Weeknote 2024.41

A week of important discussions which will likely shape my service for at least the next two years.

Sunday

A reset day after a little while away from home, everything from catching up on the laundry to doing a first sift of my Rome photographs and preparing for the week ahead.

Monday

A trip to the countryside to visit my mother.

Tuesday

My first day in the office after our day at Microsoft and then my annual leave, so largely talking to colleagues and catching up on emails. Days like this are great for distilling themes for our future strategy.

Wednesday

Routine meetings in the morning and then two special meetings in the afternoon. First, the initial gathering of a Council-wide group to shape the Digital Services portfolio. It was good to establish common ground before we meet again in a few weeks to recommend which digital projects the Council delivers next year.

And then straight onto the first extended stakeholder group for an imminent project. The group was supportive, and had a lot of questions, some of which I could answer immediately, others require us to be further into the analysis.

Thursday

The cancellation of a couple of in-person meetings allowed me to work from home and get in three extra hours preparation for upcoming meetings - collating information, forming narratives, drafting papers, and readying presentations.

Friday

Lots of informal calls to end the week. Great progress in many areas, ongoing challenges in others, overall, we moved forward. I am determined we properly resolve issues wherever we can even if it take a little longer or costs slightly more as carrying technical and organisational debt hinders everything.

And the last meeting of the week, our AI board, included discussions on how we make the board effective, secure the resources needed, and ensure we continue with integrity. And proceeding with integrity can be harder than it sounds with 1000s of companies promoting miracle AI cures for all our ails across all channels.

Come and join us!

As our new Head of Digital Delivery. https://starfishsearch.com/jobs/enfield-digital-delivery/

Track of the week

Earthquake by Anna Ash, which I first heard while warming up with a cuppa in Sudbury Arts Centre. https://open.spotify.com/track/2U0U5tUzmzAd0tjzvXwHqN?si=bc8cd676a4d64467

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