4 Day Test - Weeknotes WC 15th May 2023

Another short week for me this week, reminiscent of a shortened 4 day test match in cricket. There have been a few things I'm quite happy to have swept to the boundary, and a couple things left in the corridor of uncertainty.

Who did I speak with?

I spoke with an organisation this week about an idea they had to build an app, which they thought we could help with. It was a very interesting idea, but I can't share much due to a Non-Disclosure Agreement. I ran them through the work we had done on LeDeR , and shared some insight into how much their idea might cost to develop. Dan in our web and applications team provided some very useful insights. It was a really inspiring conversation, and an idea I would love to see happen.

I also spoke with Julia about the work we hope to be commissioned for regarding support for new dads. Julia shared some really interesting questions, which I provided feedback on. It was thought-provoking and I had to consider things I would have otherwise ignored. Ultimately the goal of raising the level of support available to new dads, both during the antenatal and postnatal period feels like a good one. I reflected on my own postnatal experience, where I had various healthcare professionals come to the house who then didn't engage with me once. I'm really looking forward to seeing the outputs of that work.

I met with Emma our new Deputy Service Deck Manager for the first time. Emma brings some great experience and already seems to be settling in well to the team after 4 weeks. I was very impressed with the ideas and experience that Emma brings, so I'm excited to see where she can help us get to. On the subject of comings and goings - I also had a catch up with Preeti, who is moving on to a new role in an organisation I previously worked for. I gave some pointers about the organisation, although primarily reflected that there is only one person on the board that was there when I was, which could well mean that I don't have too much insight into the organisation culture as it stands today.

What did I enjoy?

I have been working on our technical roadmap this week, taking a "now, next, later" approach to our plans. It was useful to do this as it gave me a better feel for the volume of work we have, the high level inter-dependencies, and how we might break down some of the larger tasks so we can be more focused and deliver value quicker.

I also took some time to follow up on internal award nominations that had gone through in the past couple of months. I feel like I could go further than just an thank you via email, so I've applied a little more effort to making a personal recognition this time around, which will hopefully arrive through their postbox soon.

We also had a productive review of our strategic missions and the progress we've made. I'm pleased with the team's efforts to push forward and make progress, with a broad range of stakeholders contributing to clear definitions and plans we've established.

What was hard?

When we ran through the mission updates it was reported back that a couple of people had shared that they felt they didn't have a voice in the strategy conversation. A lot of effort has gone into very clearly opening up the door for colleagues, so there is more to do to give people the confidence to get involved. I need to work out how I do more on this. One suggestion was a repeat of some of the things I did with the broader directorate back in August, which might be part of the solution - but it's probably not going to be that simple. I'm already looking at dropping in to team meetings. I also read something this week that gave me something to ponder....more on that in a mo.

What did I learn?

I read an article about the "straight to stuart" campaign at M&S. I am not generally a huge fan of suggestion boxes, as I have never seen them gain much attention from people in the team. I am hoping someone in the team at M&S that led this will do a webinar, so I can learn from how they managed to get 10 thousand suggestions from their team.

I joined the IT Operations and Service Management group set up by NHS England on Wednesday. It was really useful to gain an understanding of the national initiatives being worked on. I was impressed with the job profile work that the team have been doing at NHS England.

I also read through a deck from the keynote speech at the recent SITS conference, which Sam shared with me. It was interesting to see the insights shared in that deck, affirming some of the things we're already doing. There were also some things that I was more skeptical about, as they seemed to be heavily influenced by vendor brochureware - but maybe I'm just being a luddite!