Week beginning 25 October

Well, I wasn’t anticipating that. There were various scenarios that I thought would have a material impact on my concentration levels this week. The one that I hadn’t considered was the impact of wanting to read every word of every article on the fall-out from the match. A diary full of meetings was helpful in avoiding too many distractions.

The biggest challenge at the moment is the experience for tenants calling for a housing repair. I said to a colleague that on becoming responsible for repairs customer services, I haven’t been able to look at a rainy day in the same way. For all the smart things we can do, fundamentally the team isn’t currently large enough to meet the demand. We’re fixing this – and need to address the underlying challenges. But until it’s better, it’ll continue to bother me (and rightly so). 

The football also made me think about how much of my week was played in my head. On Thursday I went for a run on a course which includes a steady hill between miles 4 and 5. I was so focused on the conversation in my head that I hadn’t noticed reaching the top of the hill.  By the end of Friday I felt like it had been a good end to the week. I’m not sure that there was anything materially different about Friday to, say, Wednesday. The same situation approached with a different mindset just felt different. 

We hosted a visit of colleagues from Brent on Friday to share notes about the customer experience of visiting a Council. It was a chance to try and step outside of what we knew and what we thought and view what we did through a different perspective. I was asking myself, ‘If I leave today, will I be proud of what I’ve contributed?’ The truth is that too many of the gains remain fragile and we haven’t confronted enough of the core challenges. But I’m also fortunate that there are a number of issues on which we’re starting to see a moment to change, which hasn’t been available over the last 18 months. 

I spent more time than I expected thinking about brands – this week about the meaning and mission of what comes next for the IT team. We’ve got some big characters leaving us shortly which is great for their personal growth; we’re proud of what they’ve accomplished and grateful for having their dedication over the last year. We’re evolving out of the cyberattack recovery and need to re-cast the story of who we are, what we do and why we do it. We’ve also got some exciting new joiners who’ve brought a fresh energy and determination and we can harness this to build a new proposition. 

Part of the conversations we’ve been having about facilities management is what we’d do differently if our focus was on colleague experience. To state the obvious, managing the facilities isn’t an end in itself. Part of the challenge with FM is that it’s mostly obvious if something isn’t working. So we’ve been thinking about how we can provide reassurance that we’re there, looking after things behind the scenes. It’s important we do this together to avoid ideas that are good in theory but don’t add value in practice. 

I’m looking at my diary next week and again struggling to spot a theme or direction, beyond ‘busy-ness’. So it’s a perfect opportunity for me to work on my balance. There have been slightly too many occasions recently where I haven’t quite got it right. I’ve tried to be more comfortable in setting clear expectations and providing feedback. But occasionally this has tipped into expressing frustration because it’s the easier option, rather than the more helpful one. So next week I’ll try and take it one meeting at a time.