I took a week’s holiday last week, visiting Venice and surrounding towns. Quite a lot happened while I was away, and I am grateful to my deputy, Jacqui, and other colleagues who handled it all without drama.
Getting off the plane at Manchester Airport, I was hit by an unexpected wall of warm air: the heatwave was well underway. Monday in the office was fine, but by Tuesday afternoon the building’s cooling systems were definitely struggling. A couple of times I retreated to meeting rooms which seemed a bit cooler than the open office.
I was proud of my colleagues this week. They managed very rapid and professional turnarounds on several last-minute requests.
On Wednesday, I presented the team’s initial thinking on digital strategy to the Urgent and Emergency Care Strategy Steering Board (all credit to Barbara and Brin for the preparation and pre-reading). There were good questions and challenges from senior colleagues, which we can use to shape the next steps on this work.
Alongside all this, there were intermittent discussions about on-going organisation changes, and how they affect the work my teams are doing. We’re entering “tag team” season where I’ll be on leave one week, and the people I need to talk to the next. That’s going to make navigating the changes a bit tricky, but I’m confident things are heading in the right direction.
- We are outcome-driven
- You are solutionising
- They are pursuing a vanity project!
Matt Edgar writes here 