Day 48 – 13 March 2014
I woke this morning feeling a little nervous. I was up for re-election. Since Tom left Sunderland I have been the chair of the North East ICT Managers group (NEICT) and today was the Annual General Meeting. It’s something I’ve enjoyed doing and I think the group is more focussed than it was but that was only my opinion and this is democracy.
I haven’t tried to seek votes from my electorate of the other six ICT managers. That would have been grubby but I have been tempted and must admit to thoughts of greased palms. A fresh tin of biscuits was on hand. Power is such a temptation.
This month the meeting was conveniently held in Durham. We always have lots to talk about but make sure that there is a chunk of time set aside just for us to gossip (in a structured way). Not surprisingly we have a lot of things in common and can share experiences and combine our wisdom and even purchasing power. In my view much greater collaboration across the public sector will help the competitiveness of the North East in a global market but let’s not get carried away.
Less surprisingly perhaps is that being a Head of ICT can be a lonely job and it is helpful to have some ‘safe’ time amongst colleagues who are going through the same things. Everyone knows that a trouble shared is a trouble halved. We’ve got them into sevenths and we talked about PSN, savings and shifting technologies. More importantly we got into a conversation about apprentices, bringing young people into ICT and improving digital skills. Perhaps I should have had this on my ten things to achieve this year.
When it came to the vote it passed unanimously. I kept my acceptance speech to under five minutes and made sure to thank my mother and my great team.
Lunchtime was another with Lawrence my wingman. He was a bit behind but then he wasn’t feeling well and so he was forgiven.
I then met Anban from Oracle. It was the first time I’d seen anyone from them in at least two years and so it was a welcome change. They are a big player for us. We spent the first forty minutes talking about my plans and objectives. I can easily fill forty minutes on that and the last twenty minutes were on things to think about for his return visit.
The last meeting of the day was with Steve, Head of Sport and Leisure.
Learning points for today: You should never wrestle with pigs, you both get dirty and the pig likes it (according to George Bernard Shaw); soft-coupled arrangements can be thought of as reasonable; dojo means ‘place of the way’ and; it’s difficult to get tent pegs in Provence in the summer.
Today’s enjoyment rating 9/10 – Good, nothing more.
Thoughts from a Guerrilla Worker 