#weeknotes2
Excuses, excuses.
Well this is awkward. It’s more like ‘fourandahalfweeknotes’
I shall follow the advice of Cate McLaurin, and take the ‘five things that happened approach’ modelled by Dan Barrett. That gets me off the hook (I think). Thanks Dan!
Note: many other things happened in this, ahem, ‘week’. I’m cherry picking.
1. I took the train on the first day of the new timetable. What could possibly go wrong? My regular journey from Nottingham to London now leaves later, takes longer and (watch my powers of observation here) arrives later. Sigh. I walked up from St Pancras with a colleague talking work and life as we went. Collaborative conversations are personally and professionally enriching. The conversation is the relationship, and is especially nice in the sunshine with a coffee in hand.
2. I learned about Design Thinking for Change Leaders. Come again? Yes, I didn’t know either, but I do now. It was a challenging and stimulating two day course. The lovely Rebecca and Lee from Phlynt led a group of us through the principles and practice of good design and how they can apply to change management. It was reassuring on one level, validating some of the stuff I already know (phew) and scary on another. I have so much to learn and want to get so many things done. The other delegates were great and together we designed a drone delivery service for pizzas. You heard it here first.
3. We had a great Transformation Team meeting to prepare for our June Transformation Programme Board. It’s exactly a year since the board was introduced and the newly formed PMO has done a fabulous job over that time of taking a tangle of complex information and sorting it out into something which we can all make sense of. I think maybe they see milestones and timelines in their sleep. I don’t like playing around with spreadsheets myself (apologies to all you Excel geeks out there) but I’m very glad that I have a team who get their kicks that way. The meeting had some useful challenge and helpful decisions. It was long and tiring though so I have decided to change the timing for the future. A 1pm start for a board meeting is not ideal, even when the ‘snack vision’* (* TM Philippa Newis. I’ll pay you later) is fulfilled with grapes and Maltesers.
4. The closing date has passed for our PM post and there have been no external applicants, and only one internal applicant. It’s a great role, as a project manager supporting different elements of the transformation portfolio, and with an emphasis on effective change agency. This is bothering me and I’ll be trying to work out why that is and what we could do differently in the future to attract the right people into the team. In the meantime I think that the three hours set aside for sifting will not all be needed. #timesaved
5. Skype proved its worth in spades when I led a conversation with 22 colleagues over Skype. It’s less than six months since we introduced Skype for business and the benefits are felt daily. Twenty two on a call and no wobbles and burbles. It was a conversation to share the highlights of the Transformation Programme Board and discuss any issues or queries. It’s one of the joys of my working life, connecting with others and helping to answer their questions if I can, and the technology now lets us do that in a way which was impossible a year ago. Tin cans and string it ain’t!
PS Something that happened in the garden:
Suddenly it all started growing. Five minutes ago my runner beans were exactly that i.e. just beans, and now some of them are approaching five feet high. Which is about as tall as I am. It’s unnerving.
