So funemployment is over. I’m back doing work and it’s straight in at the deep end as the client engagement kicked off this week too. This week has been all the usual things of getting a large project moving, meeting people, establishing ways of working, chasing accounts, setting up how we’re going to track all the things we need to do.
My role is delivery lead (not engagement manager) as I stated last week, so I’m working out how to balance myself to support the 4 teams that are merging on the project, help them to be successful, and keep track of deliverables we’ve signed up to. I’m aiming to take a very ‘Governance as a service’ approach, but working with such a large organisation balancing that with existing governance structures will need to happen, at least in the short term.
As I expected to be the case, PD is full of really great people. I’m feeling a little like a session drummer joining the rolling stones, but that’s all my own imposter syndrome, everyone has been very welcoming and supportive.
Not sure how much detail I’ll be able to go into on the work, I’m playing it cool at the moment but essentially we’re helping a large private sector org change their ways of working by doing the work with them. The aim is to show some changes and establish guidance and practices that enable them to make the change themselves in future. It’s really exciting.
In work adjacent stuff, had a couple of good conversations with Simon Wilson this week, our chats are always a bit all other the place stream of consciousness, but I like them that way, I get a lot out of it.
Met Iggy, a lovely agile coach based in Rome, we talked about remote working, and his experiences at Expedia and IBM. He’s looking for work, you should check him out, smart cookie.
Listened to Audree’s new podcast, about optimism in public services. It was really good, there was a discussion along the lines of ‘optimism without realism is just wishful thinking’. I liked the framing, radical optimism doesn’t mean being disconnected from reality. I’m thinking about this a lot at the moment.
In other news.
I’ve been struggling with an ear infection all week, mostly it’s affected how well I can hear, not ideal when you’re only just meeting people and trying to do a bit of active listening but it’s getting better with some spray and antibiotics from the doc.
Han took the girls to London for 3 days with her sister. Her Dad is getting married this weekend so it was an excuse to go clothes shopping. Sounds horrible to say but in some respects I appreciated having the space to keep my brain in work mode as it struggled to process lots of new context. That’s not sustainable, must balance work and life.
I never called the old man back from last week, I really must do that, in all the rush of the week it totally slipped my mind, must stay human.
Did very little exercise this week, my step count has dropped noticeably, the ear infection hasn’t helped but also my back has been killing me from sitting back at a desk for most of the day. I’ve been doing well making sure I’m standing up for large portions of the day, must stay active
Debbie, Angie, Grant and I setup a waitlist for Jam the Disco, our working title for an event to reflect on discovery practices and to learn from one another. We want it to be really honest and a safe space to talk about challenges as well as successes. 45 people have signed up so far, so our hypothesis of whether there would be interest has been proven! Sign up here if you’re interested.
Reading:
Continuing to enjoy the Eyes on the Street. Loving reading about all of the unrelated moments of serendipity that lead to Jane’s worldview developing.
Interesting look at Nike losing $25B market share and the limits of date driven decisions