Weeknotes 5: A long week…..
Well hello there, how have you been?
It’s been a while since my last weeknote. A good six weeks or so, but hey its lockdown, time’s rapidly loosing all meaning. The edges have blurred. We eat when we’re hungry and when we’re not. We work strange hours as we juggle work, schoolwork and life. Who even knows what day of the week it is without checking? Let alone what month. Is it still January?
New Year, new start?
I came back from Christmas feeling refreshed and ready to go. New year’s resolutions were strong, I’d started a daily yoga challenge, healthier eating, I gave up coffee. Heck, I even organised my diary, entering lunch breaks and clearing space in the first week to ease back in. Inspired by Sam Villis, I even started a personal work Trello board (Oh how I was missing Trello)
Lockdown Life
Four days in and we were back in lockdown. We knew it was coming. Four kids, one in primary, one in secondary, one at college and one back from uni, me and Mr D all trying to work from home together. All but the youngest son on Teams calls. The broadband held up magnificently (thankfully) but due to the noise levels of multiple Teams calls, the dining room office extended to the front room and the back room. Work, school and home has really blurred into one. I’m no longer sure if I’m living in the office or working from home? Even our youngest has a timetable that is so packed that it could make my work diary feel empty. And my work diary is far from empty! Gone were the previous summer lockdown days of short bursts on educational apps followed by free afternoons and bedtime stories. Youngest daughter has mastered the Just Eat app and has saved my credit card details. #Life skills. And its come in handy this month.
Covid & #Dorset Together
Covid stamped back into my work life too. At short notice we quickly created services and solutions for staff testing, community testing, PPE for unpaid carers and my favourite, cabs for jabs. #Dorset Together is still alive and in full swing. It’s heart warming to see people from different areas coming together to create something special, ensuring our valuable people are looked after. Some of us have been doing this for nearly a year. We’re used to the buzz, the rapid idea generation, fast paced problem solving, the organised chaos, the feel good factor. Its addictive. People have a problem getting to their vaccination appointment? How can we help them? Lets talk to transport and find out what we’ve got available. The schools transport have capacity. And Cabs for Jabs was born.
#Dorset Together is reaching further and further into the council. The mindset is changing. Staff that are new to this are hesitant at first. You can see it in their eyes. You want to do what? But… We can’t… That’ll never happen… and then it dawns, why can’t we? yes…yes…. we can, we can make it happen. And together we do.
A memorable moment was convincing the contact centre that they could book a cab before ending the phone call. So that when that valuable person, who probably hasn’t been out much for a long time, phones for help, when they put the phone down they know everything is arranged and which cab is picking them up when. Literally going the extra mile.
I got to work outdoors (yay!) with Emergency Planning, Highways and Library colleagues helping set up our first staff testing site for 1200 frontline staff.
To prove the timings would work and to give the library staff overseeing testing the practice, Mr D and I were the guinea pigs and were the first staff tested. No, the test doesn’t hurt, and yes the results came back quickly. Thankfully negative, phew.
We had an amazing high on this work. We had 3 days to create the first booking system. A chance catch up and coffee with a colleague that morning lead to the solution. A creative afternoon and evening later and the system was ready and tested both by my family (home learning at its best!) and our sponsor. Its been a long while since I’ve sat with a developer to create something. Its fair to say we were both buzzing by the end of the evening.
And great for us both to get this feedback from Matt Prosser too:
“Can I add my thanks — it’s brilliant that we have people like you delivering for Dorset.
Thank you from me, I know how busy everything is, so to hear that people are still going above and beyond is always good”.
Planning convergence & transformation
Alongside all of this the juggernaut that is the planning convergence and transformation still continues. I’m jointly leading, alongside our Service Manager, and we knew this convergence would be hard. Previous council merges and restructures left a legacy of data to unpick and migrate. But at the end of January, the same week our first testing site went live, Planning West went live.
This is the second convergence, meaning West and North data are now in the same system. This is the first time we can see the benefits of convergence and we’re starting to see the benefits.
Teamwork
Our multi disciplinary planning team have really come together over the last year. We have Planning, Building Control, Conservation, Land Charges and Business Managers, Planning and Enforcement Officers, Service Designers, IT Application Support, GIS Support, our IT Operational Manager, Content Designer, our Comms Business Partner, our Project Manager and our software suppliers’ commercial director. Our corporate director is our sponsor and our portfolio holder is on our Steering Group.
We’ve got to know each other in way we probably wouldn’t if we weren’t working remotely. We’re virtually in each other’s houses. All the time! We know each other’s children and pets. Our children are getting to know each other. When it snowed up North, Graeme showed our children just what they were missing out on. 🤣
We share the highs, the successes, the virtual Go Live after parties are becoming a tradition.
We share the lows. And there have been lows. We’re creating a brand new planning authority from our 6 legacy councils, there are bound to be differences of opinion, personality clashes and a whole load of history. It’s not always easy finding the right solution for everybody.
This week we’ve been planning Weymouth, our next convergence. At times this week I have felt like the united nations, at other times I have felt completely broken. Its not easy and we’ve all got so much going on. Thanks to Lisa Trickey for just letting me be human and for listening.
Wrapped around this we have all our Place Business Partners from Comms, HR & OD, Performance & BI and Finance. A network I wouldn’t be without. I have been so grateful for their support this week. Thanks guys.
Other things that happened……
In other news our transformation programme continues to take shape, our online transformation hub is growing, and we’re moving ahead to start shaping the work for the next financial year.
If you’ve made it this far, thank you for reading. It’s been theraputic! The only resolution I kept? I’ve not had a coffee all year. 😉 Balance, family, friends and mental health are important. Its time for me to take a break. I’m on leave next week and I’m soo looking forward to it.
Look after yourselves
