Weeknotes — 04–10–2019
At the end of 2 weeks now and have managed to keep both my weeknotes and my internal weekly video to my team going. I am sure there will be the odd week that it won’t happen but I have put time in the diary every week to at least give myself a fighting chance!
I can’t believe that it is October already and some bright spark this week told me that it is now 82 days to Christmas. Who needs to know that! Although it is nice to see the leaves on the trees turning colour and the colder days are actually quite refreshing. It certainly made for an amazing view across London from Clapham Junction… I did relent this week and put the central heating on and it’s not even December yet…
So I have made it to the end of week two…
I have continued my journey of discovery at Hounslow. Meeting Directors, the team and key stakeholders across the Council and speaking to as many colleagues as possible.
Tuesday
Tuesday I attended my first Hounslow Leadership Group meeting, where Niall (CEX) asked me to introduce myself in front of about 100 managers in the Council. I also took the opportunity of telling them about one of my first initiatives… an email free day. It seemed to go down well… and was nothing to do with the fact that we were having connectivity issues with Outlook that day…. :-)… honest…
I was really impressed with the team who were able to track down the ‘needle in the haystack’ issue to get it resolved. There was minimal impact to the Council as web mail was still working… The team has been undertaking a post incident review to reflect on what went well and how we can improve in the future. But certainly some work around training and awareness added to the to do list…
The leadership session was really good and gave me an insight into the organisation and the journey that it is on. The world café session, on what we want our values and cultures to be as a Council, was a really informative and engaging session and I saw it as a bit of a speed dating time for me to meet some more colleagues.
Thursday
On Thursday I attended the first One Hounslow Programme Sponsorship board meeting chaired by the CEX.
The One Hounslow programme is the sponsorship board overseeing a number of cross cutting transformation projects across the entire council. It is aiming to change the way we work and encourage a more strategic, collaborative and evidence-based approach to making improvements to services.
The really exciting thing is that Digital and IT is going to be at the very heart of the work. Whether this is improving the digital journey for staff and our customers; the way in which we are going to conduct service reviews or how we use data to make more strategic decisions, we are at the very centre of this work and there is a real appetite to change and improve the lives of our communities.
Some reflections
It feels that I have joined at a really exciting time for Hounslow and for our team as well, there is a lot going on and a huge number of opportunities.
I think it is really important to find out about the local community and have started to think and discuss with colleagues how I may get out and about a bit more to understand the community a bit more. This did pop up on Twitter this week, which was timely…
https://www.mylondon.news/news/west-london-news/9-fascinating-things-you-probably-16972245
Who knew ‘Hounslow’ derives from the words ‘Hund’s hluew’ — which simply means Hund’s hill or slope. OR there is an abandoned tube station? OR Van Gogh used to live in the Borough…
Trains have more of less behaved themselves this week, have submitted my delay repay for last week but I promise I am not going to let that 50p change my life. Have turned my attention to planes this week… The Hounslow House staff rest room has some amazing views across London and over to Heathrow, I have found myself drawn into the planes coming landing/taking off at Heathrow. Perhaps my inner geek is really coming out….
Still reading Dead Man’s Footsteps…
Tune of the week… This Girl (Kungs Vs. Cookin’ On 3 Burners)
