This year I’ve been writing reflective notes at the end of each month.
I’ve found writing them helpful in getting me to think about, articulate and record things that otherwise I wouldn’t have, and hopefully it’s also helping me to learn.

So I’m back again. Slightly different this month perhaps, because we spent the last week of June on holiday in the Lake District, and that’s where my mind is as we’re still there as I finish these notes.

1. Who inspired you?

• Cassie Robinson.

Cassie wrote a beautiful explanation of the value of working in the open. I don’t think my reasons for…

This year I’ve been writing reflective notes at the end of each month.
I’ve found writing them helpful in getting me to think about, articulate and record things that otherwise I wouldn’t have, and hopefully it’s also helping me to learn

So I’m back again.

1. Working with people in different functions

Last month, I shared my frustration at parallel work happening within our oganisation and the consequent waste and risk of duplication. But this month, we’ve stopped/merged two pieces of work that were happening in parallel to a project I’m doing, in order to combine and align efforts. Feels like real progress. …

I’ve got history with meetings.

All my professional life (20 years), I’ve been involved in running meetings. I’ve planned and run meetings for parliamentary committees, Law Lords, boards, charity trustees, executives, non-executives, a former Cabinet Secretary, even the Archbishop of Cantebury (who, I learnt, goes by the amazing acronym ‘ABC’)…

I’ve organised meetings that have decided stuff, meetings that people have enjoyed and talked about months afterwards, and meetings that sucked.

Some people love to talk about meetings (I’ve even seen a Slack channel dedicated to the topic) — what makes a good meeting, how to run meetings, and so…

This year I’ve started writing reflective notes at the end of each month.
I’ve found writing them helpful in getting me to think about, articulate and record things that otherwise I wouldn’t have, and hopefully it’s also helping me to learn.

So here I am again.

1. What did you fail with?

• I failed to move a project forward like I’d been wanting and planning to do

I’d been lining up my ducks for a couple of months to get ready to kick off the project, and then I failed to get final sign off.

It was a good lesson for me in two things.

First…

For the past couple of months, I’ve experimented with writing some notes reflecting on the month just gone. I’ve quite enjoyed writing them, and they didn’t take too long to write.

I’ve also found the process helpful in getting me to think about and to articulate and record things that otherwise I wouldn’t have. So I’m keeping going with it.

1. What went well?

• I ran a workshop for our team to sustain and embed what we’d learnt on some training we’d done together on inclusive leadership and to further build the level of psychological safety in our team

I wasn’t at all sure…

Last month, I experimented with writing some notes reflecting on January.
I quite enjoyed writing them, and they didn’t take too long to write.

I also found the process helpful in getting me to think about and to articulate and record things that otherwise I wouldn’t have.

So I’m going to try it again.

1. Who or what inspired you?

• Daft Punk

As @wulfmunkey said when Daft Punk announced their breakup:

Don’t cry because it’s over, smile because it happened.*

I was inspired to have a great time digging around the internet, checking out some of their shows and videos I’d not seen before, and also…

A couple of weeks ago, I was learning a bit about how 9 charities are working together in a consortium. Working across 9 organisations is not easy, yet the potential benefits are great— from pooling resources, to information sharing, and quality (if not speed) of decision making through diversity of thought.

I was reminded of this proverb, which I once used in a presentation I had to give to an interview panel at the beginning of a job interview:

I didn’t get the job.

And I’ve no idea if it’s actually an African proverb (as at least three other people…

The backstory

In 2017 I wrote weeknotes on and off for a period, reflecting on my week. I found it a too much to keep up regularly and stopped after five months. I did a much shorter version on twitter for a while, but whilst they were much quicker to write, they didn’t hold the same value for me .

2020 was (*understatement alert*) an unusual year and at the end of it, I decided to do a personal retrospective on the year, something I’d never done before, to try and get a sense of perspective. …