Weeknote 2024.24

A whirlwind of a week, both in my personal life and at work. Don’t forget I’ve got three interesting roles out to advert, links at the bottom of this weeknote.

Saturday

Got a little bit of gardening done while the backyard was largely in shade before retreating into the house as the morning warmed up. A little bit of domestic administration and then a re-read of my camera manual to check everything was setup right for an afternoon of street photography.

Met our tutor at Bow Idea Store and spent 30 minutes taking pictures along Roman Road market which led to some interesting discussions, before heading into Victoria Park. Our task for the week was using colour in our compositions.

I headed into central London to take some pictures around Pride, continuing the theme of colour in composition. The parade was over however the streets were still packed and I got some pictures which I think were slightly different to most Pride pictures.

Sunday

Caught the train up north and helped my eldest pack up their shared house followed by a valedictory pint with her housemates. Back up in a few weeks for graduation.

Monday

Final packing, a little bit of cleaning, and a four-hour journey back to London in a van full of boxes and bags.

Tuesday

Back in the office, and to one of the hardest tasks, working towards an agreed set of priorities. With almost limitless demand and finite resources there are always going to be as many disappointed people as there are happy people. The only solace is that we are delivering the best outcomes for colleagues and residents as we can within the constraints.

Also caught up on our work to drive down our operational costs, which exceeds all expectations. Every ￡ we can trim off the basics is another ￡ we can invest in making things better across the Council.

Towards the end of the day, I joined a large group of our technical leads, and again found we’d made more progress than I had dared to hope, driven by the enthusiasm of all the teams working together. The changes are difficult, not just technically, but as much in letting go of what’s been familiar for a long time to embrace a new world.

Wednesday

Another cunning plan to reduce our operational costs and improve our services took a crucial step forward today and is now just two signatures away from becoming reality.

So much of what every large organisation manages has built up over time, what I as a geographer, would call accretion or perhaps even sedimentation. And the time comes when setting a new strategic direction and sweeping away all that’s gone before make sense, and I’m lucky that that time is now.

Thursday

Election day. And hats off to the many people in my service who supported the postal vote process for several weeks, and then started at 6am this morning knowing they would be clocking off when the last result is declared on Friday morning.

Friday

Another day largely spent on a complicated problem. Three weeks of intense inquiry meant I knew enough to draft a coherent plan for the next six months which I will socialise with over the next few weeks to ensure we move forward in unison.

Track of the week

Run 2 by New Order. https://open.spotify.com/track/7L8z4moYTHAHLXkmPTWHZJ?si=1ebdd87cff8147a4

Jobs out to advert

Commercial Manager – Starfish Search

Head of Operations and Architecture – Starfish Search

Head of Project Delivery and Governance – Starfish Search

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