve decided to leave Dstl at the end of March 2016.
  I’m not quite sure what I’m going to do after that – but I’m fairly sure I’m not going to be seeking another full-time job straight away. That’s mainly because we want to move up to London for a few years and I need some time to get our house ‘rental-ready’. So I’m going to see if I can create a viable consultancy offering, possibly mixed with some short-term contract work. If that goes well, I may try and do more of it (with maybe longer contracts) after the move. If it doesn’t, I’ll try and get a regular job.
  That covers leaving and moving. But if I can, I’m also staying.
  I’m staying #OfTheGovernment – part of the community of government revolutionaries that want to build services that support people far better than the Government can today. So in a direct response to Jason (@xcaplin) Caplin’s phoenix moment blog post I’m declaring I will be ready for my next contract in-government, or as close as I can get, in Summer 2016.
  Onwards.
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  8 thoughts on “Leaving, Moving, Staying”	
  Leaving, Moving, Staying – No Quick Wins | Public Sector Blogs says:	
  November 4, 2015 at 9:53 am
  […] Original source – No Quick Wins […]
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  George Beverley says:	
  December 22, 2015 at 10:33 am
  Hello Glyn, like your bit above about innovation across platforms. Wondered if I could interview/chat to you for a piece that I’m writing in 2016? I live in Poole so I’m up and down past Winchester on the train all the time? Or not if you don’t fancy it!
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  Post #Camp Blogging | No Quick Wins says:	
  January 24, 2016 at 8:54 pm
  […] Drinks later and meeting a bunch of people in real life who’d previously only been Twitter avatars or podcast voices. Amongst these were @jukesie (who of course I met in a corridor), @janethughes, @blangry, @harrym, @reinikainen and @likeaword. Also met a bunch of new people. Lots of people kind enough to take an interest in what happens in my next #OfTheGovernment chapter. […]
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  stuatr scourfield says:	
  March 24, 2016 at 12:19 pm
  Smart man Glyn.
  Great work
  Great bloke
  Any revolution is a winner……..;-D
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  Peter Coghill says:	
  May 16, 2016 at 9:01 am
  Good luck Glyn! Hope we get a chance to work together again in the future.
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  Camping (and #camping) again – No Quick Wins says:	
  August 26, 2017 at 3:07 pm
  […] turned out to be harder and more time consuming than I’d imagined when I wrote that phrase in Leaving, Moving, Staying. However, I can recommend an intensive period of DIY and decorating as a means to rapid weight loss […]
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  A regular job – No Quick Wins says:	
  September 14, 2017 at 5:50 pm
  […] over a year ago I wrote ‘Leaving, Moving, Staying‘ about my decision to leave Dstl (the Defence Science and Technology Laboratory) and move to […]
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  A regular job – No Quick Wins | Public Sector Blogs says:	
  September 14, 2017 at 6:17 pm
  […] over a year ago I wrote ‘Leaving, Moving, Staying‘ about my decision to leave Dstl (the Defence Science and Technology Laboratory) and move to […]