Monday
Back from time away from the day to day, rested and ready. My first action this morning was to clean the desk. Then I slowly got back into things. I noticed how my back aches after sitting down for so long — I need to build in breaks perhaps I need to try Pomodoro Technic, which James has been a fan of.
I pondered about what makes up me (an individual) and I think I have it boiled down too:
- The person I was
- The person I am
- The person I aspire to be
More on this later, I’m not forcing my brain to consider it it’s just a noticing about how time affects people and perception.
As ever there is a tension between things — though I worry that we are currently unbalanced in places mainly because it’s easier to do things the way we have in the structures we have than to give ourselves permission to explore the new — an email made me ponder that there is no playbook/principles/path/pattern for experimenting in government — or at least not that I know off. Does there need to be? Where would we start? What should I read?
I had a slightly confusing chat with my new line manager, though I think I got the gist of it. He wasn’t feeling great. I’m very grateful that things have been covered while I was away. Though I’m slightly disappointed that the Champions Breakfast isn’t happening tomorrow It’s important to me that we hold a space for connection for people to share context. I don’t think I have written that down anywhere as succinctly as that before. I’m sure that will need to go in slides at some point, given that I need to consider what the Champions group will be like by end of September, end of the year and another far of date let's say this time next year then I can see slides coming by the end of the week. I did not rush at them today.
Tuesday
Ended with a conversation with my new line manager (I’ll refer to them as X for now I’m not at a point of using names again, I may get there) about the Champions Network — I appreciate the space for a chat and an honest one, some things I just can't see the drivers behind and that worries me, it could just be that X is new (well ish they have been in the team a month and I have known they will be my manager — possibly before they did), I know I have / need to trust people — but when I do we will go far, it just takes time. I also worry that we as the team have a tendency to forget the blistering pace that we go at, and that others who we have lumped together like the champions when we talk about them collectively as a group are rightly all in different spaces with reform — some have only just joined the group, some have been reforming government for years and years and years — they are all individuals.
We had a great session this morning, with the Champions group considering and developing the whole groups licence to operate. We have a why and I need to boil that down. Nour Sidawi signed me up for that which was great. I’m here to help in anyway I’m asked by the Champions — at least I see that I am. I wrote down afterwards that I need to help hold that space for for longer term considerations and also the space for bold experimentation.
We had a long session today to get into some of how the team thinks and some stuff — we were encouraged to talk freely and not share. Oh and on that not sharing I’m still personally not allowed to share the link for people to share their views publicly (which I still feel is nuts… particularly given it’s now on lots of intranets any way — I have nudged at that gain and G has been in touch with people to see if we can…
I’ve also been tasked with creating a space to capture Ideas — I must say I’m not a fan of being tasked… still I have ideas… but on the other hand I don’t really care about my ideas I much more care about if anyone else has an idea and well them I am more than happy to blow wind into the sails.
I miss using AirTable — I am brewing up to send an email to someone to ask how I can make it happen.
Unexpectedly long day. Still not looked at Trello — and have 77 emails left from last week, I’m not rushing at them. Tomorrow is our team awayday — which I look forward too. I have a growing number of postits again with things to do.
Wednesday
Team Together day. It was lovely. Tiering but lovely and I wasn’t even on the organising team who did a fantastic job. Also OneTeamGov Breakfast. Which as ever was delightful in all sorts of ways.
Thursday
Made a change to the call for views early so that no one got kicked out and carried on from there.
We had a long chat with people about comms and sort of engagement and a sprinkling of ODD. There is lots for us to do, that we could do, that we want to do and that others want us to do or not do. Rationalising all of this is going to be tricky. But we’re making a good start. I really like the ruthless focus we had for Civil Service Live, not that we didn’t have other things but in that moment it brought the whole team together.
I got the first outline of how I see the Champions Network developing over the next year done. I honestly don’t like doing things like that or to put it another way I feel it acts as a constraint… I honestly need to get over myself on this – I started it like a blogpost, then striped the intro out. More to do on that next week.
I also got the first outline draft of the Friday email update done, which felt really good.
In the last chat of the day my thinking moved to what the patterns of belonging are. A google search turfed this up https://www.gold.ac.uk/media/documents-by-section/departments/research-centres-and-units/research-centres/centre-for-urban-and-comm/CUCR_FINAL_REPORT.pdf. I started it but will come back. Its not quite what I was thinking about but very interesting and potentially helpful.
I also kicked of a email chain about being more open about what we are doing. There is a nervousness, I can both understand and find it frustrating.
Friday
So slow to get going, but I got there. When I’m slow I tend to let my focus wonder and just go with things. I emailed and communicated on hangouts, something had been on my mind from the day before and it was good to start that ball rolling.
A couple of lovely chats today and that was it for calls – it was a nice change. I didn’t get into the data crunching I need to do, but that can hold till Monday as it’s not needed till Wednesday. All the stars seem to be coming together for the Reform Champions Network Group, at close I sent the outline for the session out.
I also pulled together a pipeline for ideas in Trello, using a template its the first time I’ve used a template like that I quite liked it worth the searching time. I’m sure it will need further tweaks but felt good. Step 1 have ideas Step 2 do research and so on.
Thoughts on the week
- It’s good to plan – planning is pointless
- People like binary
- People also like things that come in threes
- Stepping away is helpful, I can’t step away from my brain (but it was quite quite in there when we were away)
- I enjoy what I do, there is a lot of change
- I love chatting things over
