All weeks are more or less busy. The trick is to try and focus on the priorities and not get distracted. Which is hard. This one flew by. Not least because GovcampXL
What I’ve been up to
1. Now I’ve been here a full month proper the regular meetings are starting to flow around again. So it’s been useful to take stock on what I discussed at introductory sessions a month ago now I have a bit more context. Quite a few of those this week.
2. We held our monthly digital all staff and I talked a little about the work I have been leading on our strategy and roadmap. We’ve now shared it with all our staff to get their feedback. I also talked about the plan to introduce teamnotes across the organisation to help us communicate priorities and successes better.
3. I’ve had to take draw breath on how we are engaging with the market to procure some live service support skills that we will need in the near future to ponder what our future lives services model will look like, options to get there, and what the wider business needs to know about our plans before we plunge head first into the activity.
4. Kept the energy going on recruitment to fill our key vacancies, including one of our key leadership team roles – assistant director of digital delivery and architecture. Interested? Advert imminent but ping me if you want more details.
What I’m focusing on next
1. My chief of staff has been doing some great thinking about how we drive the momentum using key meetings and external deadlines during the month to drive decision making and reporting. We’ve got another session to discuss this week.
2. Taking part in my first session for new directors run by the leadership college for government. Looking forward to meeting the rest of the cohort remotely before we meet for a residential course in a few weeks time.
3. Running a workshop to sharpen the definition on our digital proposition development offer with the great digital outcomes team. Looking forward to getting stuck into this.
4. Attending my first change portfolio executive meeting so looking forward to seeing how that operates.
5. Another workshop later this week to take a good hard Paddington stare at our risk registers to make sure we’re tracking the right things and managing them properly.
Other things worth mentioning.
1. Did I mention Govcamp? 16 years is a long time. So many people. So much positive energy. So many new and old faces. Great conversations. Much inspiration. A lot to follow up on. So little time.
2. Car situation now sorted. One (big) less thing to worry about.
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