4.26 — weeknotes — or perhaps month notes…
I can’t believe it has been a month since my last weeknote, due to leave and lots going on I had resigned myself to not getting a weeknote done every week, and I am OK with that. The purpose of these is to reflect on the week and they need to come naturally, forcing myself to do them at the weekend just to get something out, just goes against the aim of them. So here we are a month later.
So it has been a really hectic month, August is usually quiet and whilst there has been elements of calm and being able to get on with a number of other things that have been put off for a while, we have still been able to review and progress a number of areas.
Have been in Hounslow House a fair amount over the last month, current arrangements are that we need to be in the Borough about once a fortnight. I have been generally going in a couple of times a week and have really enjoyed coming in and seeing people. The meetings and conversations that you have over a cup of coffee are just so much more enriching that over teams, as much as I love teams.
We have also been getting the management team together in person as well, and going through the delivery plans and roadmaps — we are also aligning to the overall council Corporate Plan and Delivery Plan to ensure everything is as joined up as it can be — work to do here but getting there. Had a number of workshops over a range of subjects over the last month, diving into some subjects to get ahead and a good understanding of all the things we need to do over the next year — including Enterprise Architecture, on a Friday Afternoon!
My Management Team have done some work on coaching and had some facilitated group coaching sessions over the last couple of weeks. Good to get a refresher in coaching skills and then the group exercise was really useful — not quite what was intended but a really good conversation, difficult issues to try and work through together — the techniques really worked!
Main thing over the last couple of weeks has been the delivery of the updated Digital Strategy and the Digital Inclusion Commitement for the Council. Really good to reflect on all the achievements that the council has done over the last year and look ahead to everything that we are going to deliver over the next year. Still remains lots to deliver.
Once a fortnight we have a Show and Tell with everyone in Digital & IT, masterfully led by Nick. You can tell it is the summer as the quizzes have come back — and they have been brilliant. We had a Generation Game and a Play Your Cards right — all through Slido — great way of getting everyone together virtually.
Tune of the Week: Elton John & Britney Spears ‘Hold Me Closer (Official Audio)’
