Week 25: 20-24 February

Sometimes it’s hard to get going after a holiday. Not this one. I went out for a run and got back to find out we had a problem. Because it was a Saturday and because of what it was I expected it to be over by lunchtime. Like the First World War, it turned out to last a bit longer. Saturday finished on Sunday and Sunday started early. But we were smart enough to mobilise help. By 10am we had folk all over the country coming together to help solve the problem. I’m grateful to all of them of course – and embarrassed that our service failure caused such inconvenience to colleagues. But I’m particularly proud of the roles played by our core team. It was an invaluable and accelerated learning experience for me and I’m confident we can do more of this stuff.

On Monday morning I dressed for a run but didn’t make it, and didn’t actually manage a shower until I had to go out that evening. It turned out that we hadn’t fixed it, and it took until Tuesday evening before we knew for sure. It was definitely going to be one of those weeks.

The most important thing this week was our event at TechUK to discuss the technology strategy and roadmap. Our event there in August had helped identify the need for the document and so it was fitting to go back with an early draft and get some feedback. Refreshingly there wasn’t a mushy consensus but I had a proper challenge to my thinking. There were lots of supportive comments too, and at least from my perspective the discordant comments made the event more interesting. we’re lucky enough that people have taken time to make detailed comments on the draft which is really rewarding and I’m very grateful.

I was up early on Wednesday to get the first train to London for another productivity deputy director meeting.  At the moment the more we do, the better we get at them. The TDA had its first disagreement (as well as its best document so far (on digital jury bundles). By Wednesday evening though I was knackered and watched Your Place or Mine almost until the end which made me disgusted in my choices.  

Thursday was then a marathon of 9 meetings (although I actually haven’t run all week) followed by another late night and then a 7am train to York.

In my by now semi-delirious state I then managed two energising sessions; a one to one and a discussion with members of our innovation team. The former showed we’re getting much closer to some key strategic developments. Out of the latter we’re going to form a regular slot for people to come and tell me what I need to do differently. But it’s also clear that whilst we’re impatient for change (and probably need to dial this up) many of the ideas we’ve had about how we work mean we’ve analysed the situation correctly and our teams want to make these changes happen. 

So I’m mostly looking forward to the weekend. But when we get there, my priorities next week will be:

  • Agreeing the strategic options case for our ensuring service continuity programme (which relates to 20-odd applications which we’re redesigning)
  • Using the feedback from suppliers to redraft the tech strategy and roadmap
  • Supporting the first show & tell for our proof of concept and helping it land well with users