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
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
Team get-together A long delayed get-together for the "legacy NHS England" colleagues in my Digital Urgent and Emergency Care (UEC) team. As a geographically-dispersed team, this was the largest number of us all together in one place since I took on my current role in March 2021. Originally it was going to be a team … Continue reading Weeknote: 20 to 24 February 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
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
What did I enjoy? Meeting in person with colleagues who have been working together on our future operating model for the Product directorate in the new NHS England, and with other members of the senior leadership team for the directorate. We also went out for dinner and drinks together. The next day, I joined the … Continue reading Weeknote: 5 to 9 December 2022
What was hard? I was hit by a bad cold for most of this week, which was a terrible week to be below par due to important deadlines in the operating model work. To be fair, when I read back over my weeknotes, almost every week for the last 2 months has had important deadlines … Continue reading Weeknote: 28 November to 2 December 2022
Matt Edgar writes here 