Not a lot going on here, and certainly no design

If you're here for that bloke Andy Callow...

Read Andy's blog articles on Medium. He normally produces weekly weeknotes, but occasionally writes something more in-depth:

How not to suck at NHS Job applications (Mar 2021).Your job is to make the life of the shortlisters hard and make it difficult for us to discard your application. So I’m writing these tips to benefit us both.
The Journey of a Speculative Tweet (Jan 2021). I’ve heard a lot of people describe themselves as “lurkers” rather than Tweeters on Twitter. Whilst this is fine and there’s a lot to be gained by absorbing information in our professional spheres, I think it misses a massive opportunity to be more interactive and discover things that aren’t necessarily being shared. I’d like to illustrate this with a timeline of a recent Tweet.
Where are all the NHS Trust CIOs? (Jan 2021). Over the course of a couple of months I’ve been researching the state of the NHS Trust CIO community and their representation on Boards. It is a concerning picture. If we are the body that represents the use of technology in the NHS, then collectively we are failing.
Reflections: 18 Months in at KGH (Oct 2020). When I started as Chief Digital Information Officer at Kettering General Hospital NHS Foundation Trust, I committed to myself to write some reflections every 6 months. Although I’m pretty-reliable at producing my weeknotes, this is an opportunity to take a longer look back.
The dire state of cloud-first strategies in NHS Trusts in 2020 (Aug 2020). As we begin to formulate the cloud-first policy/strategy for our Trust, I wanted to see what others in the NHS were doing. Over the course of a few hours over a weekend I attempted to summarise the state of play across the NHS, based on publically available documents and my patience with the number of Google results I was willing to click through. The picture is not good.
How I work on the train (Feb 2020). This blog is prompted by a comment from someone on Twitter asking for tips on how best to work on the train. I don’t know if this is the best, but having worked on trains for at least 4 days every week for nearly 5 years, this is what works for me.
Thoughts on Leadership Transitions (Oct 2019). Recently, I shared some reflections I had on my first 6 months in a new job. The reaction on Twitter was very kind and supportive, so I thought I’d consolidate and augment my thoughts with the aim that they are more generally applicable.
A user manual for me V2.0 (Oct 2019).
New Notebook, New Nightmare (Sept 2019). When we were young,my brother and I coined a phrase “New Handbag, New Nightmare”. This arose out of the trouble to find things in our mother’s handbag, every time it changed, which she must have done on a pretty regular basis. Previously we knew the right compartment for money, Polos, house keys, headache tablets, then it all changed. I feel the same about changing work notebooks.
Work like it’s everyone’s last week? (Apr 2019). There’s that phrase that we hear quite a bit, and see on inspirational/cheesy memes, saying “Live life like it’s your last day”. This week was the last week of my job at NHS Digital. I’ve been there nearly four years and it’s been an amazing period of personal and professional growth, and I’ve had the privilege of working with some incredibly talented people. As I came home today on the train I was reflecting on some of the conversations I’ve had over the past few days.
Hierarchy as a leadership cop out (Jan 2018). Surely that is our role as leaders — if the tone of the email (or any other situation for that matter) was less than we expect, then we should be providing direct, constructive feedback, not moaning to that person's line manager. How can we improve if we don’t hear things where we deliver less than expected.
What if we really applied our organisation’s values? (Nov 2018). Do you know your organisation’s values? When was the last time you had an operational conversation based on those values? Probably all of us can answer yes to the first question, but would struggle with the second. If you then thought about the kind of organisations where people could answer “regularly” to the second question, a prison would probably not figure highly on your list (that is unless you’ve had your eyes opened… which is the subject of this long-overdue reflection).
The Myth of Begging Forgiveness? (Oct 2017). During my career I’ve heard people say the phrase “It’s better to seek forgiveness than to ask permission”. Indeed, only the other week, I listened to a podcast where it was mentioned.I must admit to previously letting the phrase wash over me, without properly thinking about it. I like to think I take calculated risks and do what needs to be done to support delivery. But hearing it on the podcast made me think about this phrase in more depth and what it really means.
Lessons from the NHS.UK Leadership Book Club (Oct 2017).
Exploring Pioneers, Settlers and Town Planners (Jan 2017). Several months ago, I came across Simon Wardley, and read about value chain mapping with great interest. As I read through Simon’s thoughts (which are now being turned into a book — Chapter 1 starts here), the discussion about doctrine, and in particular aptitude and attitude was a particular interest. He talks about the importance of ensuring different small teams in an endeavour having the correct aptitude and attitude, and introduced the terminology of Pioneers, Settlers and Town Planners. He is of the view that there is a need for those different types, according to the level of evolution the work they are involved in.
When full marks aren’t a good thing (Dec 2016). In our organisation, we have a couple of times a year where we formally revise our Personal Development Reviews. As part of that process, we seek feedback from those around us, and it launches a flurry of 360 degree feedback requests (in a variety of formats). During this process I’ve seen a few examples where people have marked their peers as being exemplary/best possible (full marks) in every element of the values 360 degree questionnaire, yet not provided any comments to back up that opinion.