Hello dear readers. What a week! I started a new job on Monday but in some ways it feels more like a homecoming, as I’m returning to a mission and a team I was in before, from March 22 to September 23.
High profile and emotive work like the Homes for Ukraine programme eventually forces you to take breaks and that’s what I’ve been doing; I went away, tried some new things, made a bunch of mistakes and learned from them.
I’m experiencing the new job honeymoon phase, and I can’t stop telling people how this is one of the best digital teams in government. I feel so lucky to be entrusted with this work, and to be doing it alongside some incredibly skilled and caring folks. There will be tough times ahead for sure, but for now I’m luxuriating in the joy and excitement of newness.
What did I learn?
I’ve been catching up with everything that’s happened in my 11 months away. It certainly wasn’t a gentle or ramped introduction, as I was thrust straight into a cross-departmental policy call at 11am on Monday morning. After a c.6 week application process and a 7–8 week handover it feels good to be straight into the action; no more waiting.
What did I let go of?
On Wednesday, we held the final show and tell for the project I’ve been working on in our Funding Service. This was my final act as their product manager and although the preparation was a little chaotic (we had to prepare asynchronously and didn’t have an opportunity to rehearse) it all went off with aplomb, and we received plenty of positive feedback. I’m particularly pleased we secured commitment from our joint project sponsors to have a conversation about the future of the work in the next two weeks. There is a possibility our recommendations won’t continue because of other work pressures, particularly around the Spending Review, but at least if the work is dropped/postponed it will have been decided consciously rather than slowly fizzling out and extending uncertainty for the team.
How will I behave differently?
I’m adjusting to the reality that it is no longer my job to be across the detail of our work, and I need to entrust detail questions to the team. I’ve picked up a few delivery bits and bobs this week that aren’t strictly my remit but needed doing — in future I’ll need to be much more careful about volunteering vs. delegating to keep my workload balanced and allow myself the headspace to do the strategic thinking that this role demands. This should get easier though as we have some new staff starting in September; at the moment we’re a little light as we’ve had a few leavers recently.
What happened that gave me a glimpse of the future?
I managed to schedule 1–2–1s with all but one member of the team this week. They were informal, unstructured conversations and deliberately so. There will be plenty of meetings where I’ll see the team and talk about specific work priorities, but when we’re so focussed on the work in front of us we can lose the human connection that is so key to a high performing team.
In those chats we rambled around various topics, in amongst which were strong themes around team wellbeing, communication and transparency, and clarity around our direction and how that relates to people’s roles. A lot of juicy topics for me to mull on! I’m grateful for the team’s honest accounts of how things have been and what they want for the future, because without that we’ll keep trundling along unchecked with the same patterns and frustrations brewing.
What held me back?
I can’t think of anything this week, other than perhaps my impatience and brain capacity! I’ve started to struggle a bit today (Friday) with my working memory; I’ve taken in so much information that I’m now struggling to process it and I’m stalling in conversations. Time to recharge over the weekend.
What frustrated me?
Someone who was due to start in our team in two weeks dropped out this week (for very legitimate reasons), so I’ve had to rejig our recruitment plan a little. This is only a small frustration as we’ve worked up a plan B pretty quickly and there should be minimal disruption to the team, but it was one of those moments when I thought I had everything sorted and then it jumped back onto my to do list!
As soon as I announced my new job on LinkedIn the sales DMs started. I understand it’s people’s job to sell me stuff, but when I haven’t replied to the first cold message, ringing my employer is not going to endear me to you/your company/your project.
What surprised me?
Culture outlasts people. Many of the team rituals and values remain from my previous stint here, despite every one of the original March 2022 team having moved onto other things. It was a lovely surprise to return and see some of the same silly bonding moments persisting. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again — fun is key to happy, healthy, productive teams.
What did I do this week that I do every week?
A few things I’ve started that I’m committed to continuing:
· Being as transparent as I possibly can be with the team. Communicating early and often about things that matter to them
· Asking for feedback so I can try to make things better
· Listening intently, and mirroring to check I’ve understood
· Giving credit and saying thank you often
· Being honest about what I don’t know
What got in my way?
I’ve been asked to review a lot of documents this week, and I’ve felt like a bottle neck because the work cannot proceed without me and sometimes I haven’t been able to read them until many hours later because I’ve been on calls. I’ll need to work soon with the team what needs my oversight/approval (hopefully not very much) and what they can continue without me (hopefully a lot), and for the latter what assurances they need to know they’re doing the right thing.
What will I do next week?
More of the same things, I suspect. More 1–2–1s; more calls with policy teams to understand their intentions and what they need from us; more reading and listening and learning about the work that’s happened before; more planning for new team members onboarding.
We returned to band on Thursday after our summer break and we’re now on a three week countdown to the biggest competition of the year. I’m somewhat daunted by the prospect of 3x weekly rehearsals from now on alongside the challenge of the new role, so I’ll need to double down on all my sustaining habits (sleep, water, healthy food, breaks, fresh air).
