Dan’s Weeknotes 2022–07–18

Hi there.

I didn’t get this writing done on Friday as preferred and I was ill and then busy at the weekend but I can keep up my momentum if I get it done now (Monday).

It is freakishly hot in London (UK) today. Predicted to be one of (if not the) hottest days on record. I am working from home — I wasn’t going to use public transport despite the promise of an air conditioned office. But my flat just isn’t equipped for temperatures pushing 40°C. Today it’s got progressively harder to concentrate. It’s the early evening now and my desk is at the side of the building where the sun shines later in the day. I can’t be in there any more, even with the windows and curtains having been closed all day. So I’m sat in the shade in the hall where my grandad’s barometer tells me it’s 31°C at the moment. I have a frozen flannel on my neck.

I write that not to complain about the weather but rather because often I feel like I’m living on the edge of a global catastrophe¹ that’s right there in plain sight but nobody is really getting stuck in to it. Like the emperor’s new clothes, but if the emperor was both naked and on fire.

It feels like in everyday life there’s so much time and energy being spent on altogether the wrong things.

For example the relentless drip drip drip of the wholly manufactured and foul ‘culture wars’ stuff which is really about maintaining (or extending) systems of oppression, right? That’s how it appears to me at least.

Yeah I don’t know what to do with this train of thought, I just wanted to write it down.

Last week was a spectrum of extremely difficult² to really positive with an overall didn’t-get-enough-done-to-be-happy.

Let’s reflect on some good stuff:

• Did the second half of the session looking to help decision making informed by data after the first half I wrote about last time. It went well and next I’m going to be running the session with people from our Network of around 260 local Citizens Advice across England and Wales.
• Did the third monthly data session with the same Network and it was the best yet. We started the session looking at actual trends in our data, which I think always goes down well. It sets the tone and gets people engaged. Then there was some great conversation and contribution from the group in break out sessions. Over 70 people attended as I recall. We are learning how to run these, each one gets better. There’s something here about loosening up a bit and not worrying about it being perfect or over prepared.
• I did a 5 minute data update to the leadership team I’m in and I really enjoyed putting it together. It was showcasing some data from Google Search Console that I don’t think many people in the organisation have seen.
• Tiny thing but I did a quick bit of work with Tim (director of technology) on designing a metric around improving recruitment. I enjoyed this because it was a bit of a brain stretcher. Also I generally enjoy the process of designing metrics. Not an exact science perhaps, but rather collaborating towards something that feels meaningful for the work in question.

Friday was going well, shaping up to the the day in the week when I had the most momentum and was getting through the stuff. But then I had to drop everything to deal with a wholly avoidable childcare logistics mixup and that put an end to my working week. Annoying.

Ah that’ll do. Thanks for reading. Also stay hydrated no matter what the weather’s like ok?

Footnotes

¹ This reads like I just mean climate change but it’s more than that and also I don’t really believe in like a league table for global catastrophes

² Can’t write about it and that doesn’t mean it’s interesting