5.32 — weeknotes — Bootcamp for Level 7 — Digital Day — Socitm Alumni Day — Penna/PPMA AI session! Phew!
Fortnight notes as was too much going on at the end of last week!
Two focussed days last week in London at the Happy HQ for my Level 7. The two days were really to pull together some more evidence for the portfolio as well as reminding and preparing us for the next steps.
Was a really good use of two days, just a change of scenery and some focus, being ‘made’ to sit down and focus on the work that we needed to do. I think we all found it invaluable and developed a number of pieces of evidence.
And who doesn’t like a 3pm ice cream break! Now that does focus the mind.
Friday was our regular whole team get together at Hounslow House for the team. An opportunity to get together to reflect on the past year and think ahead to the next. Also the end of the Digital Festival. As well as the opportunity to network we heard from our Director of Housing to talk about the challenges they have and how digital is helping, we also heard from our Assistant Director of Communities about some of the work we have been doing to support the new hub approach.
A highlight for me was the Leader giving out the awards that we do every year in digital for colleagues that have lived the values of the council. What was nice for me this year is seeing some of these posted out in LinkedIn as colleagues were so pleased to have received them. Makes such a difference.
In the office a couple of days this week despite the train strikes, so drove in! Had a SLT session on Tuesday morning, covering a range of topics and more about some of them soon. Then some time with the management team and a few meetings that were just better face to face!
Highlight of this week was the Socitm Leadership Academy Alumni day /Christmas party. Was really really good for colleagues across the UK to get together, virtually, to celebrate all things people! It was a really nice mix of fun and serious together with lots of learning from others. So much to come away with and think about.
Obviously I’m going to say that the highlight was the quiz that I hosted (amazingly pulled together by colleagues in Socitm), and was just nice to have a little bit of fun. We even managed to do some virtual networking during the breaks. Oh and it was Christmas Jumper Day so the opportunity to dress up a bit as well.
Another highlight of this week was the Penna and PPMA session on AI and how HR/OD colleagues can lead the charge on this in public sector. I went through a few slides on the some of the things to think about including the ethics / privacy framework. But really to encourage colleagues to have a go and start to use tools like ChatGPT.
Too many pictures this week — don’t usually have that problem!
Phew! Two weeks to go till Christmas…
Tune of the week: Random! Flying Pickets — Only You
