Monday
After a week away it was great to be back, and feel slightly less new. I caught up with what I’d missed whilst I was away, had a useful chat about how we’re approaching our thinking about benefits modelling, and a catch up with Stephen on his work around contracts and procurement. Esmay had sent through data on our apprentice applications whilst I was away — we’ve had a really good response to the recruitment campaign. Next steps is to shortlist and interview during August.
Tuesday
Matthew and I had a brilliant session with team members looking ahead to the next 6 months and generating ideas for projects/areas of work that we think we could be exploring with our colleagues in services. It was really useful for me to learn more about each service and the challenges we’re tackling.(1)
Rashmi organised an impressive food event and surprise baby shower — extremely delicious and an opportunity to chat to people I hadn’t met before.
Wednesday
I started my day with a swim at London Fields lido – a beautiful start to the day. My challenge to myself is — can I make time to do this once a week for the next 8 weeks?
We had our regular management team meeting where we discussed how we’re approaching development in the team — how do we change the conversation and focus from being about training courses (they’re important but not the whole picture) and widen it out so that we’re talking about development and learning in lots of ways.
This week I’ve been to several show and tells — all different in style and all interesting — today was with adult social care and FutureGov. It was a great example of a team that’s worked together to imagine a redesigned service for users.
Thursday
The next show and tell was for the Hackney Welcome project with Rainmaker Solutions — they’ve been looking at how we might make it easier for new residents to access the services they need easily. They shared some really interesting user research insight and data they’ve generated.
Next I went to a show and tell from Fatima about the work that she and her team do to support the Universal Housing system, and what the challenges are in the future. Each week there’s a quick briefing for someone/a team to share progress across the work they’re doing — a really good way to share learning and engage in what other teams are doing.
I also caught up with Christina Hammond-Aziz — we’re both in new roles and it was great to catch up on what’s happened since we last met, and talk about areas of mutual passion and interest. We’re both really interested in how we might support girls from disadvantaged backgrounds to have opportunities to experience tech roles so we’re going to put our heads together to see what we can do . . .
Unfortunately I then got stuck on the central line which was both deeply unpleasant (I think Dante wrote about this?) and meant it took over an hour and a half to get home . . .
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Friday
Was a focus on the apprentice applications – looking over the shortlisted candidates and making sure we’re ready for interviews in August. I had a great conversation with colleagues about how we will manage the induction of apprentices when they arrive – we’re using a trello board to collaborate on how we will do this and generate ideas together.
What I read last week
I didn’t write weeknotes last week as I was away on holiday (2) but I did read some good books including Modern Gods by Nick Laird, and also these beauties arrived. Thankyou Doteveryone!
Rob Miller published our three month update to board on HackIT as part of our committment to working in the open. And Lindsay blogged about building an MVP and the importance of retros . . .
This from Gary at the apprenticeship service was really useful thinking about building digital capability
And finally this via Helen Bevan
What I listened to
I’ve long been a fan of Tom Cox’s writing – heartily recommend 21st Century Yokel and so thought I’d give his radio playlist a go. There’s a brilliant monologue in it about forgiving wasps . . .
What I’ve been struggling with this week
(1)This is a new section I’m trying – in the spirit of reflecting on personal challenges. 5 weeks into a new role I’m struggling this week with my own frustration at my incomplete mental map of the organisation – the sort of map you carry in your head when you’ve worked somewhere for a while. You know who’s who, how to get things done and what the best route is to get there. Luckily my new colleagues are both super helpful and patient with my questions and I’ve needed to remind myself that 5 weeks is still early days . . .
(2) Norway, hiking. Beautiful and breathtaking, plus I got to swim in the fjords #lifegoal
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