Weeknotes 20 – week 1, being new, being welcomed
Well, here I am at Hackney. It’s been a brilliant first week — primarily because my new colleagues have been so welcoming and friendly.
Five things that happened this week (thanks to Dan Barrett for this format)
- I went to what may be the best induction I’ve ever had. A morning spent covering all the basics in an engaging and super helpful way. It finished with a walk around some of the local sights in the borough with a senior manager (who take it in turns to volunteer for this). Pride in the borough, in working for the local authority and in what people are doing shone through. I met 4 new social pedagogues* from across Europe who were also joining that day, a new housing manager, and someone from children’s services.
2. I met lots of new colleagues in ICT who made me feel very welcome, including Rob Miller with a thoughtful induction to the role and the teams, the service desk with an efficient and helpful set up, the delivery team to discuss an idea for a workshop, the Hackney Works apprenticeship team, and many many more. We’re recruiting 18 apprentices into the team which is really exciting.
3. I was invited to an informal shared lunch in London Fields, which was awesome, and great way to meet new colleagues.
4. I went to a show and tell at a neighbourhood office — that was brilliant because I got to see a bit more of Hackney, meet lots of housing managers at once, and learn more about the project, all in one go.
5. We had a quarterly management team meeting which was incredibly helpful in helping me understand the big picture of what’s next for HackIT — and my role in that. Thanks Matthew Cain Rob Miller and Henry for a really useful day.
What I read this week
As you might imagine — a lot of things. I thought I’d share this one, simple is good.
it’s really quite simple which (from my experience) tends to help. There again some folk like to be bombarded with really complicated stuff that they don’t really understand because they hope that their lack of comprehension will mean that the thing that they are looking at is magic. Such magic things don’t exist.
I’ve also just started reading The Art of Business Value, by Mark Schwartz. I really liked A seat at the table so am looking forward to this.
*I had to look this up as I didn’t know what it was, it’s fascinating.
