Weeknote 2025.04 - One Year in Enfield

I joined Enfield a year ago this week. Lots done. Lots to do.

Saturday

A very misty walk from Richmond to Ham House and back again. I spent longer taking photographs on route than I anticipated, so ran out of time to enter Ham House on this occasion.

Sunday

Another day of domestic admin, and a little holiday planning.

Monday

A day that went all topsy-turvy as I reprioritised and reprioritised again to accommodate rapidly changing circumstances.

And in the evening, a street photography competition, with all three of my entries held back for the second round, and one of them placed third. It’s the first time in about a year of membership I’ve had a picture placed, so hopefully I’m getting the hang of what’s expected in club photography.

Tuesday

Another day of balancing important strategic work with urgent tactical work and spending some time with team members who really are pulling out all the stops to deliver our everyday services and project demands.

Onward to Canary Wharf for the Winter Lights festival, truly spectacular, but curiously difficult to take photographs that add something to the work of the lighting designers. I’ll pop back at the weekend for another go, I may not have been at my most creative 12 hours after leaving home in the morning.

Wednesday

An interesting morning attending the first day of the Local Plan examination, sitting among other officers, elected members, landowners, developers, and civic societies as they made their points to the Inspector. I was there in case I needed to answer any questions on the engagement process, however everything was very abled handled by our King’s Counsel, so I got to say nothing other than my name and job title.

I joined Enfield exactly a year ago today..

Thursday

A few important meetings, including our fortnightly all-staff Teams meeting. We spent much of the time hearing from one of our project teams, who are doing simply amazing work, not just delivering the work, but displaying collaborative working across teams.

We hit a major technical snag with one of our projects in the morning, which we thought might take four to six weeks to resolve. (The joys of inserting modern technology in an aging estate.)? By the end of the day, we had a proposal on the table that overcomes the snag, moves us in the right strategic direction and is likely to be more economical. That’s the joy of having a talented team and great partners.

Friday

I joined a group of colleagues for the kick-off meeting of a mission critical project. I was a little anxious at the beginning, and 90 minutes later we had a good, shared understanding of the work (that will become the scope) and our respective roles and responsibilities, and I’m confident we’ll deliver.

Getting there required a difficult decision earlier in the day, which was both fantastic and terrible, which I could only reconcile by focussing on our values and behaviours and the right outcome for the Council.

Track of the week

Messy by Lola Young.