Week 23: 6-10 February

A couple of people remarked that things feel more positive now than they did at the start of the year. I agree and think it’s a combination of reasons. We’ve got a couple of important pieces of work starting to reach a point of maturity. The proof of concept for how we disaggregate CMS is likely to deliver something of value to users in the next couple of sprints. It’s the first thing I’ve sponsored and we’re only six-eight weeks into the project (depending on how you measure it). The project to develop a technology platform is coming together, with agencies submitting tenders at the end of the week. And the draft technology strategy and roadmap is now ready to be shared with external partners for early feedback. That’s three of my five ambitions for the year nicely-poised.

I’m pleased to report that my goals were much better chosen this week. There were four, ranging from the important but not time-consuming to the important and demanding; I finished the week with all four completed. And there were a couple of occasions when it felt like I’ve made progress with something that I’ve been chipping away at for some time, from different angles. We’ve used a couple of examples of where we were getting stuck in delivering non-standard software to users to design a safety valve in the process so that we can come to a decision inside two weeks. And we’ve agreed a set of common goals across our Directorate which reflect genuine choices about what’s most important.

We’re doing a Productivity Ninja course as a team, which is helping establish a new shared vocabulary in the team (as well as giving us some practical tips for working productively). The facilitator was surprised to hear that most participants reckon they have just 8 hours available each week to focus on what’s most important though I suspect that’s typical of public services.

Coincidentally, I’ve started a course this week with Harvard Business School Online. It contains a video with the CEO of Adidas, Kasper Rorsted, who says that he reviews his diary each week to ensure it’s aligned to his top three priorities. I did 37 meetings this week and in retrospect, five of them aligned to my priorities which is better than I feared. I also had 4.5 hours free to devote to my priorities. It’s not that the remaining 40-odd hours were spent badly, in the main. I could justify the value of each activity. What I’ve learnt from this is the importance of actively aligning how I spend my time, my goals for the week and our strategic objectives.

We also spent some time this week talking about the findings from our disproportionality research and what happens next. There’s a corporate statement which explains what we’ve found out and what we need to do next. But it was obviously important to ensure that our teams had a chance to ask questions and contribute to the discussion about what it means for our work to deliver justice for victims and witnesses.

This week was also exciting because I attended an event for people who previously worked for the Institute for Public Policy Research. I worked there for three years on a part time basis, whilst I was at university. It was an exciting place to work and the experience was hugely formative for me. It took a while, but I’ve tried to bring the same sense of mission, organised-chaos and togetherness to teams that I’ve led subsequently.

Next week I’m off for half term which typically combines with Valentine’s Day and my wife’s birthday. It’s almost frustrating to have to put things down just when they feel like they’re gathering momentum. But I also know I’m a bit tired because I’m not getting out of bed when my alarm goes off, and I’m spending slightly too long on my phone at night. So I’ll use my weeknote to share more about my early reflections on the course.