Since last week I can only think about Jesse from the fast show when I start these. Perhaps I should record them as a short video instead?
This week I have been mostly thinking about the nature of work. What’s in the job description and what isn’t. This has been brought on by the fact that we don’t have much delivery support due to illness and holiday, and our small team of researchers, and me, are somewhat self-organising.
Self-organising is a tantalising promise. In theory, I like it. The problem is that we’re trying to organise multiple sessions with multiple organisations across multiple pathways. At that point the theory begins to wear thin.
Furthermore, there’s a lot of work to do to report on our own activities. The means keeping other teams aware of what we’re doing and filling in reports and spreadsheets.
A few times I’ve sat there thinking ‘if we’re not careful we’re going to mistake this for doing the work’ — in my head ‘the work’ being doing research, analysis, strategy, mapping etc.
But of course, this is every bit the work. Do I enjoy it? Not really. Do we need to do it? Yes. Do I need to be better at accepting there are parts of the work that need to be done that I don’t really enjoy? Probably. Especially as a lead. It’s not, and can’t, always be about ‘the doing.’
It’s worth remembering that the gold at the end of the rainbow is worthwhile. I do enjoy the research. I was involved in too little research when in screening, and look back on the times I did it with the most fondness.
It’s the simplicity of recognising there are lots of bits of the job I enjoy, and that to do them I need to do bits that I perhaps don’t as much. That’s ok.
We’re about to go through a period of getting in front of the people using or running services. Give me that and I’ll fill in as many spreadsheets as you like.