4.06 — weeknotes — not what I was expecting this week — after 2 years, Covid finally got me…
Definitely not what I was expecting this week as I managed to test positive for Covid on Wednesday. No real symptoms and only took a test as my other half was taking a test for his work! So it was a genuine surprise when that very thick red line appeared. But luckily symptoms are really mild and I’ve been able to carry on working it’s just a pain to have to self isolate. Thank you NHS for the vaccines!
I started the week with a workshop around our front door and independent living programme of work. Colleagues from across the organisation came together to think about how we are able to provide services in different ways as we move forward as part of the One Hounslow programme. Also on Monday had a really good catch up with our digital community experience board, replaying back to them what the expectations are and what’s going to happen over the next few months.
On Tuesday I went to our Corporate Leadership Team with an update on our world of work programme. Typical of course that the in-room technology didn’t work as expected, so the experience that we had as part of the hybrid meeting was pretty poor, although got there in the end . This doesn’t give colleagues confidence in ability to move things forward , really important to get the basics right. A bit more work for us to do in this area across the building. Reflecting about it, the devices in the rooms have not been hugely used for the last couple of years and were designed for when we were using skype so it’s going to need some thinking and perhaps some investment to move it to what we wanted to be.
On Thursday and Friday managed to spend some time on the digital business plan and report for CLT next week, where I am giving an update on the digital strategy for last year and the impact that it has made. The team have pulled together a really good set of slides but far too much detail for what was needed, so have condensed into some brief slides for board. What is clear is that so much has been done over the last year BUT there is SO much more to do! Exciting times…
What they have done is made videos from project sponsors from across the organisation who have spoken about their projects, how they have worked with digital, the new approach and how they are delivering new outcomes so that has been really pleasing to see.
Such an important part of the Digital team are our Business Relationship Managers and this week is World BRM Week, who knew?! They are the team that engage across the council and get stuff done — they connect business areas with digital and translate their business needs into IT speak (and vice versa). In short they do actually make the magic happen, they are relentless in getting things moving along, breaking down the silos and working through all the things that need to be done in Digital!
Ellie and the team are relatively new into the team (not necessarily the council with some of the new members of the team coming from elsewhere). They have such a broad range of skills, and have more than hit the ground running, they are sorting out all sorts of things and moving a million and one projects along and certainly bringing a passion for providing services to residents that will really help our digital services improve. Thank you!
Tune of the Week: The Police — Don’t Stand So Close To Me
