4th Dec 2020 – Countdown to Christmas
Ok, so I’ve been in a bit of a funk the last couple of weeks and a bit tetchy at times (very out of character), I don’t know if it’s the impact of COVID after all this time, teenegaer in the house doing mock exams, or that I’m ticking way too many items on the peri menopause list, I never thought I would be saying that!
I’m struggling to concentrate when connecting into virtual events so have decided no more for me until 2021, I had tears reading a regular digital blogger about the power of touch as just want to be able to hug my mum, I’m worrying I’m not supporting the team enough and what more can I do, and my diary is frustrating me and despite trying to take back some control I’ve not managed a walk this week :-(
But things started to change towards the end of this week, making time for a team social that involved me drawing an elephant using only 3 lines at a time with people guessing what it was. It was so funny and I realised I had needed that laugh, and this morning I woke up feeling in a much better mood.
It’s been great to see the launch of the digital team advent calendar using the app on Teams for the rest of the council to open each day, and I feel after lots of pre discovery meetings about our new digital platform we are starting to get somewhere.
If you don’t follow @haypsych and work in change I would recommend not only for wonderful sketch notes but the wealth of knowledge and experience. Hayley did some training for the digital team last week on change and it was a timely reminder for me that we need to spend more time on comms and engagement for the platform (made my debut on the corporate show yesterday), and that not all resistance is bad, it provides energy to get people involved and we need to make time and space for reflection to enable sustained change.
We had a members digital seminar, slightly unfortunate that the new COVID tiers were announced the same day as we lost a bit of time to that. We did a survey on their digital skills and preferences for learning in real time which went well using MS forms, we shared a clip about the personal impact a digital champion can have on someone in the community. For our animation about the platform my audio failed, very annoying as never happened before, but we got through it and overall the event was well received.
We’ve been testing the Teams Icebreaker app in places to replace those water cooler moments. Most people have liked the opportunity to connect with someone new or socially, but being randomly matched and having to speak to someone you haven’t met before doesn’t work for everyone. So we are having a think about how we can help with that with suggested topics, and have changed the frequency to fortnightly instead of weekly to be matched as it was coming around too quick.
I listened into the LGA digital showcase and particularly loved hearing the CEO from Wigan ‘it’s no longer about the digital revolution it’s the need to make the human connection, being courageous and innovative’, really impressed by their work and how the Wigan deal encapsulates the work they are doing around culture, digital, transformation, people, to give a strong change narrative.
We’ve been having conversations with NHS colleagues about getting the Dorset Digital Academy up and running, one area that did get delayed with COVID, but we are determined we will launch next year starting with digital leadership so more about that in 2021.
My week ended taking about our digital Dorset comms and event plan for 2021, it’s going to be busy, not without it’s challenges, thankful for our awesome team #wecandothis 😀
