Week ending 13th January 2023
I’m writing this week’s reflections on the train home from London, somewhere between Reading and Swindon. I’ve had an energising day catching up with colleagues in person and attending a half-day of facilitation training with Circle Indigo. While trips to the capital make for long days (leaving home at 7.30am, arriving home after 10pm) I enjoyed the change of pace and energy after what has been a tumultuous and few days.
My week was dominated by an acceleration in my house purchase, culminating in exchange of contracts on Wednesday. I don’t think I’ve fully processed the emotions from this day, but it’s certainly a mix — excitement, relief, realisation of a long-held goal, anticipation, exhaustion. The stress of the potential move (and swings between sale off, on, off and on again) has been affecting my sleep for about a month and I felt this acutely this week, managing only 5 or 6 hours of sleep some days. My concentration and speed of thought are noticeably diminished; thank goodness for last week’s thinking time, as my notes and mental models formed in that period of downtime have allowed me to make positive contributions to team workshops even while distracted.
The second theme of my week was boldness. I volunteered to present some of our work at a directorate-level meeting. I’ve been confidently sharing my existing knowledge from discovery and views on what comes next at alpha kick off meetings. And I’ve asked a few provocative questions to stimulate discussion amongst the team, and ensure we make grounded and realistic prioritisation decisions. I think this boldness comes from two places: some positive feedback and an encouraging nudge from a senior colleague to take a more leading role at the outset of alpha, and the backdrop of achieving a goal I’ve held for 10 years (owning my own property) which has spurred me on to do more.
The week ahead:
- Taking 1.5 days off to collect the keys and settle into my new space
- Second week of alpha. I’ll be getting stuck into some juicy design and data hypotheses, and meeting our new service designer
- Quarterly performance and goal setting session with my line manager
- I’m going to try to dial into to some of virtual govcamp. I’ll be travelling into London again on Friday for UKGC London event
