Weeknote 13
There’s me saying last week how easy these have been and I’m only getting to it this week at nearly 10pm on Sunday having forgotten to do these about 100 times since Thursday afternoon.
Easter weekend has meant a hair appointment, endless errands, quite a lot of gardening, dog walks and even a bit of relaxing. And a lot of chocolate eggs thanks to the egg hunt Dai does for me every year. Family over tomorrow for a late Easter meal of porchetta, salt and vinegar potatoes and a Basque chocolate cheesecake for dessert.
What I’ve been doing
This week has been all about the race to the finish line of a long weekend for Easter.
Many meetings with our people-ing team to line up the new team that will focus on Local Plans from next week. I flat out refuse to call them resourcing. Many meetings with the people in the team. Got it over the line by 5.30 on Thursday.
The team is smaller, leaner, more focussed as we move out of many discovery and alpha phases into live delivery. I’m not putting labels on phases for our work, I think it’s unhelpful and given the nature of our policy-heavy work, feels hugely crowbarred in.
Next week will be all about kick off and getting together as a team face to face.
This week was also ALL THE SHOW AND TELLS. And all the playbacks. It was so good to see the incredible work the team did land so well with the client. But my god, the info overload.
Show and tells are too long. Reports, dear god. Really keen to join up with others at home base to look at how we do final reports for clients. It’s an art. And one we’re not nailing right now. The work is good, we need to be better at telling stories and showing very actionable next steps.
Spent more time with our delivery managers in Planning Data land. I’m expanding my ownership to include this area from next week. It’s been great to spend time with Kate and Darren and start to get under the skin of the issues they are observing (both new to the teams). Many of the same things I’ve observed in Local Plans.
Meeting of the week goes to Mark, talking all things Wales and shared connections.
What I’ve been thinking about
Two things:
- What IS delivery? Don’t have an answer here that I’m ready to put into words. But it’s percolating in my head. It’s a complicated question. But important to define.
- What to plant in the north border, it’s sunnier than I think. And it’s on a slope. And I don’t want to fall victim to overplanting with trees/shrubs that will swamp the space. And how do I keep year round interest. I’ve been obsessively flipping through Winter Gardens for inspiration. 10,000 tabs open. I’m getting close....
Three things.
- I’ve spotted two opportunities I think I’m going to put myself forward for. A digital/tech trustee of a large national charity in an area I feel quite strongly about. And a role with my local authority - not a job job but a paid role in an interesting advisory/oversight space.
What I’ve been reading
Another week, another burst of uproarious laughter.
What I’ve been watching
Settled on a new background series to have on tv/sometimes pay attention to: CSI. I stopped watching it around season 10, and Netflix have just started showing 10 onwards so all new to me.
What’s blooming
Fritillaries. Big ones in orange. Big ones in black. And naturalised ones like this in the lawn.
And the woods are covered in anemone and it is glorious.
