The view I chose for the top of my five year reflections no longer exists. A year ago, I captured a beautiful fiery sunset over Leeds city centre from the window of Quarry House. If I stood in the same spot today I’d see only the brick slip clad walls of the massive new block … Continue reading Another view: Reflections on a sixth year in the NHS
What did I learn? Two days at Cranfield for the last module of the Project Leadership Programme. I enjoyed David Denyer's session on creating a resilient organisation, which seemed especially relevant to my work supporting urgent and emergency care. In another session, we were invited to look again at the "7 lenses of transformation", which … Continue reading Fortnightnote: 15 to 26 May 2023
Matt Jukes has posted a provocation on the tenth anniversary of his first role in a user-centred, agile digital government team. I realise that I too recently passed that milestone. There’s even a video in which you might glimpse a 10-years-younger me pointing at PostIt notes during the alpha of the service manager induction programme, … Continue reading Marks out of ten – how are we doing after a decade of public digital transformation?
What did I enjoy? Getting out of the building on Thursday with a rain-drenched tour of some 54North homes in York. I'm a non-exec director of 54North, which was formed recently from the merger of Leeds & Yorkshire and York Housing Associations. The exec team seem to be doing a great job of bringing the … Continue reading Weeknote: 9 to 12 May 2023
What did I enjoy? The Leeds hub for the new NHS England is starting to get busier, and chance conversations with colleagues are getting more frequent. I managed to cycle in on 3 out of the 4 working days, but got the bus on Friday when it was raining. I'm only a fair weather … Continue reading Weeknote: 2 to 5 May 2023
A short week because of the Easter bank holiday break, but I packed a lot into 3 working days. Monday In the Leeds office, a planning call for the week ahead on work toward our Product teams' future operating model, an all staff call led by senior leaders to welcome colleagues from Health Education England, … Continue reading Short weeknote: 3 to 5 April 2023
What did I learn? In a team "away day" in the Canary Wharf office with our executive director, Helen, and other members of her senior leadership team, we took some time at the start to listen to Professor Geoff Bird from the University of Oxford, before thinking together about the strengths in our team, and … Continue reading Weeknote: 27 to 31 March 2023
Back to work after a much-needed week off, during which we attended the funeral of a family friend who died too soon. What did I enjoy? Spending every day of the week in the new Leeds office, including chance meetings with colleagues, almost like the old days. I was especially pleased to hear that Rochelle … Continue reading Weeknote: 20 to 24 March 2023
What did I learn? Three out of five days were taken up with module three of the Project Leadership Programme (PLP) at Cranfield University. Having switched cohorts due to a work commitment after module one, this time I felt I knew my fellow participants a little better, and enjoyed breaktime and dinner conversation with them, … Continue reading Weeknote: 6 to 10 March 2023
Call to action "If you were talking to a patient about how to access services, what would you say?" I joined a meeting with some very senior leaders, led by colleagues from the NHS England strategy team, who are doing a rapid piece of work to help us answer that question more clearly. Service access … Continue reading Weeknote: 27 February to 3 March 2023
A calmer week than usual, perhaps because many colleagues were on half term holidays. Even so, writing these notes, I realise I packed a lot in. Also a return to the office milestone: for the first time I worked in Quarry House 5 days running. That was my personal choice, and I'm fortunate to live … Continue reading Weeknote: 13 to 17 February 2023
Connecting our service I spent some time this week trying to make sure teams were talking to each other about various strands of activity that are running in parallel across digital urgent and emergency care. They're all coming at different aspects of the same problem from different angles, and while each has a separate rationale … Continue reading Weeknote: 6 to 10 February 2023
A note covering the past week, and also the working day I put in between Christmas and New Year. How did I make expectations clear? After a hectic run-up to Christmas, I was glad to have a meeting-free day to go back to my work objectives and identify the things I really need to focus … Continue reading Week-and-a-bit-note: 29 December 2022 to 6 January 2023
For the last few years I've spent a little of my Christmas downtime curating my own personal filter bubble in the form of a list of people whose every post I want to see. Previously I derived a Twitter list of people I retweeted most in the preceding 12 months, adjusted for balance of gender and … Continue reading Microblogging migration: my New Year list of people whose every post I want to see
Only 3 days in work this week because I took 2 days off to celebrate my oldest son's graduation for his Master's degree. Boy #1 got a distinction to add to his first class Classics BA. Something, something, social mobility - he is the third generation of Manchester graduates in the family. We took him … Continue reading Short weeknote: 12 to 16 December 2022
Matt Edgar writes here 