Weeknotes 8

w/e 26/06/2020
TL/DR
Hot. Typing. Applying styles to things. 

What are you thinking about?
I don’t want to sound like a stuck record, but I’m still thinking about the infrastructure funding statement. This is OK because it is my job to think about it.

Who did you talk to outside of your organisation?
A quiet week. I spoke to some peer friends about various bits & bobs, and had a couple of low-key updates with my sponsors and policy peeps at MHCLG. 

I don’t want to add any weight to the idea that PAS sits somehow outside the LGA, but I also spoke to some of my LGA colleagues this week for the first time since lockdown. Everyone moans about their employer, but I have to say the SLT at the LGA have been great throughout the pandemic. At our webinar earlier in the week we were asked a question about how we saw the future. It’s early days but it seems to me:

• the office as a place to work every day is finished
• in the short term there is lots of talk about choice and personal circumstance which is lovely and fluffy.
• our open place office is poorly laid out for what we need it to do, which is to host whole teams turning up specifically to be with each other to talk / collaborate / feel connected
• more / bigger meeting rooms for more lumpy and random attendance. This is going to be hard to predict & provide. I predict a riot rota.

What did you learn / read this week?
I have almost finished my GDS content design training. It is great – I recommend it. In week 3 they introduce Hemingway as a way of grading your content for readability. It is brutal:

low score is better 111 KB View full-size Download

I also was one of 120-odd people in the launch of the centre for cities “cure the housing crisis by zoning planning” report. Oh to be so certain. 

My database exploration hasn’t moved. I’m waiting for there to be a Venn diagram of feeling cleverer than usual and a clear couple of days in the diary.

What did you make / achieve?
I have finished my bit of the website, which is nice. I also commissioned some design work for our post-decision surveys – it is getting close!

I have also agreed the structure for our IFS materials, as well as beginning the first draft. Hemingway doesn’t like it.

I have also persuaded moodle to live on our little scratchy server we use for messing about. We are trying out a little MVP on councillor training to see how it works. 

What are you looking forward to next week?
Next week we have a review of 2019-20 in front of our key audience, so I will have my sleeves rolled up  for that. I’m thinking if it goes well we should find a place to publish it more broadly. 

I’m also picking the brains of our supplier network to hear from them what virtual and online working means for the way we should package and buy the support we put in place for councils. I’m expecting to hear that the status quo should prevail…

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