A year of work in progress – day 72 (Thirds)

Day 72 – 23 April 2014 and day 20 of the A to Z Blogging Challenge.

‘Have I ever given you my three jobs speech?’   I say this to my team regularly and they usually shake their heads either because they can’t remember it or more likely they are too polite and know I’m going to tell it again anyway.

‘We have three jobs. The first is the one that you are paid for. It is to do whatever it says in the job description which the skills you have developed have made you ideally suited. The second is to be part of the team either by leading it or contributing to it. The third is to develop yourself.’

Everyone does jobs one and two but so few people think about the third.

‘Tell me then, are you important to what we are trying to do?’ The answer of course is yes and that is why each of us needs to take the time out to invest in the only asset that we can truly influence. Personal development is a legitimate activity. If we don’t put the effort in then who will?

Three is a magic number. Everything comes in threes: the three wise men; the three stooges and; three steps to heaven (not to mention the three horsemen of the apocalypse and the three wonders of the world).

I have the same three jobs but I try to make sure that I spend a third of my time on my customers, the team and developing myself. A periodic review of the calendar tells me an awful lot about where my thoughts are focussed and allows me to make sure that I spread my resource where I want it to be. I try not to spend too much or too little on any of them.

My first meeting was my second Transformation and Innovation Leadership Team with Children and Adults Services. I won’t be able to make all of these meetings as they clash with management Wednesday which also means it is difficult to send a substitute. The SLT meeting was short today and so I attended the first ninety minutes of the TILT.

The last meeting had a bunny motif on the agenda and this time it had some Easter eggs along with the strap-line ‘Egg-cited by our progress so far!’ Fortunately it went uphill from there. We had a useful discussion about web portals and how they will fit in with the CRM process and system. Cartoons aside, I like the style of these meetings. Big data was also mentioned.

SLT was short as there were only three of us available. Pam and Steve were on holiday and Bob was delivering the latest ICT Customer Workshop. You would have thought it would be easy but I was twenty minutes behind schedule after item two. Trying to chair the meeting and write the minutes is a no no but I said that the last time Pam was away.

Learning points for today: A chance conversation in the lift can get your day off to a good start; sometimes doing normal things is what is needed; it’s not just dads who do dad jokes; it’s not just me that’s going paperless and; trousers can shrink in the wardrobe.

Today’s enjoyment rating 7/10 – work was fine but sofa trouble.