Week note 7
Another strange old week.
A day in Cardiff, a multi-day migraine and another week of glacial pace on our renovation.
Renovations suffering from “too many people in the room” syndrome. Literally. Decorator, 2 electricians, 2 carpenters. They are tripping over each other, annoying each other and slowing each other down. There’s a metaphor in there for my world of work but I’m too tired.
Work
Much the same as last week.
Really pleased with how the Public Health Wales discovery is coming together now - tech and service design starting to merge back together and it’s all properly exciting.
Spent the day in Cardiff on Tuesday with a colleague. Nice to be with humans. And have lunch in Cardiff Market. We’re going to make this a monthly thing.
Slow to no progress on anything else this week. One of the worst migraines yet on Wednesday/Thursday with hangover all day Friday. I was out all day Thursday as sitting upright made me want to puke. Less the pain this time, more the scrambled brain and extreme nausea.
Not work
“No one is coming to save you”.
This has been echoing round my head for weeks but was really intense this week.
I feel like this learned helplessness is at the root of so much of our current state. I look at the US, it feels like the centre/centre-left is just waiting for someone to come and save them from the madness of Trump. They aren’t coming. YOU are the grown ups now.
I see that in the world of public service delivery in Wales as well.
The Senedd Local Government and Housing Committee had an evidence session this week on Digital in Local Government. Being the nerd that I am, I read the papers, I read even more background papers and I watched the evidence. This from Audit Wales last year: From firefighting to future-proofing – the challenge for Welsh public services] is especially good, it’s so very nearly there on digital/transformation.
Diagnosis of the issues are all there in the evidence, you can’t argue with them. And then...well, nothing past that. It’s beyond frustrating.
We look at the problems, can diagnose them, be in a position to do something about it and just...wave our hands and give up.
Well, I’m sick of it. No one is coming to save us. Apparently, I’m now one of the grownups in the room. And frankly, I have a role to play in agitating, influencing and trying to see through some modicum of change. I tried inside, and now I’m going to try outside.
I’m talking to others, mapping the landscape, writing and getting ready to influence at levels that I’ve never influenced at before. Bit scary, but then this is Wales and you can literally just message politicians and have a chat with them.
I’m not a front of house person, I’m happiest in the background, but you know what? Someone has to do it and if it’s not me, I’ll just be pissed off at the direction of travel and I’m tired of being the moaning minney in the corner.
There’s even something rattling in my head about the need for more of us, us in public service delivery, digital, technology, design to run for local office. Start engaging your local representatives. Contemplate how else you can get involved.
What I’ve listened to this week
I’m not good at taking things in via my ears alone, way too easily distracted. So I’m not a podcast person.
But this week, I properly sat down and listened to the first episode of Lee Water’s rather excellent Y Pumed Llawr [The Fifth Floor]. The first episode is about the horrific pressure that ministers and SpAds are under. And Members themselves.
A large portion of this is down to the small size of the Senedd, the small size of the majority party and the size of the pool for ministerial roles (or Cabinet Secretaries are they are now called). This then knocks on to who and how many can then play roles on committees providing all important scrutiny. And then you have the small size of the civil service on top of this. And as we all know, Wales may be small, but we have big, long, deeply entrenched problems.
Also, it was fascinating to learn how the SpAd system works in Wales, quite different to UK. SpAds are still civil servants with extra capability to be more political, but they are employed via the First Minister and work across multiple ministers. If a minister goes, the SpAd stays and goes to work for someone else.
I’m tempted to skip ahead to the fifth episode on Local Government, “Friction”, after this week’s committee...