3.41 — weeknotes — feels like a small step backwards but loads to continue to celebrate….

A short weeknote this week as was a 3.5 day week for me. Was in Norwich at the weekend so managed to start on my Christmas shopping — although really just kept seeing things that I wanted to buy for myself! Towards the end of the week actually got around to buying the tree as well — and once again bought one that is too big for the room — will never learn! Also getting the fish a bit festive, not fair that they get left out!

Had a day in the office on Tuesday with our extended Corporate Leadership Team and Assistant Directors coming together in Hounslow House for the first time in 2 years! Was great to come together to talk about the future thinking of the organisation, in terms of place and localised services. We had presentations about the asset management strategy, community solutions, green recovery, the local plan and a really good discussion on how to bring all this together to ensure we are able to genuinely provide the best services to our communities as we move forward.

Interestingly it was described a couple of times as messy, which I think it is and that we need to learn to be OK with that. The internal structure and approach of the council is different for different areas — but the key is our communities really don’t care about how we manage things internally, it is about making it simple for our residents! That is the challenge.

Even though I was off on Thursday afternoon, I went along to the Socitm Alumni event… It was another great event and some fantastic speakers — always good to hear from Kit from Greenwich (the journey they have been on is awesome and her personal reflections are very thought provoking) and the panel discussions about what colleagues across the Country have learnt from the Socitm Leadership courses is just inspirational. I came 10th in the quiz as well so was happy!

Friday was Christmas jumper day I recorded my usual weekly video for the team wearing the Christmas jumper and got lots of comments about it not many positive ones, but I think they were just jealous…

A lot of time at the end of this week has been taken up with the announcement from the Prime Minister with the notification of moving to plan B. Essentially for us this means that we go back to our step two of our World of Work programme which is: work at home if you can. As usual our buildings remain open for colleagues that need to use them. Honestly, a little bit frustrating as we were moving forwards with returning to buildings with purpose and even had some events in our reception as we really want to re imagine this space over the next few weeks, these have now been cancelled.

Thursday of this week was meant to be our staff awards but again due to the PM’s announcements this has been postponed until the new year. A real shame as it would have been a great opportunity too celebrate colleagues’ successes! It was great that there were a number of colleagues from digital and it nominated and shortlisted as well — fingers remain crossed.

Tune of the week: Plan B — She Said