Category: Weeknotes

  • June 24’

    June 24’

    Tackling people and resource challenges through different lens. Breaking down Retro outputs. More about governance.

  • May 24′ – Just enough planning

    May 24′ – Just enough planning

    Using Mural for planning and collaboration. How I pull together a delivery plan and prioritise tasks. How this can help with strategic planning. Also delivered a del. community session on service assessments.

  • April 24′ – OKRs & Kick offs

    April 24′ – OKRs & Kick offs

    Talk about working with delivery teams and clients across gov again. How to run an effective kick-off to establish a shared understanding and set yourself up for success. Also my experience of using OKRs to deliver change.

  • December ’21 — Can we deliver leaner Programmes in Gov?

    December ’21 — Can we deliver leaner Programmes in Gov?

    I went for a walk along the Embankment on Friday to clear my head from a long, and at times, frustrating week. The cold fresh air does absolute wonders for the mind, and made even better with some hot churros. So what’s been frustrating me recently? Well as a delivery person (and it doesn’t matter…

  • November ’21 — Understanding sunk cost

    November ’21 — Understanding sunk cost

    I’ve previously written about our Digital Transformation journey and the various techniques that worked well. Something I want to do more of is talk about some of the challenges we’re coming up against. Sunk Cost Fallacy [Noun. The phenomenon whereby a person is reluctant to abandon a strategy or course of action because they have invested heavily…

  • Weeknote: 23 July 21 – DM Training and RAD

    Weeknote: 23 July 21 – DM Training and RAD

    I jumped out of bed yesterday, forgot to eat anything and rushed to my first HIIT spinning class in 15 months. It was going ok but 30 mins in, just after the most intense part of the class, I wasn’t feeling great. I stopped and sat down…next thing I know, I’m surrounded by paramedics. So…

  • Weeknote: 9 July 21 – Shadow IT

    Weeknote: 9 July 21 – Shadow IT

    I took a much-needed break last week. I received one of those emails from HR asking everyone to check their holiday allowance and turns out I still had 90% of my annual leave remaining — So I promptly booked 3 days off. Football Let’s just get the football out of the way. Absolute pandemonium ensued…

  • Weeknote: 25 June 21 – Delivery Away Day

    Weeknote: 25 June 21 – Delivery Away Day

    Recently, I have been able to put some of the ‘project’ things on hold and spent more time with some of my direct reports. With objectives high on the agenda this month, I used this time to discuss how they could stretch themselves over the coming year. I’ve been proud to see how this group…

  • Weeknote: 18 June 21 – T Shaped People

    Weeknote: 18 June 21 – T Shaped People

    It’s been one of those weeks where the weekend can’t come soon enough. I’ve been feeling quite frustrated, demotivated and somewhat absent-minded. I’ve been unable to focus in meetings and it’s taken me ages to complete tasks. I’ve been increasingly doubting myself in situations where previously I’d be confident and assured. It could be due…

  • Weeknote: 11 June 21

    Weeknote: 11 June 21

    Things picked up momentum this week following a relatively quiet one the last week. My areas of focus this week were succession planning, team check-ins and more x-gov conversations with colleagues from DfE and Defra.   Highlights One important update I forgot to mention last week was that I got my first COVID vaccination! Massive…