Between the Bells

Have you ever brought your work home with you? I have. Actually, I work from home these days, but that’s not what I mean.

I have been a software engineer for over 20 years, and my experiences of working in this fascinating industry have permeated almost every other part of my life. I don’t mean that I spend all my spare time coding (what spare time!?).

Software engineers have a way of looking at problems and opportunities that I have found applicable to many other situations – DIY home improvements, organising events, creating meal planners, managing family finances, even raising children.

And bell ringing? Absolutely.

Continuous improvement through iteration

Over the last 25 years or so, “agile” has become the standard approach for delivering software. Work is broken down into short iterations of 1-3 weeks. At the end of each iteration, feedback informs the work planned for the next iteration.

It is “agile” in the sense that it is easy to change direction as needs and priorities change. Sometimes plans don’t work out in the way you expect, but constant course corrections mean you never spend too long going in the wrong direction.

The “plan, execute, reflect, repeat” approach to making improvements fits beautifully with bell ringing. The obvious place to apply this is the weekly practice.

At Heathfield, our Wednesday practice nights start by asking each attendee what they would like to work on that evening and writing it on a whiteboard. Some people are happy to fill in where needed, and that’s fine. This is the planning part.

After the practice and the traditional trip to the pub, my friend Hazel gives me a lift home. In the car we reflect on how the practice went and what we could do better next time.

Through trial and error, our practices have gradually become more enjoyable and productive.

Iteration is a highly efficient way to make improvements because nothing is wasted. Not every idea will be good, and plans have a way of taking on a life of their own when they meet real people in real situations.

Failure can be a highly effective learning tool provided the learning feeds into the next attempt. You can be free to experiment with different approaches and find out quickly what works for you.

Here are some other goals that I am currently iterating on:

Goal	Iteration Cadence
Quality Sunday service ringing that the band can be proud of	Fortnightly
Setting up quarter peal attempts for firsts with the highest possible chance of success	Every couple of months
Catering for the needs of a 10-year-old learner	Weekly
A useful doubles practice that caters for method ringers in nearby towers who can’t ring methods with their own band	Monthly
Personal long-term ambition to be a competent Stedman Triples ringer	Monthly triples practice & occasional triples quarter peals

As I write this, I realise that my reviews could be improved by making some notes rather than trying to remember things I learn. There’s always a way to get better.

Ask for feedback

The practice of peer review is deeply embedded in software development. It’s about more than simply spotting mistakes in someone else’s work. Good code reviews lead to a shared understanding, increased knowledge and a united approach to future development. They can be just as valuable when a less experienced person is reviewing the work of someone more experienced.

Asking for feedback is a natural part of the way I work every day, but I rarely see it employed in bell ringing. I see plenty of feedback given. The ability to give constructive feedback is vital to progression at all levels and ringing cannot survive without it. To be honest, I have also seen thoughtless unsolicited feedback given which has left the unhappy recipient feeling crushed, or even ready to give up ringing altogether.

In an exercise which values improvement and progression, asking for feedback represents a powerful learning tool. Bell ringing attracts people from a wide variety of backgrounds and experiences, each of whom may have a fresh perspective that can help ringing thrive. If we don’t ask, we are missing out.

Shortly after completing the Association of Ringing Teachers Module 1 bell handling course, my friend Hazel and I were teaching our first learner. We asked him if there was any way we could improve our teaching. He happened to be a trainer himself, so we thought he might have some ideas.

“Perhaps you could plan the lesson in advance instead of deciding what to do when I’m here?”, he tentatively suggested.

Good point, we thought.

We now have a record book in the tower in which we keep notes of all our bell handling lessons. After each lesson we write down what we covered, review how it went, and plan the next lesson. When we arrive, we simply look at the notes we made last time and work through them. This habit helped us enormously when we started teaching multiple people at the same time as we would never have been able to remember what each one had covered.

I’d encourage everyone to try soliciting feedback and see what you learn. I don’t just mean asking someone more experienced how you can improve your ringing (though this can be really useful!).

By asking for feedback on how we are leading, teaching and supporting others we can become more effective at sharing and growing bell ringing.

If you are standing behind someone, try asking if the timing of your instructions was helpful. If you have just run a practice, try asking the least experienced person attending what their ideal practice would look like. You might learn something that you can apply the next time you do it, improving ringing a little bit for everyone.

It’s all about the team

Individualism in software engineering is counterproductive. All contributions are needed and we succeed as a team, or we don’t succeed at all. That means working with people to understand what they are good at and what they struggle with, shared ownership and responsibility, and helping each other to achieve a common goal.

The same is true in bell ringing.

The obvious bell ringing equivalent of my team at work is my local band. Two years ago, we barely had enough ringers to cover a Sunday service. Now we have over 15 regulars. There are many factors which have contributed to this turnaround, but many of them stem from the way we work together.

Responsibilities are shared across many people, including new members. We have shared goals and decisions are taken collectively. Support is willingly given and individual achievements are celebrated by the entire group.

We are not just a band. We are a team.

Quarter peals represent some of the most intense teamwork I have ever experienced. I can’t think of anything else which comes close to the cooperation and collaboration that is required to successfully score a quarter peal.

In my work, teams become more effective the longer they work together. I can often tell who wrote a piece of code because I recognise their style. Ringers are a bit like this too. The more I ring with a person, the better I get at interpreting a nod or raised eyebrow. The team becomes a little tighter.

In the last couple of years, I have started to think about the concept of a bell ringing team in a broader sense. Many towers are struggling for numbers. There are not enough teachers, and it is becoming increasingly difficult to find opportunities to practise advanced methods, or, in some places, any methods at all. The need for towers to work together has never been greater.

Rather than seeing this as an obstacle, I believe it is an opportunity.

I greatly value the friendships I have made with ringers from other towers. We have traded ideas and helped each other talk through problems. By understanding each other’s needs, we have found effective ways to help and support each other. No matter how many people are in my local band, we are always going to be stronger if we work together with a wider network of ringers. By pooling our resources, we could offer support, targeted practices and more opportunities for progression.

I have come to believe that my team includes any ringer within a reasonable driving distance of Heathfield.

---

On the surface it might seem that the fast-paced world of software engineering, where boundaries are continually being pushed, change is constant and progress is relentless, is a million miles from the heritage practice of bell ringing, the essence of which has not changed significantly in the last 300 years.

Yet I see many of the same qualities in the people I work and ring with – an appreciation of learning, precision, quality, community and an ability to see beauty in complexity.

And as for innovation and bell ringing? They belong together like AGMs and cake.