Reasons to be cheerful

This week my (usually spectacularly terrible) green fingers have been at work. I made seed bombs with Joni at forest school, we’ve been watering our tiny strawberry plant every day and I’ve even saved my desk succulent from near death.

A lot of work at the moment is focused around our big challenges and it’s hard to be resilient as you chip away at them. I find myself reflecting on the absolute joy that Joni finds in the prospect of watering something and seeing it grow and thinking about the seeds we’ve been sewing at the pirates. Thinking about some of my high potential seeds is uplifting, and gives me energy to crack on with chipping away at the hard stuff.

Here are some seeds I’ve planted that make me feel optimistic this week:

• The measurement framework from Trust Impact is rigorous — it will be something really positive to share with our stakeholders as it will show our conscientious approach to impact.
• By the end of the summer we should have a data visualisation from Trust Impact — a page that shows our impact and monitoring data live. We (by which I mean Veronica the systems legend with me tagging along…) have found a way of slightly adjusting things in Salesforce so that it will link Young Pirates and crewmates and help us learn more about the impact of different volunteering ratios.
• I met with a new committee member for the Education and Impact committee — she brings a lot of digital learning expertise and is also a trustee at a multi-academy chain. I am excited about having her support.
• I spoke with ETAs about shuffling around their responsibilities to make them specialists in key areas — I think it will help with workload and efficiency, as well as giving people more interesting development opportunities.

Guess what? My metaphor runs on! The above are the seeds that I’ve deliberately planted. Even though we know that not everything thrives, I am hopeful about these seedlings and I am committed to tending and nurturing them. However, as I looked through my calendar to reflect on the seeds I am planting, I noted not the meetings that are exploratory and open-ended.

If the above were my individual seedlings, these are my seed bombs. The things I’ve thrown out to the universe just in case something wonderful comes back. Maybe one of them will become a poppy in the pavement…

• Re-connecting with CEO of Learning with Parents to hear about their progress and learn about their interesting digital reading log.
• Taking a call with an old friend setting up a charity data-lab.
• Finding a few minutes to scan Linkedin for interesting articles and people.

I hope you find some seedlings and flowerbombs in what you’re doing. And if that doesn’t cheer you up watch Totoro the forest spirit raising some oak trees — it’s mine and Joni’s favourite dance to do when planting!