Weeknotes S1, Eps 09 — Rosier mindset and SOLACE capers…
After a bit of a mental dip in the summer the last 2 months have been feeling markedly improved….
After a bit of a mental dip in the summer the last 2 months have been feeling markedly improved….
A little more attention to my own wellbeing, including a couple sessions with the GP, running 3 days per week (instead of 2), cutting down (a bit) on the wine and facing up to a few situations which needed some underlying tensions and conflict bringing out into the open in a ‘grown up’ way has really had a strong impact on my capacity, resilience, mental health and definitely my drive.
This is ok, we (I) need to learn acceptance; no one is super-human and we often expect to swan through life with no mental health issues ever, yet in terms of physical health, we expect a cold every year in winter, or if we are putting physical pressure on our bodies (running or whatever’s your bag) expect to pick up niggles and injuries… So if we place our minds under stress and pressure isn’t it perfectly normal to have issues from time to time?
Slightly different #weeknotes as I wanted to give time to a particular thing that covered three of my days.
So… I hit up the annual Solace Summit. This was a multi-purpose foray, as I am a year into a 3 year stint as a group board member and this my first one. It was a really great opportunity to meet and network with a huge number of our super passionate and awesome public sector leaders and learn about the great work that the #localgov family is doing. Notwithstanding great hospitality from the Hilton Metropole in Birmingham, bigger thanks to our SOLACE business partners and sponsors who are such an integral part of how we move forward collaboratively to work across sector to co-create solutions for some of the ‘wicked’ issues affecting the way we live and deliver services in the 21st century.
Met some great new faces; thanks to David Rees at PA Consulting for our shared quiz journey (How many airports bigger than Heathrow?) and John Comber for the table hilarity at the charity dinner.
Also good to catch up with old friends and colleagues — too many (Sorry those who missed the shout!) to mention but great to see Mark C from Essex, Jonathan S at Babergh Mid Suffolk; soon to be Brentwood (Nice work buddy), my old (Essex) boss; super innovator Jason Kitcat and our SOLACE president Martin Swales. Plus obviously the live music provided by Gavin and his super band ‘Noise in the Basement’
Another facet of the summit was actually to do some work, work!!! (like out, out!!!!).
Catching up with the Connected Places Catapult; boys Stef and Euan Mills to discuss moving the Greater Cambridge Local Plan Journey into the 21st century by working towards a ‘digital first’ plan… ‘What, no PDF I hear you say?’. Super excited to be dragging them back up to Cambridge to meet some of my team and start storyboarding some thoughts!
The man Dominic Campbell from FutureGov was his usual engaging and challenging self. Highlighting the enormous journey ahead for designing 21st century public services, but the absolute and critical necessity for this to begin gathering pace, #localgov leaders, please step up and be brave… Great to get a quick chat with Jen Byrne too on the potential work we need to do at Greater Cambridge to begin implementing an internet age designed shared service… NO MEAN FEAT! We are up for the challenge though!
Other highlights include an incredibly insightful presentation on her new book radical help from Dr Hilary Cottam; Just read it is all I can say! Especially those passionate about the wellbeing of society, public services and the fundamental disconnect between how we continue to arrange our social systems and the swiftly evolving changes we are living through in this; the 4th industrial revolution.
Personal and insightful views from Alistair Campbell on mental heath.. It is so important our leaders and influencers are honest and help reduce the stigma still so prevalent around these issues.
So all in all a great summit and so good to meet all the SOLACE team properly.. they do an amazing job running the charity and supporting the sector so fantastically. Big thanks to Graeme, Terry, Julie, Jenny, Victoria, Nicola, Steve, Amy, Gemma and all those I didn’t get as much time to spend time with… Thank you for a great 3 days…
I wanted to capture the summit as I cant reinforce enough the importance of collaborative opportunities, networks and relationships in all aspects of life but these will be critical in how the public (and private/third) sector work together to try and solve some of the most complex issues facing our society in the coming years, and this event encapsulates this in spades.
So slightly different #weeknotes as they do focus on the Summit primarily but just to add balance the rest of the week was BAU (I hate that term) apart from our new Public [practice associate Tom Smethurst starting with us.
Public Practice are an amazing story and I love working with them and their associates, we currently have 4 in place in Greater Cambridge (1 from each cohort) since they started and the work that Finn, Helen and the team are progressing will (I believe) fundamentally change the way we plan and deliver places and communities to meet the social, environmental and economic challenges of the future.
Tom, our newest recruit will be our Programme Manager for strategy, policy and economy and the built and natural environment parts of my function. His role will be hugely important in navigating the complex governance landscape of 2 tier (3 in our case) government and trying to bring together the many complicated elements of preparing planning and economic policy and identifying and programming the right expertise to plan and manage delivery of sites which will form places for our citizens to live, work and play.
In other news; key listens from the #Pod world (post the Louis Theroux audio book) are a great interview with Chris Morris on the Adam Buxton Pod. Definitely worth a listen for those of you remembering the pioneering satire of the news in the late 80’s. Also catching up with the Infinite Monkey Cage for a bit of a science fix; still holding out hopes of a career as an astronaut one day!!
Nothing music wise this week (although I’ve been back playing a lot more guitar recently as my daughter is learning piano so its good fun jamming!!!)
Books RADICAL HELP Do it!! (In an Arnie voice…)
Be good!