What I’ve been doing
My brain has been well and truly stretched over the last week, inside work and out.
In work we had our second whole team face to face ‘Retreat’ and spent some of that time discussing AI narratives and our future change goals, and the context in which we are (and want to be) operating. I’ve been here about five months now and I still easily can feel like I don’t understand the conversations. I know all the language, I recognise the sentence structure and grammar, but wow some of this stuff is complex (and we don’t even talk about it at its technical level!)
We held our Team Retreat at Luminary Bakery in Camden Town. A quick shout out for them as they are a social enterprise responding to a need they saw for women who have had a social and economic disadvantage. The food, coffee (and other drinks) were fab and the team were helpful. It was a lovely location for our get together.
Having escaped a room after our last Retreat with the power of our minds, this time we went more physical and headed to an indoor crazy golf course. I’m pleased to report everyone survived despite some definite moments of “hit it and hope”. I did find myself wondering whether the organisational risk assessment and insurance covered us! On Tuesday I headed back to London for a half day with Hogan Lovells as part of training programme they were launching for 2023 (we are being trained on, not trained) and there’s a little blog to follow about that so I won’t say more now - other than the experience was fab but stretching. Big glass fronted, multi floored law firm buildings in central London is a world away from my natural habitat - as is sitting in front of five new lawyers firing questions.
I’ve been progressing some work on our new performance management framework and, as an existing fan of Of/By/For/All, I made sure I read some of their resources about care in the workplace. Their checklist is a useful prompt.
We’ve also been running at speed at the idea of running a Deliberative Citizens Review of the Global AI Safety Summit that the UK is hosting in early November. Getting rough plans, delivery partner quotes, funding conversations and action in place has been pretty pushed. Hoping to nail down some of that early this week and start the proverbial ball rolling…if that doesn’t happen in the next couple of days we’ll run out of time to do it in a meaningful way. The operations and delivery of this activity will be stretching in terms of timescales and spinning plates, and that some of the time I won’t immediately understand the subject / methodology will mean I need to be on my game.
Wednesday was the second Connected Conversation of the week. These are one hour online spaces we are hosting to bring together people from across the world to discuss a range of topics. If our team conversations stretch my mind…this was like that but on adrenaline. Such a great learning environment too though.
Thursday was our Governance Board meeting and my first. It was a great space to hear views on our progress and plans for the next few months and beyond. The Board is a great mix of approaches which can help stretch us and connect us.
I did make sure everyone got paid - and that process feels comfortable and familiar now.
What I need to take care of
As a newbie to remote working and in a role with some flexibility around hours (and working only four days) I’ve been taking steps since day one to manage my days. I knew I couldn’t go from very rigid service delivery (in physical locations with opening hours) to this without some structure. One of those has been keeping a log of hours and recently I read a blog about finding your most productive hours. So I’ve started tracking that - I’ll reflect on the findings in a months time.
On top of the other stretching I’ve talked about above I’ve been seeking personal professional stretch too and chatting with team members about what they need more from me, what I can do better for them. This is a major motivation for me and there’s work for me to do.
What I’ve been inspired or challenged or moved by
My stretching week hasn’t stopped after work. On Friday and Saturday I was in London as a Trustee of Consortium for our Equity Fund showcase and AGM / conference. I’m always challenged at Consortium events where the incredible rich mix of diversity (in all its possible definitions) is both comforting and a learning space. The language, cultural cues, etiquette, best practice, all changes in that space and I love it. I chaired a panel about ‘how to influence’ and the representatives of the grassroots organisations in attendance seemed to get benefit, so that was pleasing.
On Saturday night I went to see Nicole Scherzinger in Sunset Boulevard at the Savoy Theatre. I’ve talked before about my fandom of Nicole and she was incredible. I felt lucky to be in the presence of such an incredible voice. But beyond her - the whole experience was utterly breathtaking. I simply cannot describe it other than to say I wish everyone I knew could go and see it. I’ve seen a fair amount of theatre and musicals in my life but I have never seen anything like this…it is still processing for me. I don’t imagine I’ll see anything like it again either. A performance for which words like “epic” should be reserved.
What I’ve been reading
Nothing. I’ve been taking on so much throughout my week that reading (other than directly contributing to what I was up to) has felt too much more new information. So I gave myself permission for a week off.