Weeknote 1: week ending 8th December 2023

First weeks in new roles are always a bit unrepresentative of the actual job and busy with lots of meets and greets. This one has been no different.

This week I have:

1. Met my direct reports, some of the heads of practice in Team Digital, various Homes England senior leadership team (SLT) members and a few key DLUHC (parent department) contacts. I’ve been really impressed with the general professionalism and positivity (I would say that here wouldn’t I? But I mean it).

2. I got my new IT kit. It all went smoothly and everything worked first time, as it should. Followed this up with lots of mandatory training and policies to read. Still got a pile more to get through.

3. Been orientating my head around the business and how it operates. Trying to understand the various challenges and issues, none of which I haven’t seen elsewhere in the public sector before. Principally:

– getting a relentless focus on the link between strategic intent and delivery,

– understanding the procurement processes and

– how to attract and retain talent.

Tried really hard not to start diving into problem spaces. One of the benefits of starting just before christmas is Ive got a bit more time to explore the problem spaces before I start sticking my oar in.

Next week I will be:

1. Continuing intros with various colleagues across Team Digital and the wider organisation.

2. Focusing on our strategic priorities, how we track, measure and communicate progress upwards and outwards.

3. Starting to sketch out our future digital strategy and roadmap. All the constituent parts are already broadly in place. It feels like the task it to cohere it better.

4. Understand better what we need to do for business planning and financial bidding for next year. The horizons are much shorter here than in MOD.

Risk and issues

1. Like the rest of the public sector, there is huge pressure on budgets and headcount. Need to be super focused on what we can realistically deliver with what we’ve got.

2. Talent recruitment. We’ve got some key vacancies that we need to fill quickly so I’ll be working with my leadership team and HR to prioritise and get the work accelerating.

I am really enjoying my former colleague and friend Neil Williams’ return to blogging. Especially his piece on what weeknotes are and why he writes them. To which I will add – I write to share and sense check emerging thinking in the open in the hope that it stimulates debate and radiates intent.