Weeknote: S1 Ep 7
Overarching feeling of the week
It’s week 8 at Greenwich and I found some pace and a sustained sense of energy this week. Maybe this is the first sign of what “normal” is going to feel like.
Highlights
Danny, Jatinder and Karolina have done a great job this week getting the cyber awareness training through the final hurdles and ready to go live on Monday. Their enthusiasm and “get it sorted” attitude has been infectious and I can see the positive impact its had on colleagues. The last minute anxieties from the previous week have dissipated and trust levels have increased.
We’re slowly picking away at our project governance. And slow is good. On Tuesday, a facilitated discussion with the wider leadership in digital and customer services helped Mark and I better understand how we could meet their needs. On Thursday we used the anti-problem game to explore what a set of governance principles and outcomes might look like. This is all a work in progress and we’re finding our way one step at a time.
Mark and I spent some time understanding each other’s perspective on governance. Mark described governance like a good referee at a football match. If they do their job well, you don’t notice them. I think about governance like skin: alive, malleable and taking the shape of the work.
The priorities for our first year have been like shifting tectonic plates over the last few weeks. Kit, Lingjing and I deliberately spent some time confirming what our year 1 landscape looks like. Our Trello board is now brimming with possibilities. It’s a delightful smorgasbord of resident-facing product discoveries, service delivery improvement, digital capability building, data management and cloud migration.
On Friday I advertised for delivery managers: mid weights and seniors. I’m so excited about building a delivery community of practice at Greenwich. It’s starting to feel real now.
Lessons
I’m missing my networks and peers. This is something I’m struggling to find time to invest in. I rely on these networks for growth, challenge, friendship, honesty and creativity. I’m not all I could be without them. I’m not sure how to solve this dilemma, and I’m also aware that I have more time than a lot of women at a similar “age and stage” to me. It’s hard not to feel guilty about this, but guilt is a useless and paralysing emotion. Some stuff to untangle here, but I suspect taking one small step in the direction I want to go in will help to recalibrate me.
Next week
So much to look forward to. I’ll be interviewing for policy and guidance officers, taking part in a Hackney service assessment, delivering our second digital strategy board, and progressing our governance work.
What I’m reading and watching
Really enjoyed this pacey read from Andy Tabberer. We’ve got a lot of discoveries kicking off in the coming weeks and this is an excellent springboard for conversations with stakeholders about their involvement in our work.
This is a very timely blog from Jen Staves, as we start to build our delivery community of practice. Giving people the time, space and direction to grow and develop is something I feel passionate about.
Another corker from Helen Bevan’s Twitter feed. I’m mildly obsessed with creating a sense of belonging within and across the teams I work with. More working from home and hybrid working makes this even more pressing and a great opportunity.
