ADVENTURES OF A DELIVERY MANAGER Wk2!
I’m in serious danger of buying an “I LOVE MY JOB” mug.
Last week… week I chatted about my first week being like that moment that you buy a jigsaw and then open the box for the first time and wondering how on earth you are ever going to get all of those pieces to look like the thing on the box.
This week I’m pleased to share that I’ve got a couple of corner pieces in place, a few decent edge bits and as a result, I’ve been able to start constructing the image with a much greater sense of confidence that it’s coming together.
Emotional honesty has been my friend this week… both from me and where I stand, but also from the people around me (my colleagues, my team mates, my managers and the leaders of the service). I’ve shared that I don’t have a tech background (my biggest fear), amongst other nuggets and snippets — thinking that it might have been a big deal for some people — but to my delight, it never was.
In fact, very commonly, people openly shared back what their biggest fears were and their very own niggles and concerns. In being willing to be open with each other, about the things that we cared about the most — we were able to offer support in the places that mattered and give each other time to adjust and get up to speed in the spots that counted.
What strikes me about the ICT team here at Hackney the most, is that it’s firmly a win/win culture where people care about doing well and they care about their part to play in that. Being “user centred” doesn’t just apply to ‘them out there’, as some sort of abstract being that uses our stuff. No, in fact to a point, we are all ‘users’ of each others services and so the more that we can share about how we can make that better, then better it becomes for all of us.
So what have I ‘actually’ been up to, beyond abstract thinking about the wonderfulness of the bean-baggy world on the 4th floor…
Well, turns out I’ve been stepping in to some pretty important stuff.
Unexpectedly, I’ve taken the Delivery Manager lead of a programme of works called Digital Support Services. It’s quite the chunky suite of possibilities and we’ve got two work themes that are starting to gain momentum now and have a few questions and assumptions to be untangled. Luckily, untangling tricky things and facilitating momentum are two of my favourite things, so this makes me happy!
It’s unexpected, because originally I was going to support David in delivering and David would mentor me along the way, but David being the super-in-demand pro that he is was being pulled in lots of directions all at once.
We had a chat about it and seeing as I had the capacity and given that everyone involved was willing to allow me take a crack at delivering straight off the line (knowing I would be learning at the same time), it made sense to just get started.
Worst case scenario? HackIT manifesto point 7… fail in a fortnight!
Best case? Turns out I might just do a good job of it!
Early indications are that I’m doing ok!
We’ve got the right people talking about the right things and we’re gearing up to move in to some speedy agile rhythms in to workstreams which you can read about in my weeknotes over on the HackIT blog.
Beyond the ‘action’ so to speak, I have also learned and observed LOADS…
* Shadowed 3 x Standups
* Shadowed 2 x Retro’s
* Several Mentoring chats with David D
* Learned how to post weeknotes to our Blog using Word Press
* Learned all about project hub documents
* Amalgamated Trello Boards
* Learned how to put GIF’s on Slack (many embarrassing failed attempts)
* Contributed to our managing data workshop
* Helped upload the team session outcomes
* Many many intro chats to stakeholders, product owners and team members.
All in all, it’s been a busy week… it’s gone by in a flash — and I’ve loved every minute of it!
Oh… finally, a note about the stubble/shabby attempt at a beard…
When I decided that I wanted to be a Delivery Manager, I jumped on Linked In and contacted, basically every searchable Delivery Manager in the country and invited them for coffee.
After meeting several male versions of Delivery Managers, it became very apparent that it seemed like facial hair was in fact a requirement for the role!
Now I can’t tell if it’s co-incidence or not, but on my second day in the job, I trapped a nerve in my neck, which has been really rather painful ever since, but has had the peculiar side effect of leaving me with pins and needles and numbness in the fingers on my right hand. This in turn has left me terrified of putting anything sharp in my right hand, let alone putting a razor in that hand and then putting it close to my face.
So by default and random(?) coincidence, I have, in my first two weeks as a delivery manager grown a beard (well, my best effort toward a beard).
Turns out I quite like it… who knew?!
Wishing everyone who is marginally interested in my story an amazing week!
Ian
